Challenge
Prime Storage is a self-storage brand with 300+ locations across the US. In recent years, economic headwinds have impacted category demand. Competition has also become fiercer in media spend and pricing. Consequently, several of Prime’s key markets have struggled in year-over-year performance, suffering decreased occupancy and rising media costs.
Insight
In auditing the self-storage category, we found that competitors’ media mix focused almost exclusively on paid search.
Though Prime Storage capitalizes on efficient results from brand terms, they are being outspent by too much to consistently compete for self-storage category keywords. The sheer volume in market was driving the cost pressures Prime was experiencing.
Given that like-minded storage brands remain fixated on outbidding each other for key queries, it has created an opportunity for Prime to explore strategies beyond the increasingly competitive paid search space.
Idea
Short-term Change On the Way to Transformation
Circumvent the pressure to spend more by identifying the white spaces in the market. Using media expertise combined with Generator’s business intelligence tool, Synapse, we transformed Prime’s approach to media and measurement.
Reframe: Use Synapse’s Causal Impact Modeling to identify undervalued, high-incremental strategies and growth channels
Rebalance: Configure channel spend to account for full-funnel performance instead of fixating on last-click platform metrics favoring direct response tactics
Restructure: Unify paid search campaigns to streamline optimizations and maximize efficiency
Recalibrate: Establish ongoing benchmarking to measure and drive real growth based on long-term business performance