Bill,

I could not agree with you more on many of your valid points stated. It's time for marketers to take a stand and learn it's more than just throwing out an ad on an ILS and hope the shot makes it in the basket! What I will share with you is my experience and knowledge in working with the 20-30 year old crowd that you claim do NOT use ILS for their search.

After doing research with college students at the Ohio State University and recently with a focus group of students from across the US from state, local and private schools you are right they are not going to a specific ILS to search for content. How it works for this age group is it begins and ends with word of mouth. If a friend speaks highly of an apartment community they set up a time for a vist to the community and begin the search on Google. What they are most interested in is validation. They want to know how many places they can find information on Google about this community from company website first, Apartment Ratings, ILS and even Blogs. What they are searching for on Google is valuable information and enough information to validate what their friends are saying. Yes they do not search the ILS itself, but they land there from searching the apartment community name specifically in Google. I think we do not give this audience enough credit for how savvy they really are in searching the internet. Remember they were born with internet & SEO in the womb!!

Like you I was skeptical for many years and had abandoned all marketing efforts for many years by the ILS, but this past year has proven me to rethink my strategies. Just as Facebook, Google, Youtube and many others are ever changing with how the user utilizes these tools so are the ILS listings. You ask which is the best ILS to use, well that's who has the best ability to generate organic SEO pushing your property to the top along with your website on Google. How I decided was searching my competitors name in Google to see which ILS generated top rankings in Google. Also I met with some of the ILS companies and talked with them in depth about writing my own organic SEO as well as enhanced features like video. As of today I am only using one ILS ForRent Media Solutions first for the unique features and continual enhancements to the product as well as what ranked highest in Google for my audience. Since June when I signed the contract our lead rate has more than doubled as well as our lease rate just from utilizing this ILS. Just like you I had my doubts on just what you call "throw up some decent copy and let err go" I now realize and have learned from truly networking with this audience they don't search on the ILS, but they find my listing on Google and with the amount of content, video, photos I provide on my ILS validates I'm more than a typical campus landlord. Get this...they even take the time to fill out the Guest Card on the ILS. If you think this demographic is not taking the time to do the search on Google at more than your website you are sadly misinformed. Additionally they DO like to set appointments, take the time to fill out guest cards and send emails for request. You ask why and they say...it feels more legit, official and real. I want to know how they respond, how soon and after all is the best decision for me!

This is my take and experience over the past 8 months and have no plans at this time abandoning my contract with ForRent. I've learned it's about validation and how they are searching which has increased traffic and leases, so to me it's not just really throwing up and ad and letting err go. I will admit I monitor my ILS listing closely from reporting to changing out photos and content. Keeping it fresh just like your website as we all know is what makes a difference for the user. My suggestion first is what you stated and educate yourself as a marketer on how your users are finding you!

Hey Bill,
You're correct they don't just start there on an ILS. Like I stated " they are not going to a specific ILS to search for content. How it works for this age group is it begins and ends with word of mouth. If a friend speaks highly of an apartment community they set up a time for a vist to the community and begin the search on Google. What they are most interested in is validation."
They find the ILS through searching on Google whether it's the property name or apartments near the university. Students want to see all the places you can be found online not just your property webiste. Everything from Youtube, Flickr, Apartment Rating, ILS, Blogs, University website, etc.

Yes I made the choice to only advertise online with one ILS. This is a costly way to advertise if using all & I do not feel it is necessary to be on all of them at least for my properties. I already have enough organic SEO with property website, video, blog, Flickr that this was just an extension of my placement online (Google). I will admit last year was extremely tough in the student market at Ohio State & felt it was time to give the ILS listing a try. Like I stated I did some research on Google myself to see who had the best organic rankings as well as the ability to customize my own content including video and ForRent won me over. I am thankful for the partnership and we have worked on additional projects together including Text A Resident program. To me it's not only just picking an ILS just because, but one that will benefit my exposure online the most and one that will listen to my concerns, suggestions and act upon them. I'm not paid by ForRent or work for them, but have much respect for the company. It's not that I am not interested in partnering with others, but feel for what I pay for and what I get in return...not just leads or leases, but the service, originality & unique features I am gaining way more than just a monthly fee! Trust me it took me months to really decide and jump on the so called "ILS Bandwagon", but it has paid off for me in many ways.

Obviously, I’m biased, but I believe ILSs still deliver tremendous value and will continue to do so for years to come. To really understand the crux of your argument, we need to imagine a world without ILSs. So let’s do that…

Let’s say that, for whatever reason, tomorrow all ILSs ceased to exist and no longer appeared in Google’s search results (I have a wife and two kids to feed, so let’s keep it purely hypothetical for now, OK? ;-) Consumers using “long-tail” search terms – i.e. “two bedroom apartments in Chicago” – would probably do alright, because they’d at least get back property websites or Google Place listings for communities in Chicago, even if the quality of the experience varies widely from there. Consumers using more general terms, like “apartments for rent” (there are about 2.25 million of those per month on Google) would have a harder time, having to go through several individual property management company sites to find a handful of listings that might suit their needs. It would be frustrating and arduous experience, and only the management companies with the very largest national footprint would have any success in that world.

Therein lies the value of aggregators like ILSs, at least from a consumer experience. Even in the long-tail example, someone searching for two-bedroom apartments in Chicago will get over 250 properties to choose from on Apartments.com and tools to refine by rent range, amenities, etc., from there.

But back to our ILS-less world…

Now there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of property sites vying for the top of the Google search results, and this is when Google has you right where they want you. Google, obviously, is not a non-profit company. The idea that Google likes to provide traffic for “free” is naïve. Be it your Google Place page or your property website, Google stands to make a lot more money in the long run selling keywords to hundreds/thousands of individual property management companies at very high costs-per-click (as you acknowledge above, Bill) than they will from a handful of ILSs paying, because of the scale they’re able to achieve, a relatively low CPC. Instead of an ILS rep calling you, it'll be a Google rep, and instead of playing one ILS against another, he/she will be playing properties against each other. “Cats and dogs living together! Complete chaos!”

OK, maybe not that bad. Already you see ILSs broadening the range of services we provide, from helping with your social media campaigns to making posting on Craigslist that much easier, because we know the landscape is changing. In the meantime, we can hopefully continue to deliver lots of high quality leads, and perhaps help shoulder some of the burden of managing all your marketing channels.

One last thing (and apologies for the rambling response): The world we just imagined wasn’t too far from being true. Google’s recent “Panda” release, which was intended to penalize poor-quality or shady-tactic-using sites by pushing them way down in the search results, ended up impacting some ILSs and other aggregators. The fact that most of us were not, in fact, dinged by this update (and based on recent organic traffic trends, might have even benefitted from it) is perhaps Google’s way of saying ILSs provide a good, valuable consumer experience.

Thanks for reading this far.

Chris
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Chris Brown
VP, Product
Apartments.com