How a coordinated strategy across paid media, SEO, local search, and website optimization helped Asher College Station reach stabilization — in what the client called their “fastest lease-up yet.”
| INDUSTRY | LOCATION | SERVICES |
|---|---|---|
| Multifamily | College Station, Texas | Paid Media, SEO, Local Search + Website Strategy |
The Challenge
When Brindle began working with Asher College Station in January 2026, the community was 64% occupied and 69% leased.
And in College Station, getting the remaining units leased means competing for attention in a crowded rental market with no shortage of apartment options.
The goal wasn’t simply to generate more traffic or rack up leads that looked good in a report. Asher needed qualified prospects who would actually move through the leasing funnel — and a marketing strategy that could keep working as the community moved closer to stabilization.
That meant looking beyond a single channel.
Our Strategy
We built the lease-up strategy around one pretty simple idea: show up where prospective residents are searching, give them a clear reason to choose Asher, and make the path from search to lease as easy as possible.
Paid Search + Performance Max captured prospects already showing strong rental intent. We continuously refined keywords, audiences, creative, bidding, and budget allocation based on what was producing meaningful conversions — not just inexpensive clicks.
SEO + local search supported visibility outside of paid media. The focus was strengthening Asher’s presence for relevant College Station apartment searches, improving the website’s search visibility, and supporting the Google Business Profile as another high-intent path back to the community.
Website strategy mattered once those prospects arrived. Driving traffic is only half the job. The website needed to give prospective residents the information and next steps they needed to actually inquire.
Facebook + paid social expanded visibility and supported the broader leasing campaign, giving Asher another way to stay in front of prospective residents while search channels captured more immediate demand.
Most importantly, we tracked performance beyond impressions, clicks, and form fills. We looked at which sources were actually turning into prospects, visits, and signed leases — because a cheap lead isn’t particularly exciting if it never makes it through the leasing office.
The Results
By the middle of August 2026, Asher College Station had reached 95% occupancy and 95% leased.
That represents a 31-percentage-point increase in occupancy and a 26-percentage-point increase in leased percentage since January.
The client told us it was the fastest lease-up they had ever experienced.
And once the property reached stabilization, the conversation changed from “How do we fill units?” to “How do we responsibly scale spend back into maintenance mode?”
Exactly where a lease-up campaign should end up.
From Leads to Actual Leases
Looking at Knock attribution data from March through May 2026 gives us a clearer picture of what happened after the lead came in:
| Source | Leads | Leases | Lead-to-Lease Rate |
| Google Ads — Paid Search + PMax | 249 | 32 | 12.9% |
| Paid Search Ads | 120 | 11 | 9.2% |
| Performance Max | 129 | 21 | 16.3% |
| Property Website | 192 | 32 | 16.7% |
| Google Business Profile | 255 | 36 | 14.1% |
Across all lead sources, Asher recorded 1,086 leads and 154 attributed leases from March through May.
Brindle-managed or supported digital channels accounted for 100 of those 154 leases — approximately 65% of all attributed leases during a three-month period.
Organic and local digital touchpoints were an important part of that mix, too. The Property Website and Google Business Profile accounted for 68 attributed leases combined, representing roughly 44% of all leases recorded during the period.
That doesn’t mean we give credit to “SEO” on all 68 leases. Attribution rarely works that neatly. But it does show why organic visibility, local search, the website, and paid media need to work together rather than operate as separate little marketing islands.
SEO, Local Search + AI Visibility Performance
Paid media helped capture renters who were ready to act. SEO and local search helped make sure Asher was there earlier — when prospects were still figuring out where they wanted to live.
And that visibility grew quickly.
From January to July 2026, Asher’s organic search performance climbed from:
- 6,506 to 22,768 monthly Google search impressions — a 250% increase
- 464 to 1,483 monthly organic clicks — a 220% increase
By August, the website had generated more than 102,000 organic search impressions and 6,700 clicks since the beginning of the year.
But traffic alone wasn’t the goal. We wanted Asher showing up for the searches that could actually introduce the property to a future resident.
That meant moving beyond branded searches and gaining ground for competitive apartment terms like:
| Keyword | Earlier Position | August Position |
|---|---|---|
| best apartments college station | #37 | #2 |
| 1 bedroom apartments college station | #73 | #5 |
| one bedroom apartments college station | ~#100 | #6 |
| college station 3 bedroom apartment for rent | ~#100 | #9 |
| luxury apartments college station | #14 | #3 |
The local search story followed the same trajectory.
In February, none of the five priority keywords we tracked across Asher’s local map grid were averaging in the Top 10.
By August, four of five were in the Top 10, all five were in the Top 20, and Asher’s average local rank had improved to 7.85.
In other words, someone didn’t have to already know the name “Asher” to find the community.
Renters searching for new apartments, luxury apartments, pet-friendly apartments, townhomes, and other College Station options were increasingly finding Asher along the way.
And search behavior is changing beyond the traditional Google results page, too.
Between mid-May and August 23, Asher earned more than 1,600 impressions through Google’s Generative AI search features, with visibility continuing to grow through the summer.
We’re not going to pretend an AI impression equals a lease. It doesn’t.
But it’s another sign that the same work strengthening Asher’s website, organic rankings, local presence, and helpful content was also positioning the community to show up as renters started using new ways to search.
The channels looked different. The goal stayed the same: make Asher easier to find wherever prospective residents were looking.
Paid Media Performance
The Google Ads data told a similar story on the front end of the funnel.
During the campaign reporting period:
- 410 total conversions
- 61% increase in conversions
- 39% reduction in cost per conversion
- 37% increase in conversion rate
- 28% increase in click-through rate
- Nearly 80% increase in Performance Max conversions
- 147% increase in click-to-call conversions
- 43% increase in calls from ads
And the leasing attribution backs up what we were seeing inside the ad platform.
From March through May, Google Ads accounted for 32 attributed leases, including 21 from Performance Max and 11 from Paid Search.
More conversions at a lower acquisition cost is great.
But the better metric is what happened next: those marketing efforts helped move Asher from 64% occupied to stabilized in less than eight months.
Key Results
95% occupancy by mid-August 2026
Up from 64% when Brindle began work in January.
95% leased by mid-August 2026
Up from 69% in January.
100 attributed leases from Brindle-supported digital channels
Paid Search, Performance Max, the Property Website, and Google Business Profile accounted for approximately 65% of all attributed leases from March through May.
68 leases attributed to the Website + Google Business Profile
Together, these channels accounted for approximately 44% of all attributed leases during the three-month period, reinforcing the role of owned, organic, and local visibility alongside paid advertising.
32 leases attributed to Google Ads
Including 21 from Performance Max and 11 from Paid Search from March through May.
39% lower cost per conversion
While total Google Ads conversions increased 61%.
250% increase in organic search impressions
From 6,506 in January to 22,768 in July.
220% increase in organic search clicks
From 464 in January to 1,483 in July.
4 of 5 tracked local searches ranking in the Top 10
Up from zero in February, with all five ranking within the Top 20 by August.
The Bottom Line
The goal of a lease-up campaign isn’t to win the click-through-rate Olympics.
It’s to lease apartments.
For Asher College Station, paid media, SEO, local search, and the website worked together to turn visibility into inquiries and inquiries into signed leases — with Brindle-supported digital channels accounting for 100 attributed leases from March through May and helping the community reach 95% occupancy and 95% leased by mid-August.
Or, as the client put it: their fastest lease-up yet.
