How to Build a Smarter Marketing Budget for Your Community

A strong marketing budget is not just a line item—it is a leasing strategy.

In this episode of The Multifamily Marketers Podcast, hosts Josh Grillo and Caroline Mills break down how communities should build smarter marketing budgets that support occupancy goals, improve lead quality, and reduce reactive spending.

From paid search and SEO to creative assets, ILSs, email, and reputation management, this episode explains how to think strategically about where your dollars go—and how to know whether they’re actually working.

You’ll learn:

• Why every budget should start with your leasing goals
• The key marketing categories every community should plan for
• Common budgeting mistakes, like overspending on underperforming channels
• How lease-up budgets differ from stabilized property budgets
• Why creative assets like photos and video must be included
• How to measure success using leads, tours, leases, and conversion rates
• Why smarter budgeting is about spending better, not always spending more

To suggest a topic, get in touch!

For more multifamily marketing help, connect with us at Resident360.

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TRANSCRIPT

Episode 39: How to Build a Smarter Marketing Budget for Your Community

Podcast Co-Hosts: Josh Grillo and Caroline Mills, Resident360

Josh: Welcome back to the Multifamily Marketers Podcast. I’m your host, Josh Grillo, co-founder here at Resident360, and I’m joined by my co-host, who’s in the middle of a move to Florida, Miss Caroline Mills, our director of digital marketing. How’d you like that intro, Caroline?

Caroline: That was a good one, and very fitting. You guys can’t always see what’s behind me, but I have boxes and piles everywhere. We’re so close. I got to talk with a few of you at the Strategic Marketing Summit, and you knew about my move to Florida. It’s coming up. We’re batch-recording some episodes this week, so the next time we record, I may be in Florida.

Josh: Wow. So you’re at your house right now, sitting on a bunch of boxes?

Caroline: I am. I’m living in box land.

Josh: All right, box land. Super exciting. So let’s talk about today’s show. We’re talking about marketing budgets, and I don’t just mean media spend or Google Ads budgets. We’re talking about the entire marketing budget, so we’ve titled this one “How to Build a Smarter Marketing Budget for Your Community.” Caroline, let’s jump right in with the first question. Big picture: Why is a clear marketing budget so important for multifamily communities?

Caroline: I’m excited to talk about this one. A clear marketing budget gives your property direction and predictability: what to expect and when to expect it. Without a strategy, communities often overspend in underperforming areas or under-invest in channels that could actually drive leases, because they’re either not planning, going quarter by quarter, or just throwing money at problems when they need to.

A well-built budget helps you forecast your lead generation needs. It aligns your spending with your actual occupancy goals, helps you prioritize your highest-performing channels, and prevents reactive spending. You’re not making it up on the fly all the time, and it helps you scale faster when an opportunity or issue does arise. Ultimately, your budget should support your leasing goals, not just exist as a line item.

Josh: So when multifamily communities are building a budget, where should they start?

Caroline: Always start with the property’s goals. There are four main questions I ask my teams. One: How many leases do we need? Two: What is our current occupancy? If you’ve ever gotten an audit from us, those are the first two things we’ll ask, so we can start recommending budgets. Three: Are we in lease-up, stabilization, or retention mode? And number four…

Josh: What would be some of the major categories communities should consider when allocating their marketing budget?

Caroline: Absolutely. I go through everything with my teams, because I’ve sat on the other side of the table, not just the paid digital services. First, paid search, whether you call it Google Ads, paid search, or PPC. That captures your high-intent renters. Then SEO, local SEO, and GEO, which brings us into the organic side. Then social media, whether that’s organic posting or paid advertising. Then your ILSs, like Apartments.com and Zillow.

Then reputation management. That’s one of my favorite topics, and we have plenty of episodes on reputation management and asking for reviews; we just did one last week if you want to listen. Then creative assets. These often get forgotten as part of the marketing mix or the marketing budget: your photography, videos, and floor plans. And lastly, email and CRM nurture. Whether you have a separate email system or work through your CRM, it’s all part of your marketing spend.

A common mistake is putting too much budget into one source, like an ILS, without diversifying: putting all your eggs in one basket, so to speak. The smartest budgets balance short-term lead generation with long-term brand growth. How do you want to see yourself lining up?

Josh: Okay, you touched on mistakes. What would you say are some of the biggest budgeting mistakes you see?

Caroline: A few major ones. Number one is overspending on underperforming channels. You and I were just talking about this, and you might ask, “How do I know when that’s happening?” I always recommend re-evaluating performance every quarter. That’s what I did when I was on the marketing and operations side: checking in every quarter to keep myself on track. It’s very easy to let that slip, and then you look back six months and see something you spent $7,000 on has gotten you only two leases. So always check in consistently; I recommend every quarter. Just because everyone else in your market uses a channel, or similar assets use it, doesn’t mean you need to.

