Real Storage Group Case Study

Real Storage Group is a Canadian-owned provider of state-of-the-art self- storage solutions with 37 locations operating across Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, and British Columbia. Real Storage Group offers personal, business, and vehicle storage, as well as moving supplies and U-Haul® equipment rentals at its Real Storage locations in Western Canada and Toronto and at its Store-N-Save locations in the rest of Southern Ontario. Real Storage Group is active in each of the communities it operates in, supporting local groups such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters Calgary.Real Storage Group’s Business GoalsAs Real Storage Group expanded from a regional player in Alberta to a national self-storage provider, it needed to reach local audiences in each of the new markets it was establishing itself in. They wanted to see if search advertising using popular search engines could generate leads for storage unit rentals and sales of moving supplies at each of their new locations.

Real Storage Group’s Solution

In 2015, Real Storage Group was opening a new, state-of-the-art storage facility in Toronto’s east end, joining an already crowded marketplace. Yellow Pages put together a search engine marketing (SEM) campaign targeting people searching for storage solutions in Toronto neighbourhoods close to the facility such as The Beaches and Leslieville. This was supplemented by a Smart Digital Display (SDD) campaign designed to build the brand in the Toronto market. Similar SEM campaigns were in place targeting the local areas around their existing facilities in Alberta and BC.

Following the success of the SEM campaign in Toronto, additional SEM campaigns were set up to target various new local markets they acquired, with different strategies tailored to the needs of the area. In cities with large student populations such as London, offers targeted to students were added using sitelink extensions. In areas popular for outdoor recreation such as Central

Ontario, ad groups targeted to people needing storage for boats, RVs, and other equipment were used.

Real Storage Group’s SuccessWhen the first campaigns went online in August 2015, results were immediate. During the first six months, the campaigns generated an average of 51 calls per month to the various locations. Upon expansion to Ontario and Manitoba in February 2016, the campaigns generated an average of 122 calls per month and has since grown to 162 calls per month in 2018.Click-through-rate (CTR) has also steadily increased during the lifetime of the program.