Zillow Group Rentals recently released a new pay-per-click feature as part of our core performance-based marketing solution, Zillow Rent Connect. All of our products — from Zillow Rent Connect: Boost, our premier display advertising solution, to our latest feature — are designed to raise the standard for contact quality and accountability in performance-based marketing. We talked with Greg Schwartz, Zillow Group’s chief business officer, to learn more about how these products help renters while also working for multifamily professionals. Here is what he had to say.

Zillow: Tell us why you decided to add property links to Zillow Group’s websites. What’s in it for consumers and advertisers?
Greg: We are excited to include the new pay-per-click feature as part of our core marketing solution, Zillow Rent Connect, because it will drive qualified traffic directly to multifamily websites. The program is simple: All community pages on Zillow, Trulia and HotPads will now include a direct link to the property website. Renters have a seamless experience and can easily access more information with a single click. This is designed to increase high-quality, down-funnel traffic to property websites directly from Zillow Group’s family of rental sites.

Zillow: How does this support Zillow Group’s quantified marketing strategy?
Greg: It’s not about generating the most leads. It’s about providing the right contacts. It’s all about bringing accountability to multifamily marketing. Pay-per-click is a great example of this. It’s the best of both worlds: an intuitive experience for renters coupled with accountable performance-based marketing that works. When you then look at your data using an analytics program like Google Analytics or another CRM, you are able to see the true effectiveness of every dime you spend by tracking customer interaction, referral traffic conversion, lease conversion, etc. From our best equipped properties, we’ve learned that you can achieve great results when combining analytics and marketing.

Zillow: Why did you decide to make this change?
Greg: This model works. We learned from our Boost product that when you drive down-funnel, highly engaged renters to an efficient property website, that traffic converts well. These renters use map-based search and are informed about the neighborhood. They are committed to tour. By adding direct links to your property website into our Rent Connect product, the value of our core marketing solution increases for all property management providers.

Zillow: There has been a lot of product news coming from Zillow Group Rentals. What’s been driving that?
Greg: We are excited about the multifamily industry and are committed to creating the best possible rental search experience for consumers. We offer renter-friendly products and brands, and through surveys and extensive user testing, we have found that renters have an emotional connection with our brands. By continuously improving upon the brands that renters love, we are able to provide multifamily professionals with the highest-quality, transaction-ready contacts and traffic.