Tuesday, 9:20 p.m. A daughter in Katy gets home from a 12-hour shift. Her mother fell again last week, this time in the garage of the house in Spring she won’t leave. The daughter types “memory care near The Woodlands” into her phone, taps the first big directory result, and fills out a form with her name and number.
By 9:30 four communities have called her. By Thursday she’s toured two. Your community’s sales director calls Wednesday at 10 a.m., gets voicemail, and logs the lead as “attempted.”
That’s senior living marketing in Houston in one week. The family is in a hurry and emotionally wrung out. The person deciding is often not the person moving in. The first community to have a real conversation usually gets the tour, and the tour is where move-ins come from.
This guide is for assisted living, memory care and independent living operators in Greater Houston, from single 40-bed Type B buildings in Tomball to larger campuses in The Woodlands, Sugar Land and Kingwood. It covers who you’re really selling to, what referral agencies cost you, what Texas licensing means for your marketing, the ad platform rules, and how to measure cost per move-in instead of cost per lead.
Who’s actually buying: the adult child, then the parent
Most of the people searching for assisted living aren’t the future resident. They’re daughters and sons in their 40s, 50s and 60s, often juggling jobs and kids, sometimes living in Dallas or Denver while mom lives in Conroe. Spouses are the second big group. The prospective resident usually comes in later, and sometimes reluctantly.
That changes nearly everything about the marketing:
- The search happens at night and on phones. In accounts we’ve run for appointment-based businesses, evening and weekend form fills are a large share of the total. Senior living inquiries skew the same way, which is exactly when most sales offices are closed.
- Two audiences, two messages. The adult child wants safety, staffing, cost and proof. The parent wants to know they’ll keep their dignity, their routines, maybe their dog. Your site and your tour need both.
- The trigger is usually a crisis. A fall, a hospital discharge, a diagnosis, a caregiver burning out. Families that call after a hospital stay may need a decision within days. Families researching “before it gets bad” may take a year.
- Siblings vote. The daughter who toured has to sell it to her brother in Austin. Give her something to forward: a pricing sheet, a care-level explainer, a short video of the actual apartment.
So you’re running two sales cycles at once. One is a fast crisis placement where speed and availability win. The other is a slow considered purchase where nurture wins. Most marketing plans only build for one of them.
Houston occupancy and the math of a move-in
Houston has more open apartments than most big senior housing markets right now. NIC MAP’s third-quarter 2026 numbers put average occupancy across the 31 primary markets at 90.4%, with assisted living at 89.1% and independent living at 91.7%. Houston averaged 87.3%, one of the three lowest of those markets, ahead of only Atlanta and Miami, per Senior Housing News’ write-up of NIC MAP’s third-quarter 2026 data.
For your marketing budget, that gap is the whole story. Here’s the math we walk operators through. These are illustrative numbers, so swap in your own:
| Input | Illustrative value | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Units | 100 | Each occupancy point is one apartment |
| Average monthly rate (rent plus care) | $6,200 | CareScout’s 2025 national assisted living median |
| Average length of stay | 20 months | Use your own move-out data |
| Lifetime revenue per move-in | $124,000 | Rate times length of stay |
| Going from 87% to 92% occupancy | 5 more residents | About $31,000 more revenue a month |
The $6,200 figure is the national median monthly cost for assisted living in 2025, up 5% from 2024, according to CareScout’s 2025 Cost of Care Survey. Houston rates vary widely by building age, location and care level, so use your own rent roll.
With lifetime value in six figures, a cost per move-in of several thousand dollars can still be a great deal. The trouble is that most operators can’t tell you their cost per move-in by channel. They know cost per lead, which tells you very little. Everything below is built to fix that.
Referral agencies: A Place for Mom and the others, and what they cost you
Referral and placement agencies are the reason that daughter in Katy got four calls in ten minutes. National directories and local placement agents capture a large share of the families searching online, then pass those families to partner communities. The community pays when the resident moves in.
The fee is large. When Sen. Bob Casey opened a Senate Aging Committee inquiry into A Place for Mom in June 2024, his letter quoted the company’s own website saying that on move-in, “the community only pays for first month’s rent and care,” and argued that communities pass those costs on to families, per Senior Housing News. Contracts vary by agency, so read yours line by line.
