PPC for Senior Living Communities
Senior living communities are facing a difficult time as they try to keep residents safe, follow recommended protocols, and still offer the independence, community, and care that they provide for their residents. The last thing they need to be worried about right now is whether or not their ads comply with Google’s new policies, or if they’re staying on top of recent search trends. That’s where EVG can help! We understand what it takes to run successful PPC campaigns for senior living communities like yours.
Google’s Changing Rules for Senior Living
Since the update to Google Ads targeting policies on October 19th, advertisers in the credit, employment, and housing verticals are no longer allowed to target users based on zip code or the following demographic attributes: age, gender or marital or parental status. These changes affect more than just the obvious banking, recruitment, and real estate industries. Senior living facilities are being flagged as part of the housing vertical as well, and their ads are impacted by these changes, leaving many advertisers scrambling to figure out what changes are needed. You can read more from Google on which types of ads are included in this policy, and which ones are unaffected by it. For example, while Senior Living Facilities fall into the housing category, hotel advertising does not.
In order to comply with the new regulations, you’ll need to make the following changes if you have not updated them already:
- Change your location targeting from zip codes to another form of targeting, like towns, cities, counties, or radius targeting.
- Ensure your Demographic targeting is set to “Enable” for all age, gender, and marital or parental statuses. None of them should be set to “Exclude”.
- Remove any bid adjustments in place for age, gender, and marital or parental status demographics.
Google Ads is always updating, whether it’s the user interface, bidding strategies, KPIs, or rules for certain industries. Staying informed on the latest changes and strategies will help you get the best results for the money you spend on Google Ads. EVG’s PPC experts stay on top of all of Google’s updates so that you don’t have to worry about whether or not your ads use zip code targeting or have bid adjustments in place for different ages. We make sure your ads not only meet compliance standards but are also effective and performing well.
Staying Responsive to User Trends
In addition to keeping up with changes from Google, it’s also important to be responsive to changes in search trends and user behavior, especially as we continue to navigate the uncertainty of a global pandemic.
Senior living communities should already have a formal response to the pandemic that states the precautions they’re taking to keep residents safe and should keep it updated as developments take place. They should clearly indicate their compliance with recommended mitigation strategies. Search ad copy and extensions can also be used to clearly convey this message to users searching for senior living facilities in your area. Having this information out front instead of burying it deep on your website shows users that it’s a priority for you.
Display ads should also be updated to show protocols being followed, like mask-wearing and social distancing. Potential new residents and their families are looking to be reassured that your facility is taking the health of residents seriously. Something as simple as failing to update your photos to reflect protocols might be misinterpreted as an indifference to the legitimate concerns of potential residents and their families.
EVG monitors trends in user demands, behavior, and search terms and regularly updates ad content and extensions to be responsive to them as part of our PPC strategy.
Working with a Limited Budget
Individual senior living communities don’t always have a huge budget to spend on Google Ads, and that’s okay. You don’t a $15k/month budget to get good results. It all comes down to strategy. EVG’s PPC experts understand how to build an efficient Google Ads account at any budget. With a small budget, we focus first on making sure Brand terms are sufficiently covered if there’s competition on your name, then focus on lower-funnel search terms (long-tail keywords) that are indicators of users who are ready to convert soon. Showing highly-relevant ads to users who are ready to convert means more resident bookings for less money – ideal for facilities running on a small advertising budget.
Our PPC analysts use the data that we collect to inform our strategy, always optimizing our accounts and looking for ways to further improve efficiency and ROI. Our goal is to help you achieve your goals, and while we know what works and what doesn’t with Google Ads, we always tailor our solutions to your business, your location, your services, to get you the best results.
If you want to learn more about how EVG can help you fill vacancies in your senior living communities with targeted PPC campaigns, reach out to us today! We’d love the chance to tell you about what we do and see if we can be the solution to your problem.
