Tips for Senior Living Ads

Tips for Creating the Best Senior Living Ads

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When it comes to developing “the best” senior living ads, here’s the good news: You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Follow these tried and true directives for advertising success.

The best senior living ads are well planned.

Like any other marketing tactic, you need a strategy to guide the development of your advertising campaigns. To get started, ask yourself the following questions:

  • Which persona are you speaking to? An ad for an older male in his seventies should have a different vibe than an ad for an adult daughter in her 50s.
  • What’s the theme? You’ll rarely be running a one-off ad. Normally when you develop a senior living ad campaign, you’ll need different ads for various media—magazines, newspapers, billboards, radio/TV, online, and so forth. Having a theme or focus will ensure all ads across various media communicate a consistent message.
  • What’s the goal? Are you trying to drive people to a specific landing page on your website? Maybe pick up the phone and book a tour? RSVP to a free lunch? Or are you simply building brand awareness? You need to understand your goal so you can develop appropriate calls-to-action (CTAs).

The best senior living ads are well written.

Whether it’s a full-page print ad or a short and sweet online banner, your content must be well written. This means . . .

  • Error-free copy. Nothing can doom an ad like an unfortunate typo.
  • Correct grammar and punctuation. It’s OK to deliberately break rules for effect. But do so in moderation.
  • Clear and compelling messages. Check out these tips for creating compelling advertising content.

The best senior living ads are well designed.

Your ad’s content, particularly the headline, is incredibly important. But your ad’s design comes in at a close second. Investing in professional graphic design (or taking advantage of ready-made designs from us that you can customize!) is worth every penny.

Designs must . . .

  • Properly reflect your brand. You don’t want someone experiencing a disconnect going from your ad to your website, for example.
  • Make the copy shine and easy to read. The design should complement the words, not compete with them.
  • Keep the audience in mind. Think older eyes that need bigger fonts and clear contrasts between colors.

The best senior living ads are well placed.

Don’t run ads simply to say you’re running ads. Where, when, and how you run your senior living advertising campaigns will make all the difference.

When doing ad buys, make sure you . . .

  • Have a clear understanding of the channel’s demographics. Your personas should be represented.
  • Understand so-called “added value.” Media companies will often offer “sweeteners” to ad buys. For example, a print publication might offer bonus ads in sister publications or on various websites. Get insight into what the so-called added value is—and see if you can handpick where any extras run. Because there’s no sense in running ads on a website that caters to Gen Z, right?
  • Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. Most media companies are willing to negotiate. So when you’re presented with rates, don’t be afraid to counter. There’s a good chance you’ll get a better deal.

The best senior living ads are well researched.

This tip has more to do with pay-per-click (PPC) ads, which are their own specialty.

With PPC ads, like Google Ads, you need to do much more research, particularly around . . .

  • Keywords you should use and bid on (from brand terms to generic terms)
  • Competitor keywords
  • Negative keywords (the terms you don’t want your ads to come up for)

From there, you need to know how to navigate the ins and outs of Google Ads, how to write extremely compelling short copy, how to set reasonable budgets, and how to analyze results. No wonder Google offers Google Ads certification. (At least it’s free!)

The best senior living ads have help from an agency like ours!

Handling ad buys, writing ads, designing ads, keeping track of budgets—there’s a lot to juggle. We can do the heavy lifting for you. Get in touch and let’s discuss your advertising goals.