Optimizing PPC For Senior Living Providers By Melanie Nikolaiev

If your key demographic planning is tailored towards the elderly, it’s imperative that your digital marketing roadmap include diversified SEM tactics including PPC (or Pay per Click). 

 

There are multiple, interconnected benefits to PPC advertising. 

 

PPC is Measurable: Pay per Click advertising enables digital marketers to incorporate a systematic, process-driven method to measure exactly which ads and messaging are resonating with their target audience, and which are not. 

 

PPC is Hyper-Targeted: targeting your ads allows digital marketers the ability to reach key demographic segments at precisely the time they are in market for your product or service. For this reason keywords are crucial for a successful PPC campaign. Keywords reveal intent and provide valuable information about the interests of our target audience. Choosing the correct keywords allows us to present a more effective message to the right audience at the right time.

 

PPC can be cost effective, but it is helpful to consider the following metrics when developing a plan: 

 

CPC: Cost Per Conversion: this is the total cost of the ad divided by the number of conversions it generates.

 

CTR: Click-through-Rate: this is the number of times a specific ad unit is clicked, divided by the number of times and ad is displayed (e.g., Impressions) 

 

Conversion Rate: this the number of conversions divided by the number of clicks relative to a specific ad unit. Conversions can be measured in a variety of tangible ways, including a Form Fill or phone call. 

 

Now that you’ve got the basics down we can move on to certain key PPC features you might not be familiar with: 

 

Clicks are just the starting point. 

 

The competition for market share is fierce when it comes to Senior Living marketing. Potential leads clicking on your ads are just beginning the prospect journey. The moment when potential leads arrive at your landing page is the moment measurable engagement begins. To further engage prospects, your website must be optimized to drive performance. In simple terms, get your house in order before committing to a PPC campaign….not after! 

 

Frequency drives Engagement 

Advertising frequency is determined by several factors with score being the most relevant. A PPC score can be broken out by landing page visits, Keywords and Ad relevancy.

 

Matching

By applying matching options to keywords, you’ll be able to control what specific searches act as triggers for your ad to be served. There are a variety of Match identifiers including Broad match, Negative match, Phrase match and the highly coveted Exact match. 

By using keyword matching options we have the ability to match ads with the terms people are searching. Additionally we can choose how closely we want to match the user’s search query in order for the ad to be considered in the auction. Matching types are also helpful when it comes to optimizing performance and increasing CTR.

 

PPC Requires Creativity 

It’s easy to think that Google Ads or Bing will do the heavy lifting for your marketing campaign, and while there’s a kernel of truth to that assumption it’s critical to understand that not all keywords are created equally. Selecting precisely the right keywords takes an immersive approach and patience. 

 

PPC for Senior Living Marketers: Best Practices 

If your audience is primarily composed of seniors and ACEP (Adult Children of Elderly Parents), you should know that there is a host of real-world, practical tactics that can be tailored for your 65+ audience and their children. The predominant wisdom used to be that seniors were technology adverse and that digital ad dollars were wasted on campaigns that specifically targeted them. This mindset should be discarded. In fact, nearly 25% of audiences in the 70-75+ range are using mobile devices including tablets. Nearly half of this demographic is active on social media, either posting or just consuming content. 

 

In closing, following are four proven tactics that can be utilized to engage 60+ prospects in your digital advertising and marketing initiatives. 

1. Marketing to Seniors Is A Family Affair: the most influential and informed resources in the extended family unit are typically the adult children of the Senior Living prospect. Enhancing a PPC campaign to include the family as a single, cohesive unit is a far more expeditious approach than focusing exclusively on the 60+ prospect. Mobile phone usage metrics validate this assumption. In fact, 96% of adults aged 55-64 use a mobile phone and approximately 60% have created one or more social media accounts. That number dips slightly when it comes to adults aged 65-74. 92% of them use a mobile phone, but only 34% have created one or more social media accounts. Most importantly, 81% of adults aged 75+ own a mobile phone, while 1 out of 5 have created social media accounts. As marketers, it’s imperative that we harness mobile/SMS and social media marketing to reach this ever growing demographic.
2. Seniors are open to exploration, but display significantly more brand loyalty than their adult children. The interest in on-line exploration decreases with age. In the digital space, this means that content must be educational, informative and specific to the exact needs of the intended audience. Now that Covid-19 vaccinations are easily accessible to the older population, geo-marketing is more relevant than ever before. What we are seeing is an aging cohort that embraces mobile phone use, is highly active, and for the most part is open to consuming digital content. Location-based campaigns are an indispensable component of the modern-day Senior Living marketing strategy. Given these factors, an increased emphasis on cost-free advice, tools and tips are the most contextually relevant approach we can take.
3. Nothing beats experience. Senior Living marketers must focus on authentic customer experiences to drive loyalty and retention. Seniors tend to place a high value on tailored content. They are well used to being marketed to in every conceivable medium and typically have decades of exposure to a daily onslaught of sales pitches, hype and fear tactics. Customer service is ageless as is an empathetic approach to the very real challenges aging seniors face in our increasingly automated society.
4. Invest in Education. As stated previously, Senior Living search queries are not typically driven by simple curiosity. As marketers, it’s our obligation to ensure that our clients are guided through the digital marketing journey with realistic expectations. There are no silver bullets when it comes to reaching our target audience. Helping older adults and their families process complex information in order to make confident decisions is an ethical obligation. Highly accessible and simple to navigate tools like Roobrik are proving invaluable when it comes to generating quality leads, providing communities with data-driven assessments and ultimately, driving move-in rates whenever possible.