Here are two searches a family might type on the way to choosing a community for a parent. "When is it time for assisted living" gets about 140 searches a month across the whole United States, according to Google's Keyword Planner. "Assisted living near me" gets about 165,000.
That is roughly 1,180 searches at the moment of choosing for every one at the moment of wondering. Most marketing advice starts at the top of the funnel, where people are curious. In senior living, the top of the funnel is a trickle and the bottom is a flood. That changes where a Google Ads budget should go first.
Most Families Settle on Senior Care Within Two Months of Starting to Look
The decision rarely takes a year. A Place for Mom surveyed 1,104 family caregivers in February 2025 and found that "more than two-thirds of those who secure senior care search for 60 days or less." That survey covers senior care broadly, home care included, and it comes from a company that sells referrals, so read it as a direction rather than a law. The direction is still clear.
The triggers are concrete. In the same survey, the most common reasons to start looking were a parent who could no longer handle daily tasks like bathing and dressing (55%), mobility problems (44%) and memory loss (38%). Families also wait too long. In an earlier A Place for Mom survey, 85% said they delayed their search because the parent didn't want to move or because someone in the family pictured substandard care.
Put those together and you get a short, late, urgent search. By the time a family types anything into Google, a lot of the deciding has already happened at the kitchen table. The ads that matter most are the ones waiting at the end of that search.
Every Family Moves Through the Same Five Stages, and Each One Has Its Own Searches
Our method sorts searchers by how much they already know. Here are the five stages with real searches from Keyword Planner (United States, monthly):
- Unaware: no search yet. A missed pill, a fall in the bathroom, a stove left on. The family hasn't named the problem.
- Problem aware: they know something's wrong. "caring for elderly parent" (1,600).
- Solution aware: they've heard of the options. "what is assisted living" (5,400), "assisted living vs nursing home" (5,400), "independent living vs assisted living" (1,000).
- Service aware: they're weighing assisted living itself. "does medicare pay for assisted living" (5,400), "how much does assisted living cost" (2,400), "best assisted living near me" (1,900).
- Most aware: they're picking a place. "assisted living near me" (165,000), "senior living near me" (74,000), "memory care near me" (18,100), and community and chain names. One national chain's name alone draws 74,000.
Notice what the biggest most-aware searches have in common: none of them names a feature. Families don't search for "chef-prepared meals" or "salt-water pool." They search for a level of care and a place, and then for a name they've heard. Your amenity list matters on the tour. It rarely matters in the search box.
Each stage has its own marketing job. Early on, you create awareness. In the middle, you drive interest and influence a decision. At the end, you compel action, which in senior living means booking the tour Chapter 1 taught you to count.
Senior Living's Funnel Stands on Its Head: 165,000 Near-Me Searches, 140 Asking When
In most of the industries we've written guides for, the research questions outnumber the buying searches. Senior living runs the other way. The widest point of the funnel is the last step, where a family types "near me" and starts calling.
That is good news for a new account. Our method has always opened with the searches closest to a decision and climbed from there, because those convert first and teach Google fastest. In senior living, the bottom is also where the volume is. You don't have to choose between high intent and enough traffic.
So month one looks like this. Month one opens with a campaign we call Isolation. It holds a short list of exact-match searches, "assisted living near me" and "memory care near me" among them, and a person, not Google, decides each bid. Next to it, a second campaign bids on your community's name. Those clicks cost little, keep a competitor from answering a search meant for you, and come from families who already have you on their list. The broad-match stage we call Exploration, where Google takes over the bidding, comes later, after the account logs roughly 30 genuine tours and move-ins in a month.
Where "near me" points is its own question. A daughter searching from her office may want a community near her, near her mother, or halfway between. Your location settings decide whether your ad shows for that family at all. Chapter 9 sorts that out.
The prices are real. In our example market, Houston, the top-of-page range for "assisted living near me" runs from $3.38 to $15.26 a click, and "memory care near me" from $8.57 to $40.13. National ranges are similar. Your market's numbers will differ; the method doesn't.
Google Answers the Research Questions Before Anyone Clicks
The middle of the funnel is where families ask what things cost, what the difference is and who pays. Google has already moved in there.
