Social Media Ads Work for Self Storage, Just Not the Way You Think

If you’re a self-storage operator, you’ve probably asked yourself: Do social media ads actually work for bringing in new customers for self storage?

After all, platforms like Facebook and Instagram are where people spend a lot of time (almost 2.5 hours a day on average). It’s no surprise why they are often flooded with ads for all types of products and services. But what about for self storage where customer intent is often urgent and event-driven? Can an ad seen on social media really influence someone to consider renting a storage unit?

Sunbird Storage recently helped us uncover an answer that might surprise you.

Running Social Ads for Two Locations over Two Months

We launched Meta (Facebook and Instagram) ad campaigns for two of Sunbird’s locations and let them run for about two months (May and June 2025). The goal? Drive awareness, generate clicks, and—hopefully—convert new tenants.

The results in terms of awareness and traffic were immediate:

• Over 100,000 people saw the ads: 4 times each on average!

• Over 2,200 clicks driven directly from the social ads

• About $1,200 in ad spend at each location over 60 days

“I could see that we were certainly getting traffic and visibility from our ad campaigns in our target market. I did notice a nice uptick in move-ins and activity at those locations, but I wanted to know if this was the result of our ads or something else like seasonality.”

- Jason Koonin, CEO of Sunbird Storage

So we checked the data in Google Analytics and something strange showed up: None of those ad clicks had directly converted into rental form submissions.

So… time to pause the campaigns, right?

Not So Fast—We Had to Look Closer

Instead of focusing only on direct attribution from social ads, we zoomed out to see what else changed during the campaign period. 

Here’s what we found when comparing the 2 month ad period to the 2 months prior:

• 90% increase in leads from "direct traffic" and a 40% increase traffic

• 53% increase in rental leads from organic search and a 55% increase in traffic

This wasn’t just more traffic to these channels—it was highly qualified traffic - potentially primed and ready to learn more after seeing ads. Analytics was showing more visitors were landing on those two locations coming in through branded searches and Sunbird’s Google Business Profiles, then submitting rental forms. Odds are, that’s not a coincidence. 

But What About Year-over-Year Rentals?!

May 2025 saw a 37% increase in total rentals compared to May 2024. The momentum continued into June with a 60% increase in total rentals when compared to the previous year!

The Hidden Power of Social Ads: Branded Demand

What caused the surge in organic and direct visits? Our data pointed to a clear conclusion: the social media ads.

They didn’t lead to conversions on the first click from the ad—but they sparked awareness. People saw the ads, remembered the name, and came back later via other channels—like Google Search for "sunbird storage" or by typing in the URL directly.

This is what’s known as brand lift—and in this case, it directly correlated with a spike in move-ins during the 2 month campaign.

Check out the ads that we're used for this campaign - including video assets!

Pause ads?! No, Let’s Run More!

Instead of turning the ads off because the initial data looked like it wasn't converting, Sunbird is now expanding its test: more locations, more campaigns, more data. While vanity metrics like clicks and conversions are important, they don’t always tell the whole story.

“After diving into the data it was clear the ad campaigns were having a positive effect on our traffic and move-ins for those locations. We even looked at year over year numbers to rule out seasonality. We’re expanding on what we learned from the test and have launched more social media ad campaigns across 22 markets and locations.”

- Jason Koonin, CEO of Sunbird Storage

If you’re only judging your social ad performance based on first touch leads, you might be missing the bigger picture. Campaigns that build awareness can pay off through other channels—and drive real occupancy growth.