Paid media
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.
This service, measured
6.4%
average click-through rate across managed accounts
Where it works
The leak
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.
Generic keywords burn budget on tyre-kickers who are years from a decision.
One account across multiple communities cannot optimise by market, so the building at 71% subsidises the one at 96%.
B2C creative does not reach the adult child who is actually making the decision.
End to end
In this order, on every engagement.
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.
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.
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.
Conversions are tied back through the CRM, so the number we optimise against is cost per move-in rather than cost per form fill.
The stack
Named, not hidden behind "proprietary technology". These are the tools, and every one of them feeds the dashboard you see.
Generalist agencies vs. Inertia
A generalist agency
Inertia
Operator FAQ
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Across the portfolio
What this looks like depends entirely on the building. Memory care costs roughly twice what independent living does to fill, and runs on a cycle measured in days rather than months.
Further reading
Paid media
Facebook ads vs Google Ads for senior living: what each channel does well, how Meta's Housing rules change targeting, and how to split budget by care type.
Paid media
Programmatic advertising for senior living explained: how it works, audience sources and privacy limits, site lists, brand safety, CTV, and how to measure it.
Paid media
How to run assisted living PPC in Google Ads: count tours and move-ins as conversions, split campaigns by care type, protect your brand and bid on real intent.
Get a free audit
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.
Four questions. One business day.