Industry Guide · 4 of 15 chapters published
Google Ads for Senior Living, Sold on the Tour, Not the Brochure.
A family picks a senior living community on the tour, often after comparing a list from a referral site that called them within minutes. Google's housing ad rules name retirement communities, its health rules cover memory care content, and both change what an account can do. These fifteen chapters build a Google Ads account in the order that works, using real searches, websites and family reviews from one example market, Houston. The method works for communities anywhere in the US.
Fifteen Chapters, From the First Tour to a Full Community
Building from scratch? Begin with Chapter 1. Each chapter leans on the ones before it.
Measure
Count tours and move-ins, and know what a resident is worth
Senior Living Tours Get Booked in Chat Windows Google Never Sees. Count the Tour, Then the Move-In.
"Assisted Living Near Me" Outsearches "When Is It Time" a Thousand to One. Spend There First.
One Assisted Living Move-In Is Worth About $136,000 Over the Stay. Price Every Click From That Number.
Build
Win the searches families make, then the ones nobody can predict
Senior Living Ads Promise Move-In Specials Their Websites Never Mention. Google Grades That Gap.
Community Names as Negatives
Predictable Searches, Then Broad Match
Bidding Memory Care on Its Own
Headlines That Sell the Tour
Launch
Settings that follow Google's housing rules from day one
Housing Rules in Your Settings
Scale
More reach once the account knows what a move-in looks like
Performance Max by Care Level
Demand Gen for Families Still Comparing
Reviews and the Map
AI Max and Licensed Words
Senior Living
Referral sites, and what Fair Housing lets an ad say
Referral Sites vs Your Own Leads
Fair Housing in Ad Copy
The Rollout, Month by Month
The order matters as much as the campaigns. Each step waits until the one before it has taught Google something.
Isolation and brand
Exact match on the searches most likely to book a tour, plus your community's name.
Exploration
Broad match with a target CPA, once tours and move-ins reach about 30 a month.
Performance Max
Only after months of clean data, with memory care pages handled under Google's health rules.
Demand Gen and AI Max
Video and images for families still comparing communities, and Google's newest automation kept away from licensed words.
How to Use This Guide
Brand-new account?
Read in order. Tracking and the move-in math come before the first keyword.
Chapter 01 →Ads already running?
Check tracking and settings first. Tours booked in a chat window Google never sees, and age targeting Google's housing rules forbid, are two leaks to look for.
Chapter 09 →One example market
Examples come from Houston-area communities, described as we found them. Run the same steps in your own market.
Chapter 05 →Running more than one specialty under one roof? Google Ads for Healthcare shows how to run them as one account without one service line starving the rest.
Rather Have Us Build It
For Your Community?
This is the order we build senior living accounts in. See our Google Ads management.
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