Paid media
Google & Meta ads that fill your calendar, not your inbox.
We have placed more than $30M in senior living ad spend across 100+ communities. Search, Display, YouTube, and Meta, structured around the way families actually shop for care and built at the community level, because a 40-unit memory care building and a 200-unit CCRC do not share a keyword list, a budget, or a buyer.
- $30M+ Ad spend managed
- 100+ Communities served
- +47% Avg 90-day tour lift
- 28× Peak ROAS
The leak
Three reasons this is underperforming.
Most senior living ad accounts are built like retail accounts: one national campaign, a broad keyword set, and a lead form that anyone can fill in. The result is a low cost per lead and a terrible cost per move-in, because the leads are tyre-kickers, out-of-market searchers, and adult children two years from a decision.
- 01
Generic keywords burn budget on tyre-kickers who are years from a decision.
- 02
One account across multiple communities cannot optimise by market, so the building at 71% subsidises the one at 96%.
- 03
B2C creative does not reach the adult child who is actually making the decision.
End to end
How we run it.
Campaign per community, not per brand
Budget, geography, and creative are set at the building level. A community at 96% occupancy should not be spending the same as the one at 71%, and rolling them into one account guarantees it does.
Care-type keyword separation
Memory care, assisted living, independent living, and respite each get their own campaigns. Their costs per lead differ by roughly 70%, and blending them hides which one is actually working.
Creative for the decision-maker
The searcher is usually the adult daughter, not the resident. Ad copy speaks to the person carrying the guilt and the logistics, and the landing page answers the question she actually has, which is almost always about cost.
Measured on move-ins
Conversions are tied back through the CRM, so the number we optimise against is cost per move-in rather than cost per form fill.
What you get
- Account restructure and audit of existing campaigns
- Per-community campaign build across Search, Display, YouTube, and Meta
- Landing pages built for each care type
- Call tracking with recorded, scored calls
- CRM conversion import so spend maps to move-ins
- Weekly pacing and monthly performance review
The stack
What we actually run this on.
Named, not hidden behind "proprietary technology". These are the tools, they are set up in your name, and you keep them.
Generalist agencies vs. Inertia
The difference is the starting line.
A generalist agency
- Learns senior living on your budget
- One account for every community
- Reports on impressions and engagement
- Percentage of media spend
- Annual contract, then a renewal conversation
Inertia
- Knows IL, AL, MC, and CCRC dynamics on day one
- Campaign per community, budgeted to occupancy
- Reports on cost per move-in and cost per hire
- Flat monthly fee
- 90-day initial period, no long-term lock-in
Operator FAQ
The questions we actually get asked.
What is a good cost per lead for senior living?
Published 2026 benchmarks put paid search between $80 and $200 per lead, with memory care at the top of that range and independent living at the bottom. Meta typically runs $45 to $120. A number well below those ranges usually signals lead quality problems rather than efficiency.
Should we run Google or Meta first?
Google, in almost every case. Search captures families who are already looking, which is the shorter path to a tour. Meta is better at building the pipeline three to six months out, so it earns its place once search is saturated in your market.
How long before we see tours?
Search campaigns generate inquiries within days. Tours follow the sales cycle, which in senior living runs weeks to months depending on care type. Memory care moves fastest because it is usually driven by a precipitating event.
Pairs well with
SEO & Content
Organic search produces the lowest cost per move-in of any channel measured, and it compounds. We build the long-tail visibility that captures families searching for care in your market, and structure it so AI answer engines can quote you.
Programmatic
Adult children compare four or five communities over weeks or months. Retargeting and connected TV placements on Hulu, Roku, and YouTube TV keep you present through every step of that comparison, not just the moment they clicked.
Marketing Automation
Senior living has one of the longest and most emotional sales cycles in any industry. Trigger-based sequences keep you present through months of deliberation, and reactivate the inquiries your sales team stopped calling.
Get a free audit
Ready to see your numbers?
Tell us about your community. We'll pull your current paid, organic, and reputation data and walk you through what we'd change in the first 90 days. No deck. No sales pitch. Just numbers.
Request a free audit
Four questions. One business day.