The Challenge
Quarters on Campus is a vibrant student housing community in Austin, Texas, serving the student population at the University of Texas. Comprised of six unique buildings throughout West Campus, Quarters offers residents a wide range of amenities, furnished and unfurnished floor plan options, and parking solutions across their locations. However, they also faced the challenge of building and promoting a consistent identity to their audience — and standing out from the competition in a unique way that appeals to a primarily Gen Z market.
The Solution
Though Quarters on Campus had already been running search engine marketing (SEM) and social media marketing (SMM) ads with Catalyst, the ownership team was interested in incorporating something new. On Catalyst’s recommendation, the Quarters team signed a three-month trial contract to begin promoting the community on TikTok. Due to its short format, ease of use, and highly personalized algorithm, TikTok is an emerging contender in Gen Z and the student housing space.
The Quarters TikTok campaign launched in February 2023 and centered around a general brand awareness strategy to increase familiarity with viewers in the market. Catalyst created two separate video ads for the trial: one featured an organic walk-through of the community and the other had a more designed, ad-like feel with Quarters on Campus branding. These ads also included a short space for messaging and calls to action, which let viewers click through to the Quarters on Campus website. The two ads were A/B tested on TikTok’s platform for the duration of the three-month trial to measure success between the two creative approaches.
The Results
The initial TikTok campaign for Quarters on Campus proved to be a success, primarily in terms of brand awareness. At the end of the three-month trial, the cumulative metrics were shared (see below for a more detailed breakdown), and both Catalyst and the Quarters team deemed it a success. Surprisingly, there was not a significant variance in the A/B test results, which indicates students responded well to both video formats.
As a result of this performance, the contract was extended an additional three months, and new ad creative continues to run on TikTok for Quarters on Campus — alongside their ongoing SEM and SMM campaigns — as of June 2023.
Reporting highlights include:
- Impressions: 1,332,227
- Clicks to website: 8,316
- CTR: 1.26%
- Reach: 129,244