Number two is ignoring conversion data. Clicks are great, but leases matter more, which ties into performance.

Number three is not budgeting for creative improvements. I see this all the time and always have to pitch teams on new photos and videos. A property can change a lot in a few years, or it may simply not have up-to-date assets. New, up-to-date photos and videos help your ILSs, your PPC, and your Performance Max campaigns. Make sure you always have great photos to support your spend. If you’re spending $3,000 but your photos are grainy, look terrible, and have trash in them, what are the odds you’ll get leases from them?

Number four is no flexibility for market or competitor shifts. Budgets need some room to adapt. I understand what it’s like sitting in budget boot camps where you have to create a budget for the whole year without knowing exactly what’s going to happen. But having been on the management and operations side, we understand that if a 600-unit lease-up opens down the road offering great incentives, we’ll have to compete a little.

And number five, which I mentioned earlier: treating all properties the same. Just because you have a portfolio of 50 to 70 properties doesn’t mean every region or asset will have the same goals or the same marketing spend.

Josh: Let’s talk about lease-up versus stabilized budgets. How should budgets differ between lease-up properties and stabilized communities?

Caroline: That’s a good question. With lease-ups, you’ll have a higher paid media investment at first. People don’t know who you are, so you need more aggressive search and social. You really need to get your name out there. “Flood the market” is something you always hear us say on these calls. Outreach marketing is huge: You’ve got to get your leasing team out in the community and engaging, along with local partnerships. And a really strong creative investment up front. Your branding…

Josh: Let’s talk about measuring success. Once a budget is in place, how do multifamily marketers know it’s actually working?

Caroline: You might say, “Okay, I can look at it every quarter, but how do I know?” Our best recommendation is to track the full funnel. Track your cost per click, cost per lead, and cost per tour, everything you can see in your CRM or in your management company’s or digital partner’s reporting. Track your occupancy: Since you started a service, how much has it grown or changed?

And track your lead-to-lease conversion rate. What gets you the most qualified leads? It’s great if one source gives you 50 leads, but if that only results in one lease, while another source gives you 15 leads and 12 leases, the second has a much better conversion rate. Put your money where it’s making the difference. Your ultimate question is: “Is this budget driving qualified leases at a cost I’m comfortable with?” Not every marketing dollar performs equally, so I definitely recommend taking a quick look every quarter.

Josh: Caroline, here’s one for you. For listeners who want to level up their budgeting strategy, what are your top pro tips?

Caroline: Ooh, okay, this is exciting. To round it out, let’s go back to the beginning: Build your budget backward from your leasing goals. How do you know what to spend if you don’t know how many leases you need? Know how many leases you need, then calculate backward to the leads, tours, and traffic required. Use your own ratios. Every company I work with has different expected closing ratios and application ratios, so use your own math instead of trusting someone else’s.

Prioritize high-intent channels first. Search often outperforms broad awareness for direct conversions. Keep testing. Your budget should evolve with the data, so as you learn what’s working and what isn’t, adjust as needed. Even with a set budget, reallocate funds when you can.

Reserve some emergency or opportunity funds if you know something is coming, or if you always run into issues every fall when it’s not leasing season. Work with your team to set aside funds for that time.

Invest in a quality website and quality creative. We’ve talked about branding, creative, and websites plenty of times, and that’s where conversion truly happens. Marketing works better when your conversion assets are stronger.

And lastly, review your attribution carefully. You don’t want to over-credit one source if multiple channels are supporting it. What I mean is, if you’re using UTMs, switch codes, or whatever your providers use, make sure they’re actually working and sending people to the right place. Don’t assume that seeing 500 leads from one source and zero from another tells the whole story. I’d definitely test that, and we have plenty of information on audits. You know I love a good digital audit.

Josh: Oh, Caroline, we know you love your digital audits. Those were some really good tips. Any final advice for marketers?

Caroline: I’ll finish by saying you want your budget to be a growth tool, not just a line item or an expense to write off. When you align your marketing dollars with your goals, your data, and renter behavior, you can scale, adapt, and outperform those who aren’t doing these things. The smartest marketers aren’t always spending more; they’re just spending smarter.

Josh: They are spending better. I love that, Caroline. I think this has been great: short, sweet, and to the point. We’ll wrap this episode up right here. Thank you, everyone, for listening to the Multifamily Marketers Podcast. Please subscribe and share this episode with your team, and Caroline and I will see you next week. Take care, and have a good day.

Caroline: Thank you, guys. Bye!