We pulled five of those research searches in the example market. All five showed an AI Overview at the top of the page. The organic results under it belonged to referral sites, trade guides and, on two of the five, a Reddit thread. And every "People also ask" box raised the same worry: Medicare. "How much will Medicare pay for assisted living?" "Does Medicare cover memory care in Texas?" "Will Medicare pay for assisted living in Texas?"
Those clicks are cheap. Keyword Planner's top-of-page ranges for these research searches start around $0.30 and top out near $12 nationally. But a family asking whether Medicare pays is a long way from booking a tour, and Google's AI Overview may answer them before they ever click an ad.
That doesn't make the questions unimportant. It makes them a website job before an ad job. A plain answer on your own pricing page ("Medicare doesn't pay for assisted living. Here is what families use instead") helps the family and helps the page Google grades when you advertise later. Chapter 4 covers that grade.
Google's Campaign Types Line Up With the Stages
Google offers a campaign type for almost every stage:
- Search covers service aware and most aware: the cost questions and every "near me."
- Maps and location assets put your address, rating and directions next to "near me" searches (Chapter 12).
- Performance Max mixes search, maps, video and display under one budget. It comes months later, once the account has clean tour data (Chapter 10).
- Demand Gen, which runs on YouTube, the Discover feed in the Google app, and Gmail, reaches problem-aware and solution-aware families before they search (Chapter 11).
Two limits apply at the top of the funnel. Advertisers in Google's sensitive interest categories, which include health, can serve image and video ads in Demand Gen on YouTube and the Discover feed when they use Google's own predefined audiences. Memory care content is likely to land in that category. And Google's housing rules, which name retirement communities, rule out targeting by age (Chapter 9).
Unless your budget can pay for every stage at the same time, stay at the ready-to-visit end. Few single communities can pay for all five.
Summer Is Senior Living's Busiest Search Season. Thanksgiving Week Is the Quietest.
A popular idea in senior living marketing says families see their parents over the holidays, get worried, and flood the internet in January. Google's own search data doesn't show a flood.
We pulled five years of Google Trends data for "assisted living," "memory care," "independent living" and "senior living" in the US, and removed the long-term trend so the seasons show clearly. The peak is summer. July runs 9.2% above trend for "assisted living," and August runs 5.7% above for "memory care." January is only a small rebound from the holiday lull: 2.9% above trend for "assisted living" and 2.3% below for "memory care."
The quietest week of the year is Thanksgiving week. Across four Thanksgivings, searches for "assisted living" and "memory care" averaged about 17% below trend, and every year was below. The family may be worried at the dinner table. They're not searching from it.
For your budget, that means pacing to the search curve rather than the folklore. Have your bids and budgets ready before July, and don't expect a January rush to rescue a quiet fourth quarter. One caution: every term jumped to a higher level starting in July 2025, and we couldn't find out why. Plan on the seasons, not on that jump continuing.
The Person Searching Is Often the Parent, Not the Adult Child
The usual picture of a senior living search is a worried daughter on her lunch break. She's real. So is her mother.
Aline, a senior living CRM company, says in its 2026 benchmark report that older adults now make up a majority of the people beginning the search. It doesn't publish the exact share on its public page. On the other side, A Place for Mom and Caring.com told a state legislature in 2024 that the burden of finding care "typically falls on the senior's adult children." Both can be true. The parent may start the search, and the adult child may drive the tours and sign the papers.
That matters for your ads and pages. Copy written only to "your loved one" talks past the 80-year-old reading it on her own tablet. Copy written only to the resident leaves out the son comparing three communities from another city. Speak to both. You couldn't aim ads by age anyway: Google treats retirement communities as housing and blocks age targeting for housing ads, which Chapter 9 covers.
Next: What One Resident Is Worth
You now know where to spend first: the "near me" searches at the wide bottom of an upside-down funnel, plus your own name. Chapter 3 puts a dollar figure on those clicks by working backward from what a resident pays over a stay.
All fifteen chapters, from tracking tours to Fair Housing ad rules, are on the guide's home page. If you'd rather have us build this account for your community, see our Google Ads management.
