Banyan Group Residences: Turning Smart Paid Search Advertising into 342 Qualified Leads

Background

The growing demand from Russians to buy property in Thailand can be attributed to several significant factors. Firstly, there is no visa regime for entering the country with direct flights from Russia. Secondly, the living conditions are comfortable in a warm climate. Thirdly, the cost of real estate is lower than in other key regions of interest for buying real estate. We are talking about the UAE and Turkey, where prices in 2023 increased significantly, as well as Bali which is quite far from Russia.

Nevertheless, buying foreign real estate is expensive, regardless of the chosen region. Therefore, any strategy in this segment is based on the search for solvent customers. However, approaches can be atypical.

Goal

In the fall of 2023, RMAA received a request from Banyan Group Residences for cooperation in promoting real estate in Thailand. At that time, the client was already a well-known and highly regarded market leader, with a reputation for developing prestigious resorts, hotels, residences, and SPAs under its own well-known brands. We also established ourselves as an agency with the proven ability to effectively implement lead-generation projects in the foreign real estate segment. It was clear that this would be a mutually beneficial partnership.

As events later demonstrated (and still do, as the project is still in process at the time of publication of this case study), our assessment was correct. The campaign was an immediate success. We developed a personalized promotion strategy for selling Thai real estate and have provided the client with qualified leads on a monthly basis for over 11 months. Let's speak in order.

Solution

While many real estate companies position themselves as a single entity, Banyan Group Residences has several of its own brands in Thailand. These are Banyan Tree, which includes the leading integrated resort Laguna Phuket and Laguna Resorts & Hotels Public Company Limited, Angsana, as well as the newly established Cassia and Dhawa. Due to the diverse nature of its projects and the significant price differentiation for client properties within each brand, we immediately decided against creating a multi-page website.

We used paid advertising on Yandex for search and in the YAN (Yandex partner network) as our main promotion channel. This has proven to be an effective tool for generating leads for our past real estate projects and other high-budget campaigns. We decided to expand the geo scope beyond Russia to include Thailand. This region is home to a large number of Russian-speaking people who are interested in buying their own home instead of renting an apartment.

In addition to the TA segmenting, the key characteristic of the audience directly depended on the price of real estate. Therefore, at the launch stage and for all subsequent Yandex campaigns, we have applied and continue to do audience adjustments based on purchasing power. Additionally, we exclude unprofitable users under the age of 25.

Using this input, we began working on 7 Russian-language websites provided by the client.

• Laguna Lakelands
• Skypark
• Laguna Lakeside
• Laguna Seaside
• www.btg-angsana.net/landingpage/ru (doesn’t work at the moment)
• www.banyantreeresidences.com/beachvillasandbeachresidences/registrationform/ru (doesn’t work at the moment)
• www.banyantreeresidences.com/grandresidences/lagoonpoolvillas/registrationform/ru (doesn’t work at the moment)

For the landings, two generic campaigns were developed for Yandex search and the YAN with neutral creatives to probe demand. This strategy worked well for the first few months, bringing the client an average of 30 qualified leads monthly. Gradually, the format of the creatives was transformed into a USP ad, where each property's advantages were highlighted.

At the same time, the number of campaign launches in Yandex also increased. We developed separate promotion formats for each site with auto strategies for paying for conversions. This was the optimal way of working with paid ads. It allowed us to increase the number of clicks and impressions and reduce their cost. In other words, payment for displaying the advertisement was made only if the user filled out the contact details on the client's website.

Having achieved a systematic flow of leads, we focused on refining the landings, since the pages provided by the client were not quite user-friendly. The contact form was cluttered with unnecessary fields, and there was no site navigation or information about the brand.

The following information blocks were added to the design of the new landings prototypes:

• information about Banyan Group Residences as a leading real estate developer in the region to increase the level of trust among potential clients;
• introductory information about the neighborhood where the property is located;
• benefits and additional bonuses when buying real estate from a particular brand.

In addition, the feedback form became more convenient and shorter after the refinement. It contained name, email, and phone number. The user could access it from any screen on the landing page via the button. The main attraction of all pages is a high-quality visual series showcasing objects both indoors and out.

So far, 11 new landings developed by the RMAA team have been used for the Banyan Group Residences project.

• Banyan Tree Beach Residences
• Angsana Oceanview Residences
• Laguna Lakelands
• Skypark Celeste
• Garrya Residences
• Lagoon Pool Villas
• Oceanfront Villas
• Seaview Residences
• Beach Terraces
• Laguna Lakeside
• Skypark Elara Lakelands

We made a smooth transition to resources and adjusted the paid ads strategy accordingly. Each landing site has a unique promotional feature. However, the launch process follows a well-established algorithm. Before launching new campaigns, we test them for a period using a variety of creatives of different formats and ‘shades’ of content (from neutral to personalized for specific audience price preferences). After about 10 days, we analyze the results and then scale the main advertising load to the most successful ads.

Additional analytical materials provided by RMAA as a Yandex-certified partner are an essential tool for predicting results. Thanks to them, we adapt campaigns to capitalize on periods of high and low demand for real estate in Thailand. We know which properties and areas are currently in high demand and strengthen advertising on them. Additionally, we compare market dynamics and achieve a CPC below the market average. For the record, this indicator is kept at $2.2, while at us it is no more than $1.1.

The confidence in systemic work is backed up by results.

Results

Banyan Group Residences has received 342 qualified Russian-speaking leads through Yandex paid ads between December 2023 and the present. Conversely, the lowest result (12 leads) occurred during the period of decline in interest in Thai real estate in July, which we had previously warned the client about. In October 2024, we saw the highest number of requests (49 leads) against the background of annual growth in demand for properties in the region. The client has remained consistently satisfied with our work throughout the year and has recently decided to expand our reach. We are now developing a Telegram channel about real estate in Thailand, which will convert leads from the messenger in addition to our paid lead generation campaign. We'll cover this in another case study.

*The results are shown for the period December 2023 - November 2024, but the campaign for the client is ongoing.