Senior Living PPC: Why You Must Think Beyond Clicks

It’s easy to think that effective senior living PPC campaigns are all about clicks. But what happens after people click? You still need to convert people into leads, right? And you must have a way to nurture leads over the long term since the senior living sales cycle is long.

While clicks are important, the most effective senior living PPC campaigns also pay attention to landing page optimization and marketing automation.

Below, we discuss each from a paid advertising standpoint.

Effective senior living PPC campaigns need good landing pages

A landing page is a web page on your site designed for one specific purpose, like having someone fill out a form or book a tour. When it comes to senior living PPC, we want to keep the landing page for the ad as narrowly focused as possible.

For example, let’s say someone types in “assisted living near me” into Google, and your Google Ad pops up. In the ad copy, you include the starting rates per month and mention a free brochure. The person looking at the ad says, “Yep, that rate sounds good,” and is interested in getting more info. They click on the ad and end up on your landing page.

That landing page has to deliver on what the ad promised. In this case, the landing page should reinforce the starting rates and make it easy for someone to get the brochure.

This is often where many advertisers stumble. They spend so much time focusing on the keywords and ad strategy that they overlook the landing page, or it becomes an afterthought.

Here are some PPC landing page best practices:

Use a separate landing page for each PPC ad

This is necessary to measure conversions and ROI. If you have three ads pointing to the same landing page, you won’t know which ad + landing page combo produces the best conversions.

Optimize each landing page for mobile devices

How a landing page renders on a smartphone will differ from how it renders on a desktop. We find that most PPC website traffic for senior living is mobile now. If someone is on their phone and clicks on your ad but ends up on a landing page for a desktop, you’ll likely lose that person. That’s unfortunate because you just paid to have that person come to your site.

Put the most crucial info at the top of your landing page

If your ad promised a brochure, consider putting the form front and center at the top—make it easy for the person to get what they’re looking for. Reinforce what they’ll be getting, and the benefits of it, through your copy.

Use A/B testing to refine your landing pages

Making small changes to a landing page can improve conversion rates. For example, changing the color of a button from red to blue (or vice versa) or changing the words on the button from “Submit” to “Get the Brochure” might boost conversions. With A/B testing, you can try different strategies, and the data will reveal which version works best.

Effective senior living PPC campaigns need good marketing automation

Many businesses focus only on the conversion rate when it comes to paid advertising. For some businesses, this makes sense. Companies that sell consumer products, for example—sneakers, bikes, or makeup—are looking to move products quickly. If someone clicks on an ad and buys directly from that ad, that’s a great conversion since it’s an actual sale.

Senior living sales don’t work like that, though. People don’t click on an ad for senior living and convert into a resident on the spot. There’s a process for how selling works in senior living. Even someone with an urgent need—getting mom into memory care ASAP—still has to go through a process that might take days or weeks.

Our goal in senior living PPC is to convert people into leads with the understanding that leads can turn into move-ins over time.

While we still pay attention to conversion rates (for senior living PPC, a reasonable conversion rate is between eight and 15 percent), the work doesn’t end once you convert someone into a lead.

Senior living sales cycles have gotten longer for most levels of care (memory care is the exception). Independent living leads can take two or more years before moving in.

This means that most senior living leads need numerous touchpoints throughout their journeys—some as many as 20 or more. The only way to efficiently manage so many touchpoints among your leads is with robust marketing automation. Otherwise, you’ve wasted your ad budget if you don’t have a plan for nurturing those clicks that convert into leads.

To avoid this fate, do the following:

Score and segment leads appropriately

Not all leads are ready to buy. Some are—and those sales-qualified leads (SQLs) can be sent to the sales team for follow-up. But the not-ready-to-buy leads should be entered into lead nurturing campaigns.

Use marketing automation

When set up correctly, marketing automation sends the right message to the right prospect at the right time. This frees up your team to focus on other things, like reviewing analytics, making necessary tweaks, and doing other marketing tasks.

Monitor results

The word “automation” can sometimes fool people into thinking they can “set it and forget it.” Don’t fall into this trap. You must review analytics and let the data guide you on changes and how to improve.

Do you need help managing your senior living PPC?

At Senior Living SMART, our paid advertising team only works on paid advertising, so you’ll get a much bigger bang for your advertising dollars. Get in touch and let’s discuss your senior living PPC campaigns.