About Santa Lucia Preserve

The Santa Lucia Preserve is a private, luxury community in Carmel-By-The-Sea, California, offering premium homes, land for sale, and exclusive club memberships—including access to a Tom Fazio-designed golf course—all set within a landscape protected in partnership with the Santa Lucia Conservancy.

The Challenge

When we first partnered in late 2018, the Preserve had no digital marketing presence and no history with paid advertising. Our challenge was to build a lead generation engine from the ground up, targeting a niche, high-net-worth audience of executives, tech entrepreneurs, and affluent buyers.

The additional complexity: tying digital campaign results to real-world sales of homes and memberships, which involved long sales cycles ranging from months to years.

Our Approach

Together, we aligned on two goals:

• Build awareness and drive qualified leads from a wealthy, discerning audience.

• Create a funnel to capture qualified leads that would lead to the sale of homes, homesites, and memberships.

We started with a full audit of the website and digital presence, identified the best platforms, and set up custom performance tracking using HubSpot. We focused our efforts on Google Ads, Meta Ads, YouTube, and LinkedIn—targeting both new prospects and warm leads via remarketing.

To generate leads, we created two premium downloadable guides:

• A Real Estate Guide showcasing available homes and land

• A Membership Guide explaining different levels of club access

Both were gated behind landing pages, which we tested and optimized for conversions.

The Results

Since partnering with Level Up Digital, the Santa Lucia Preserve has seen record-breaking real estate and membership sales—selling homes, homesites, and memberships totaling tens of millions of dollars.

By reaching the right audiences, and presenting the Preserve as a refined, nature-immersed lifestyle destination, we engaged discerning buyers in search of privacy, connection, and a one-of-a-kind community.

Here’s what we’ve achieved together so far:

• Built a high-performing lead generation funnel from scratch

• Dramatically increased traffic and engagement across digital channels

• Developed premium marketing assets that continue to convert

• Implemented full-funnel tracking tied to real-world sales outcomes

• Helped drive sustained demand and exceeded sales expectations

Our partnership with the Santa Lucia Preserve continues to grow as we support their marketing strategy and long-term success.