Google AdWords for Multifamily 2026 Mini-Guide

It starts with Search. That's the first section of my Multifamily Marketing Course for good reason - I saw a stat that 90% of people don't know apartment names before they start their apartment search. In other words, this is not an industry that has brands. Sure, there may be a few notable apartments in your city, but it's not like buying a car where people can rattle off 5 car brands in 10 seconds. Because of the lack of brand recognition, it amplifies the emphasis for apartment marketers to master search. And who owns search like Google? And of course, their flagship product for more than two decades - Google Adwords. In this post, we're going to look at the importance of Google Ads and a mini-guide on some of the best practices going in 2026.

Why Advertise on Google AdWords

Google owns search. Even with increasing competition from TikTok (yes, people use TikTok as a search engine), ChatGPT etc., it's still Google's world (for now) and we're all just living in it. Us multifamily marketers can place even a greater emphasis on Google with Google Business Listings being such a driver of high-intent traffic and that being a unique asset Google can leverage across its own AI products and search. If you want to be discovered before your competitors, Google AdWords is the best place to start.

How Do I Advertise Apartments on Google

The way Google Ads works is you tell Google what keywords you want to promote your website for and you bid on those keywords. Google allows you to choose how specific you want to get. For example, if you want to advertise for people searching 'Apartments in Dallas,' here would be your options.

• Exact Search - You only show up when people type Apartments in Dallas

• Phrase Match - You show up when people search adjacent to Apartments in Dallas like 'Apartments in Dallas Forth Worth Area'

• Broad Match - You show up when people search something loosely related to Apartments in Dallas like '1 bedroom Apartments Fort Worth,' 'Apartments No Credit Check'

One effective strategy we've used is to start with a Phrase Match or Broad Match on keywords you want to show up for (one way to determine what keywords you want to rank for is to use Google Search Console - that can give you an idea on what you're already organically ranking for - even if it's low - on Google). Once you have some data, you can prune your account from there.

Increasing Conversions from Google Ads

Once you've spent some money, you'll get some data on exactly what keywords you're spending money on and how they're converting (one note here: if you've never ran Google Ads before, getting the structure of your account setup correctly is incredibly important. If Google Ads doesn't know your goals, which in most cases is your contact us form, schedule a tour, phone call etc., then you won't know which keywords are converting and your dollar won't go very far). Once you see what Google is spending money on, you'll likely come across some keywords you don't want to rank for. Maybe it's people search in a whole different area, people looking under a specific budget, or people looking and searching for apartments that don't do credit checks etc., you'll want to apply negative keywords on those searches.

You may also want to hunker down and move your search terms from broad match to phrase match or phrase match to exact match. This has been a great strategy for our team as our Google Ads accounts are very efficient and only spending money on keywords we know produce conversions, rather than campaigns aimed at creating awareness.

How to Advertise Apartments on YouTube and Google Maps?

Google offers two other kinds of campaigns you can run that drive both awareness and conversions to your apartments. Google is pushing people to Performance Max, an ad campaign that heavily utilizes AI to promote your offering across Google's advertising channels - Search, Display, Maps, GMail, and YouTube.

We've seen Performance Max be hit or miss - often, they are not allocating the budget properly, either pouring way too much into Maps (ineffectively) or targeting searches that are too broad. It's certainly worth testing and with Gemini ads likely coming this year, it's something marketers can't ignore.

How Will Google Ads Change for Multifamily Marketers in 2026

Google Ads continues to change at a rapid pace. They are always looking to monetize their giant user base and many of their recommendations, from both their account service reps and the actual recommendations within the Google Ads account, are made with the sole purpose of monetizing as many searches as possible. But that doesn't serve our best interest as multifamily marketers. For Search campaigns, we want to drive relevant and high-intent traffic to our property websites. We want to see prospects submit lead forms. We want to know we're getting an ROI.

As zero-click searches increase and AI is woven even more into Google Search, this is the kind of year that shifts a lot of strategies. If you want to learn how to run Google Ads for apartments, you'll want to check out my course that dives into all of this kind of stuff.