Texas now regulates these agencies. SB 1383, enacted in June 2025, added Chapter 121 to the Business and Commerce Code. Among other things, an agency has to give the family a written disclosure at the time of referral covering its services, who pays the fee, that the family can stop using the agency at any time, and that its list may not include every community that fits. Agencies can’t require a community to contract with them, can’t collect after the referral period in the contract expires, and that period can’t exceed three years after the referral. They also have to notify you in writing of each referral, with the date and time, on or before admission.
What we’d do with that as an operator:
- Log every lead’s first touch with a timestamp. If a family found you directly on Google in March and an agency refers them in May, you want proof of who came first. Most agency contracts have a process for this, and it only works if your CRM is clean.
- Check referral periods. A referral from 2024 shouldn’t produce a fee on a 2027 move-in. The Texas cap is three years, and your contract may be shorter.
- Treat agencies as a channel with a price. If an agency move-in costs a month of rent and care and your own Google Ads move-in costs a fraction of that, shift budget. If you’re at 78% occupancy with no direct pipeline, keep the agencies while you build one.
The goal is rarely to cut agencies off. It’s to stop needing them for most of your move-ins.
Texas licensing, memory care claims and the inspection data families read
Texas licenses assisted living facilities through Health and Human Services, and the license type should shape what you promise in your ads. Per Texas HHS’s assisted living page, a Type A facility cares for residents who don’t need routine attendance during sleeping hours and can follow directions in an emergency. A Type B facility serves residents who may not be able to follow directions in an emergency, need help to evacuate, and need nighttime attendance.
Memory care has its own rule. Under Texas Health and Safety Code § 247.029, the state sets up a separate classification and license for a facility that “advertises, markets, or otherwise promotes” that it provides personal care to residents with Alzheimer’s disease or related disorders. Read that as a marketing rule: if your Google ads, Facebook posts or website say “memory care” or “Alzheimer’s care,” make sure your certification covers it. Your administrator and attorney should sign off on the wording before your agency writes a single ad.
Families also do their homework now. The Texas HHS Long-term Care Provider Search shows inspection information for assisted living facilities, and KPRC 2 walked Houston families through using it, along with open records requests and the long-term care ombudsman, in KPRC 2’s guide for families. Texas HHS also posts a statewide assisted living violations data file on its assisted living page.
So assume the adult child has looked you up. Our advice is to address it on the tour instead of hoping it doesn’t come up. If you had a citation, say what changed. Families forgive a fixed problem far more readily than a dodge.
The website: pricing, care levels and a tour button on every page
Most senior living websites we review have beautiful photos of a dining room and a “contact us for pricing” button. The adult child at 9:20 p.m. wants something else: what does it cost, what’s included, do you have an opening, and can I see it Saturday.
| Page | What the family is asking | What it should show |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing and what’s included | “Can we afford this?” | Starting rates by apartment type, how care levels are assessed and priced, community fee, what’s extra (incontinence care, medication management, second person) |
| Assisted living | “What help will Mom get?” | Daily care, staffing pattern by shift, nurse coverage, medication management, license type |
| Memory care | “Is it safe for Dad?” | Secured environment, staff training, programming, Alzheimer’s certification, how residents move between levels |
| Floor plans | “Will her furniture fit?” | Dimensions, photos of a real apartment, current availability by plan |
| Respite stays | “Can we try it first?” | Minimum stay, daily rate, what the family needs to bring |
| Area page | “Assisted living near Spring” | Drive times from Spring, Kingwood, Tomball or Conroe, nearby hospitals, the church or senior center you partner with |
Publishing starting prices scares a lot of operators. But the families you lose by showing $5,800 a month were never going to move in at $5,800. And the families who stay on the page now trust you a little more than the community hiding its number. Our web design and SEO team builds these pages, and the home care SEO guide covers ranking for the same family searches from the in-home side.
Every page needs a “schedule a tour” button that actually books a time. A calendar beats a form that says “we’ll be in touch.”
Google Ads for “assisted living near me” and “memory care [town]”
Search is where crisis families show up. The terms are specific and the intent is high: “assisted living The Woodlands,” “memory care Sugar Land,” “respite care for elderly Houston,” “independent living Kingwood,” and the near-me versions of all of them.
How we’d set up a single community:
- Separate ad groups by care level (assisted living, memory care, independent living, respite), each landing on its own page.
