Juniper Square launched the first investment management platform purpose-built for real estate private funds in January 2017. With a brand new product in a niche category, an early-stage budget, and a very specific target audience — large-scale real estate fund managers — every marketing dollar had to count. They partnered with Upgrow to build their digital acquisition program from the ground up.
The toughest part wasn't generating traffic — it was ensuring the traffic was the right kind. Small landlords and general real estate searchers were plentiful and irrelevant. The real target was fund managers, syndicators, and real estate investment professionals. Wasted spend on the wrong audience wasn't an option at an early-stage budget.
We built paid search campaigns with extensive negative keyword matching and highly specific keyword targeting to filter out irrelevant audiences from the start. We supplemented with audience-based targeting on social channels, reaching professional investors through platforms and events they actually searched. Ad messaging and landing page testing ran continuously to sharpen what resonated with each customer type — and we kept re-inventing the program as the team and product evolved.
In the first 18 months since public launch, Juniper Square's paid acquisition program delivered consistently strong performance — driving qualified leads at a cost well below target while scaling traffic across search and social.
Whether you’re looking to expand your search visibility, generate more qualified leads, or build a scalable acquisition engine, our team can help you turn digital marketing into a reliable growth channel.
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For Juniper Square, we built paid search campaigns with extensive negative keyword matching and highly specific keyword targeting to filter out irrelevant audiences from the start. The biggest challenge was separating qualified real estate fund managers from casual landlord and general real estate searchers. We supplemented search with audience-based targeting on social channels, ran continuous ad messaging and landing page tests, and kept re-inventing the program as the team and product evolved.
You need a well-designed, conversion-focused landing page with a clear call to action. Juniper Square had this from launch, which gave the paid program a major advantage. You also need clearly defined audience criteria so you can build aggressive negative keyword lists to filter out irrelevant traffic. For niche B2B products, knowing exactly who you don’t want to pay for is as important as knowing who you do. Finally, budget expectations need to be realistic for early-stage companies.
Juniper Square saw significant results from launch, generating over 180 leads in the first 30 days thanks to strong landing pages and precise targeting. Performance remained consistently strong over the next 18 months as the program scaled. For proptech startups with a well-defined audience and a strong landing page, paid media can deliver leads almost immediately.
Juniper Square generated over 3,500 qualified leads and 75,000+ paid visitors, all at a cost per lead 46% below target. For proptech companies targeting niche professional audiences like fund managers and real estate investors, paid media is essential because organic discovery alone won’t reach such a specific buyer. Digital marketing for proptech works when you treat budget efficiency as the first priority, not an afterthought.
For B2B software companies like Juniper Square, measuring PPC ROI requires looking beyond cost per lead to metrics like lead quality scoring, demo-to-close rate, and lifetime customer value. We tracked cost per lead against target benchmarks and worked closely with the Juniper Square team to evaluate lead quality, not just volume. The true ROI becomes clear when you connect ad spend to pipeline and revenue through CRM integration.
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