More Clicks, Lower Costs: The Google Stars Effect

Every business owner knows the challenge: you need more leads, but advertising online feels like you’re constantly paying more just to keep up. Google Ads, in particular, can feel like a crowded auction where only the big spenders win. But what if there was a smarter way to compete—one that doesn’t just drain your budget, but actually stretches it further and delivers results at industry-standard costs?

This is what we call the Google Stars Effect. It’s the phenomenon that happens when a business aligns its advertising budget and campaign strategy with Google and PMW recommendations. By doing so, businesses unlock more clicks, higher visibility, and more consistent leads—all while keeping their cost per lead (CPL) in check.

For property management companies across competitive regional markets, this effect can be the difference between surviving and thriving. Let’s take a closer look at how the Google Stars Effect played out in real campaigns, and what lessons regional businesses can apply.

The Challenge: Competing in a Crowded Market

In local service industries like property management, competition on Google is fierce. Prospective clients aren’t scrolling through page two of the search results—they’re clicking the first few options that show up. If your ads aren’t visible at the top, you may as well not be in the game.

The problem is that many companies set a budget based on what feels comfortable, rather than what Google’s data indicates is necessary to compete. This leads to two common problems:

1. Limited visibility. If your ad spend is too low, your campaign runs out of budget early in the day or loses out on high-value impressions.
   
   

2. Higher costs per lead. With fewer clicks and limited optimization data, the cost per lead often climbs higher than industry averages.
   
   

The key insight? Google prioritizes relevancy, competition, and budget. To consistently appear in top search positions, businesses need to align all three—not just one.

The Google Stars Effect Explained

The Google Stars Effect happens when businesses align their budgets with Google’s recommendations and PMW’s while maintaining strong ad relevance. This isn’t about simply “spending more”; it’s about ensuring your ads have enough fuel to compete for top positions in a highly competitive auction system.

Here’s how it works:

• Relevance: Google rewards ads that closely match what users are searching for. That means tightly written ad copy, optimized landing pages, and keywords that match intent.
  
  

• Competition: Just like in a bidding war, if competitors are willing to pay more for the same audience, they’ll win the prime spots unless you match the market.
  
  

• Budget alignment: Following Google’s recommended daily or monthly spend ensures your campaign has enough runway to capture the right traffic consistently, instead of sporadically.

The result is a “sweet spot” where your campaigns run at full strength, securing more impressions, generating more clicks, and delivering leads at a CPL that falls within industry norms.

Case Study Data: Three Clients, Three Approaches

To illustrate this effect, let’s look at three property management clients who invested in different package levels.

Client A (Market Leader).
With a budget of over $11,000, Client A gave their campaign the power it needed to dominate impression share. As a result, they generated 37 total leads at a CPL of $300.57—right within the industry average of $250–$350. Importantly, they didn’t just achieve affordable leads; they achieved volume.

Client B (Accelerate).
With a modest $1,000 budget, Client B secured five leads at a lower CPL of $196.45. On paper, this looks great, but the problem is scalability.

Client C (Grow).
Client C’s smaller $770 budget brought in only two leads. This highlights the risk of under-investing: costs don’t always shrink in proportion to budget.

Lessons Learned

The takeaway is clear: bigger budgets, when aligned with PMW and Google’s recommendations, don’t just produce more leads—they produce more efficient leads.

• Client A’s Market Leader approach produced a healthy lead flow while staying at industry-standard CPLs.
  
  

• Clients B and C saw some success, but their budgets limited both impression share and lead volume. Even though Client B’s CPL looked strong, the total number of leads simply wasn’t enough to sustain growth.
  
  

This shows that the Google Stars Effect isn’t just about cost per lead—it’s about scale, sustainability, and the ability to grow within competitive regional markets.

Why It Matters for Regional Businesses

In highly competitive markets, homeowners and investors have multiple choices when searching for services, and the companies that consistently show up at the top of Google win the lion’s share of inquiries.

If your campaign budget isn’t aligned with Google’s recommended range, you’re essentially ceding ground to your competitors. They’ll capture more clicks, more leads, and ultimately, more market share—simply because they invested enough to stay visible.

The Google Stars Effect gives businesses a proven path:

• Follow Google’s recommendations for competitive budget levels.
  
  

• Maintain strong ad relevance through quality copy and optimized landing pages with PMW.
  
  

• Focus on sustainable lead volume, not just short-term CPL wins.

Conclusion: More Clicks, Lower Costs

The data shows that when businesses align with PMW and Google’s recommendations, they don’t just get more clicks—they get more consistent, higher-quality leads, all while keeping costs per lead within industry standards.

The Google Stars Effect isn’t about spending recklessly; it’s about investing strategically to unlock growth in highly competitive markets. For property management companies in your region, the choice is clear: align your budget with what Google’s data shows is needed, and you’ll see the difference in both volume and efficiency.

Want to see how the Google Stars Effect can work for your business? Let’s talk.

Samantha Adams

Director of Paid Search