Empty units mean lost revenue. For multifamily marketers, the pressure to fill apartments quickly is constant. The challenge? Even when ad spend generates calls and clicks, it’s hard to know what’s truly working. Without clear attribution, marketing dollars get wasted — and sometimes the real issue isn’t the marketing at all, but something as simple as a broken phone line.
That’s the reality Street Digital sees every day. The agency partners with institutionally owned apartment communities, helping them maintain high occupancy rates by uncovering the truth behind their marketing performance. To do it, they rely on CallRail as their source of truth for every lead.
"The bottom line is occupancy. For the properties we work with, their financials are dependent on people living there. If units are empty, our clients look to us to drive more renters to their property websites."
– Donald Kleckner, Founder and President, Street Digital
The challenge: A disconnect between marketing spend and occupancy
In the multifamily housing industry, success is typically measured by occupancy rates. Marketing's primary role is to drive the traffic and leases needed to keep buildings full. But the challenge is often more complex than just generating leads. Property managers rely on multiple marketing sources, and without a clear way to connect their spending to actual renters, it's impossible to know what’s truly working.
"Phone lines and onsite call routing have issues alll the time in this industry, which negatively impact the leads we generate through our marketing services. CallRail’s software allows us to determine where a drop in the prospect leasing funnel is happening, so we can point out issues to our clients for things that are often overlooked, but have a huge impact on the prospect journey."
– Donald Kleckner, Founder and President, Street Digital
Lack of visibility makes it difficult to feel confident in marketing investments. Often the problem isn’t that the marketing is failing, but that there's no clear way to measure its impact.
The solution: A single source of truth for every lead
A central hub for campaign tracking is essential for marketers who need clarity. Street Digital utilizes CallRail to gain complete visibility, implementing Call Tracking and Form Tracking to achieve two critical goals for their clients: attribution and recording.
"We rely heavily on CallRail's product and integrations for proper ad source attribution. It gives us the confirmation needed to make proper marketing adjustments from one channel to another based on what's truly driving results."
– Donald Kleckner, Founder and President, Street Digital
- Proving marketing impact: CallRail integrates with top marketing tools, such as Google Analytics and Google Ads, enabling clients to clearly demonstrate how campaigns are generating leads and positively impacting their bottom line.
- Diagnosing operational gaps: By listening to CallRail’s call recordings, they can identify issues with on-site performance. This allows them to spot critical opportunities for improvement, from coaching leasing teams to implementing advanced call flows that ensure calls reach the right teams at the right time.
This ability to diagnose operational issues is just as critical as proving marketing ROI. As Donald Kleckner recalls, this played out perfectly with a recent client. "We recently launched our digital marketing services for a brand new client to increase online and onsite digital traffic. As part of our services, we immediately discovered that their onsite call answering service was leading to 45% of their calls being dropped due to the call flow onsite and prospect frustration. This has likely been going on for months without our client knowing. We have to be sure the leads we generate are actually getting through and are being properly managed by the leasing teams.”
The results: Smarter decisions and stronger performance
With CallRail, property managers gain a comprehensive view of the prospect journey, turning marketing spend into measurable results. This deeper insight leads to tangible impacts on the business.
- Smarter budget allocation: With clear attribution data, Street Digital can confidently reallocate budgets to the channels performing best and reduce spending on those that aren't, including third-party ad sources.
- Operational fixes: Call Tracking provides undisputed proof of operational issues. Something as simple as routing a call to a manager's old cell phone number instead of the leasing office's landline — a common industry problem — can be identified and fixed immediately.
- Improved performance: By holding all marketing channels and on-site teams accountable with objective data, properties can hit their benchmarks for both lead volume and occupancy.
- Lead capture: With an AI-powered tool like Voice Assist, properties can provide 24/7 coverage for after-hours or overflow calls, ensuring they never miss a lead again.
The future: Total transparency into the renter journey
For leading real estate marketers, the goal is to create even more transparency into the prospect journey, an area that currently lacks visibility in the multifamily industry. This is where the most sophisticated properties are heading.
"By layering CallRail data with our own product enhancements, we can provide a transparent view of the prospect journey. That's a level of insight that is rare in the multifamily industry, and we're excited to bring it to our clients."
– Donald Kleckner, Founder and President, Street Digital
By combining Call and Form Tracking, multifamily properties can gain a comprehensive view of the customer journey for each lead, encompassing all interactions from calls, texts, and form submissions. This comprehensive view helps them connect every marketing dollar to real occupancy results, driving smarter decisions, stronger performance, and a lasting competitive edge.
Ready to connect your marketing spend to your bottom line?
