The Student Lodge
See how we helped increase occupancy rates.
Discover how Key Principles transformed The Student Lodge’s digital presence, elevating their student accommodation business in a competitive Nottingham market.
Case Study Date: November 2024
Services taken: SEO, Google Ads and Meta Ads
Location: Nottingham
Industries: Student Accommodation
The Student Lodge offers high-quality student accommodation in Nottingham, renowned for its convenient location and exceptional facilities. Managed by experienced hospitality teams, they ensure a welcoming home for students.
Challenge
The Student Lodge faced disappointing results from their previous digital marketing agency, struggling with inefficient Google Ads spending and ineffective SEO efforts. In addition to needing to improve occupancy rates, they had expanded their property portfolio by adding 200 new rooms, increasing their target from approximately 600 rooms in 2023 to 800 rooms in 2024.
With the new academic year approaching, they required a swift, strategic transition to boost occupancy and online presence, particularly with the busy November-December period approaching.
The Student Lodge appointed Key Principles to help in October 2023 following a competitive tender process.
Solution
The Key Principles team, following an excellent onboarding meeting, responded fast and as follows:
Channel Diversification: Introduced Microsoft Advertising and expanded to Facebook Ads and Retargeting to capture broader audiences. Planning TikTok Advertising to target both students and parents on this ever-popular social media channel.
Strategic Overhaul: Implemented robust tracking and reporting from the start to ensure data-driven decision-making.
Optimised Google Ads campaigns: Redirected focus on highly targeted campaigns, improving return on ad spend and reducing overall costs.
SEO Enhancement: We launched continuous SEO improvements, optimising technical aspects and enhancing on-page elements to improve conversion rates. Link building initiatives were also undertaken to enhance The Student Lodge’s domain authority.
Results
Achieved a remarkable 97.5% occupancy rate for the 2024-2025 academic year, significantly outperforming local competitors with occupancy rates as low as 69%.
Improved conversion rates led to maximised ad spend efficiency, with strategic use of various digital platforms bolstering visibility and engagement.
Positioned for future growth with plans underway to support the additional 33 rooms added to the Student Lodge property portfolio with targeted TikTok advertising in the upcoming academic year.
Conclusion
Our collaboration with The Student Lodge highlights how our tailored digital marketing strategies can drive tangible results even in oversaturated and competitive market. Looking forward, Key Principles remains committed to evolving and scaling The Student Lodge’s marketing efforts for sustained success.
“Key Principles transformed our digital marketing strategy. We’ve seen extraordinary occupancy rates and look forward to continued growth with their innovative approach.”
Maboob Ahmad, Director at The Student Lodge
Want Results Like These?
If you are looking for great results like these from your digital marketing efforts then take the first step now by booking your 30 minute strategy session.
The session will include a review of your current position, business objectives and marketing activities with a marketing strategy specialist, unlocking new insights and actionable ideas.
Following this call you will receive recommendations on marketing activities that will help you achieve your business objectives.