The Challenge
Hollow Creek Condos needed assistance with developing a digital marketing strategy to drive sales for Zilker Flats — a newly renovated condo complex located in the heart of south Austin’s iconic Zilker neighborhood. Though the building was originally built in the ’70s, the high-end upgrades gave the property a modern aesthetic and a desirable price point. Though Hollow Creek had already sold about half of the available condos, they were looking to quickly sell the remaining units using paid ads in order to focus on future projects.
The Solution
As time was of the essence, Hollow Creek signed an initial three-month contract with Catalyst to run a search engine marketing (SEM) campaign for Google Search and Display, as well as a social media marketing (SMM) campaign. The SMM campaign included carousel ads on Facebook and Instagram.
Catalyst launched strategically targeted ad campaigns on each platform, utilizing branded messaging and high-quality creative. The ad visuals featured eye-catching photography of the move-in-ready condos as well as subtle brand elements, such as patterns and texture overlays in Zilker Flats’ colors. Callouts in the imagery and corresponding text highlighted key selling points of the property, including their prime location near south Austin hot spots; their availability for short-term rentals for sites, such as Airbnb and VRBO; and their starting price point.
Catalyst’s digital strategy managers recommended a competitive monthly spend on each platform, which increased the visibility and frequency of each ad. In addition, a large focus was placed on location, ensuring that surrounding areas, such as Zilker Park, Barton Springs, and Auditorium Shores, were well targeted. A biweekly reporting call allowed Hollow Creek and Catalyst to review the ads’ progress and current sales in order to make adjustments accordingly.
The Results
Digital campaigns were launched on December 16, 2022 and proved to be incredibly successful. Within two weeks of launching, two units were sold and directly attributed to traffic from the SEM ads. Within five weeks of the ads being live, all but five had been purchased. Hollow Creek Condos sold all of the remaining units by February 15, 2023 — with less than two months of running SEM and SMM ads, despite the fact that they had originally anticipated a three-month campaign. Due to the success of this initial progress, Catalyst has developed a thriving relationship with Hollow Creek Condos and is currently underway on brand collateral and digital marketing for another project in north Austin.
Reporting highlights on the services include:
- 328,206 total impressions
- 12.29% average click-through rate (compared to an 8.44% industry average)
- $.55 average SMM cost per click (compared to a $.66 industry average)
- 81% of traffic to the website during the campaign duration was attributed to the SEM campaign