Self-Storage Goes To Google: Inside the Exclusive Invite!

When people talk about great places to work, Google is often one of the first to come up. It's known for its innovative culture, whimsical workspaces, and focus on employee well-being. Having a coveted career at Google is not something a lot of people can claim, so it's left many wondering what it would be like to step inside and spend a day engrossed in the company's culture. Just recently, the in-house Digital Marketing Agency at Tenant, Inc. and A-1 Self Storage, which has a portfolio of 48 facilities across California, did just that. Not only did they have a chance to visit the campus, they also were able to work with a Google Strategist to dive into paid digital strategy and gain key self-storage industry marketing insights.

Left: Google Strategist Jessica Puzon Navarette snaps a selfie with Margo Tannewitz of A-1 Storage and Tenant Inc.'s Inna Sandhu, Niki Bossonis, Hector Valdez, and Sohil Dhaduk. Right: Tannewitz and Bossonis.

Growing With Google

The digital marketing landscape in the self-storage industry has reached unprecedented levels of cutthroat online competition and near-constant changes to search algorithms and data-driven processes. The Digital Marketing team at Tenant Inc. is determined to stay on top – by staying on top of Google.

Enter Androniki "Niki" Bossonis. She had already built a formidable career on search engine marketing and data analytics, and had been marketing on Google since it first surfaced on the internet to compete with Yahoo! So, when Tenant, Inc. decided it needed an in-house Digital Marketing agency, they knew Bossonis was the right woman for the job.

Bossonis came aboard and got to work, bringing in a 12-person team and making certain they were trained and certified by Google, and that on a weekly basis, they keep abreast of any and all industry updates. "By earning the status of Certified Google Partner, we then gained access to Google’s in-house account strategists," says Bossonis. "They are wonderful, providing weekly support, education, and key self-storage industry data relating to national paid and organic search trends and techniques." 

Overseeing the PPC (pay-per-click) paid advertising for some of Tenant’s key customers, such as A-1 Self Storage, is one of Bossonis' responsibilities. She has been working with Margo Tannewitz, A-1 Storage’s Director of Marketing, for over 2 years. "Our first milestone together was to achieve 300 rentals and reservations in one month from PPC alone," recalls Bossonis. "One year later, we more than doubled that number to average 760 rentals and reservations per month with the same monthly ad spend budget."

Bossonis says the keys to reaching this level of account optimization consisted of continuous A/B testing and Tannewitz’s willingness to trust strategy advice from Google as they rolled out changes. Of course, Tannewitz wasn't getting the 411 from Google first-hand; she was instead learning from the Tenant Agency team after they had met with Google. "It's not in Google’s playbook to involve customers with their agency account reps," explains Bossonis. "That opens the door for customers to start reaching out directly and bypass the marketing agency partners, thus diluting the partnership."

An Exclusive Invitation

Over time, Tenant’s Google rep had developed a strong sense of trust based on Tannewitz’s conscientiousness, and after a short series of discussions, arranged for an in-person A-1 Storage Google strategy meeting at the Google Headquarters in Playa Vista, CA.

L to R: Bossonis, Tannewitz, Jessica Puzon Navarette, Inna Sandhu, Hector Valdez, and Sohil Dhaduk

"The Google Playa Vista headquarters is nothing less than fascinating," says Bossonis, and her excitement is palpable. Rich with history, the building used to be the very hangar that once housed the famous Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes' massive feat of aviation engineering. The building was converted into a sprawling headquarters that boasts two restaurants, two cafes, a music room, an arcade, an ice cream stand, and a host of imaginatively decorated conference rooms and suites, most with themes of either flight or geese. For example, the main restaurant is named Goose Park, and golden eggs can be found in almost every corner. Other rooms include the Peter Pan Room, the Harry Potter Room, and more. 

Historical photo of the Spruce Goose airplane hangar, well before the Google renovation.

The renovated airplane hangar after the Google renovation.

Some of Google's whimsical workspaces

Privacy phone booths; the famous confetti conference room

Google Gurus

And now back to storage marketing. With A-1 Storage’s Google Ads account at a high level of optimization, the Google gurus advised that at this point, the only way to meet A-1’s goal of increasing online rentals by 25 percent in 2025 would be to increase budgets slightly. Now, they’ll be expanding on their brand campaign, one of their highest converting marketing campaigns which works in concert with their individual facility search and display advertising.

A-1 and Tenant spoke at length with Google regarding ad targeting, which is anomalous in the self-storage industry due to the mere fact that anyone can need storage. There would be no need to target demographics such as income, age, or occupation; instead, targeting would be based on a combination of geography and intent, which makes utilizing data-driven techniques essential for success. “We’re basically setting up the Google Ads accounts and campaigns to give Google’s algorithms the best possible path to data learning," says Bossonis. "In turn, we hover over the data as it comes in like vultures, running A/B tests and experiments to see how much more we can optimize for conversions.” 

“I’ve learned so much in the past 2 years from working with a Google Partner,” said Tannewitz. “We used set ad budgets based on facility occupancy, not realizing at the time that budgeting for conversions is the only way to grow. There were times when the advice from Google was hard to accept, but I couldn’t be happier with where we are at and how far we have come as a team. After working through A-1’s business goals with two Google strategists for over two hours, I know I have the information and the team to succeed in 2025.”

The Google team didn’t stop at working through A-1 Storage’s specific strategy; they also presented a rare glimpse into the strategies and even budgets of some of the biggest players in the industry. With business names blurred, the teams learned that companies of a similar portfolio size spend approximately 20-25 percent more than A-1 on PPC ads, and the much larger companies drop a whole lot more. "That’s a whole other ball game," laughs Bossonis. 

The goals and respective budgeting strategies of small to mid-sized storage operators is based on achieving rentals and ROI, whereas the giants strategize to dominate the SERPs (search engine results pages) by filling as many spots on the first page as possible, regardless of the cost. This brand-first strategy involves utilizing massive budgets to power every possible ad type Google has to offer, so that they can all appear on the first page, regardless of whether a rental will ever come from those campaigns. This big box retail approach serves the long term goal of making sure everyone thinks of them first, regardless of whether they need storage at the moment. When someone does need storage, the idea is that they'll automatically be thinking of these brands. 

How much does this aggressive SERP domination cost? Approximately $6,000 - $9,000 per facility per month, especially for new campaigns (presumably newly-acquired or newly-built facilities in lease-up).

Google also shared data on national search trends, which showed that projections for demand in 2025 have less of an uptick in the summer months, and a smaller than usual decline approaching the holiday season.

“This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for A-1 Self Storage to gain such a deep level of insight, as well as to see a day in the life of a Google strategist," says Tannewitz. "I definitely have a renewed perspective, and I’m looking forward to continuing this business relationship with Google."

A hanging art display represents the shape of the Spruce Goose that was once housed in this converted airplane hangar.

COMMENTS: