Roy Morgan Simonds Homes Ai Pilot
Roy Morgan's Ai-driven Helix Persona targeting and hyper-local postcode optimisation delivered more efficient, higher-quality leads and stronger overall performance for Simonds.
The Challenge
Simonds Homes wanted to better understand who their highest-value customers were and how to reach more people like them earlier in the home-buying journey. With Australians increasingly expecting personalised digital experiences, Simonds recognised that generic, broad home-buyer messaging was no longer competitive in a landscape shaped by Ai-driven media and rapidly evolving customer expectations.
Despite strong brand presence, their always-on campaigns were relying on VIC-wide targeting and broad messaging that didn’t tap into the deeper motivations, values, and behaviours driving home-buyer decisions. Simonds needed a smarter, more data-driven approach to customer acquisition and one that could cut through the noise, reduce wasted spend, and lift lead quality. Simonds needed to go Hyper-Local.
This required a solution that combined psychographic insight, personalised messaging, and Ai-led targeting delivered in a way that could outperform an already mature media program.
Simonds set the challenge: prove that the Ai-powered Workspace Copy Engine together with Helix Persona targeting and tailored creative could deliver more efficient, higher-quality leads than their existing approach.
Going Hyper-Local
To help Simonds reach higher-value prospects with greater efficiency, Sonar partnered with Roy Morgan to deploy the Workspace Copy Engine, an Ai-driven tool that blends Helix Personas with real campaign data. We fed the engine detailed inputs including Simonds’ brand overview, tone of voice, CRM-derived persona profiles, Live Mapping audience data, and the unique value proposition of the Simonds' Home Finder Wizard.
Using these inputs, the Workspace Copy Engine generated persona-matched postcode clusters, refined targeting recommendations, and tailored ad copy for Meta and Google. The campaigns were structured to test both persona-aligned creative and Ai-identified geographic segments against Simonds’ existing VIC-wide targeting model. On Meta, Sonar ran a controlled A/B split between Simonds’ business-as-usual setup and Workspace-recommended postcodes and messaging. On Google Ads, we launched a parallel low-budget test to benchmark efficiency metrics - CPC, CTR, CPL, and CVR - ensuring results could be compared fairly against Simonds’ always-on activity.
This structured test design allowed us to isolate the impact of Ai-led targeting and persona-aligned messaging across channels, validating how psychographic relevance and sharper geo-targeting could improve both engagement and lead quality.
The Results
The Roy Morgan Workspace approach outperformed Simonds’ always-on campaigns across both Meta and Google, proving that Ai-aligned targeting and persona-led messaging drive higher-quality, more efficient lead generation. The Workspace campaign also expanded Simonds’ reach into previously under-served but highly responsive geographic segments.
Overall, the pilot delivered:
- 2.3× higher Google conversion rate
- 40% cheaper blended cost per lead (Meta + Google)
These gains were achieved without increasing spend, demonstrating the power of Ai-led targeting and psychographically aligned creative.
"Working with Sonar Group, we were able to shape the strategy, refine the approach and bring everything to life in a focused way. Sonar’s forward-thinking optimisation helped turn this BAU test into a standout success, driving higher conversion rates and more efficient lead delivery."
Jade Catanese
Brand Marketing Manager