- Town and neighborhood keywords for a realistic radius. Families usually want mom within 20 to 30 minutes of whoever visits most.
- Location setting. This is the rare business where Google’s “presence or interest” option can make sense, because the daughter in Dallas searching for “assisted living Conroe TX” is a real buyer. Watch the search terms closely if you turn it on.
- A brand campaign, so directories don’t sit above your own name.
- Call assets scheduled only for hours when a sales counselor or trained receptionist answers. After hours, send people to the tour calendar.
Negatives to add on day one: jobs, hiring, careers, CNA, caregiver jobs, salary, “certification class,” nursing school, “free,” Medicaid and “low income” (only if you don’t accept Medicaid waiver residents), “nursing home abuse,” lawsuit, attorney, and “how to start an assisted living.”
On policy: Google’s housing policy FAQ defines housing as homes, apartments and other housing for sale or rent and doesn’t mention senior living by name. If Google flags your campaigns as housing, you’ll lose ZIP code targeting and demographic targeting, which hurts less than you’d think, because a keyword like “memory care Tomball” already says who’s searching. Our Houston CPC benchmarks give a sense of click prices, and our search marketing team runs these campaigns.
Facebook and Instagram: the Housing special ad category
Meta requires ads for housing opportunities, including listings for the rental of a home or apartment, to run under the Housing special ad category. Assisted and independent living apartments are rentals with services attached, and that’s how most senior living marketers read it. We’d declare Housing on any ad promoting your apartments, availability or move-in specials, and ask Meta if you’re unsure about a particular ad.
Under Housing, per Jon Loomer’s guide to Meta’s special ad categories, age is locked to 18 to 65+, gender to all, location targeting has to include at least a 15-mile radius, ZIP code targeting is off, many detailed targeting options disappear and none can be excluded, and lookalike audiences aren’t available.
For senior living, losing age targeting is less painful than it sounds. You weren’t going to target 80-year-olds anyway; you want their 55-year-old kids, and the creative finds them. Ads that work in our experience:
- A two-minute walkthrough of a real one-bedroom apartment, shot on a phone, with the starting price on screen.
- A short video of your memory care director answering “what does a normal day look like?”
- Event invitations for a caregiver support group, a Medicare and long-term care Q&A, or a lunch-and-tour. Events give the slow-cycle family a low-pressure reason to walk in.
- Retargeting site visitors with a pricing guide download.
If you use instant forms, ask a qualifying question or two (who is the care for, and how soon). Our post on fixing bad Facebook lead quality covers the settings. See our paid social service if you’d rather hand it off.
HIPAA, privacy and the details families share on your forms
Whether HIPAA applies to your community depends on what you do and how you bill. Under HHS’s definition of a covered entity, a health care provider is a covered entity only if it transmits health information electronically in connection with a transaction HHS has adopted a standard for, such as billing a health plan. Plenty of private-pay assisted living communities aren’t covered entities. Some are, especially those with licensed home health or that bill insurers. Ask your compliance lead which side you’re on.
Either way, families tell you sensitive things on inquiry forms: “Dad has Lewy body dementia and wanders at night.” Handle it as if HIPAA applies:
- Don’t pass form contents to ad platforms. Send a “lead” or “tour booked” event with no medical detail.
- Keep diagnosis questions out of Facebook instant forms. Ask them on the phone.
- Reply to online reviews without confirming that the reviewer’s parent lived with you or describing their care.
- Get written permission before a resident appears in any photo or video, and keep it on file.
The tour is the conversion: speed, the visit and the long nurture
Every number worth tracking in senior living sits around the tour. Leads that tour move in at a far higher rate than leads that don’t, so the marketing job is to get the right families through the door fast, then stay with them until they’re ready.
Speed first. The daughter in Katy toured with whoever called her first. Answer web leads within minutes during business hours, and have a plan for nights and weekends: an answering service trained on your community, or a text that offers tour times. Our speed-to-lead guide goes deeper on the follow-up systems.
Then the long tail. A family that tours and says “not yet” is your cheapest future move-in, and most communities drop them after two phone calls. A nurture plan that works:
Keep notes on what mattered to each family (the dog, the garden, the Catholic Mass schedule) and use them. A follow-up that says “we just started a gardening club, and I thought of your mom” beats a monthly newsletter every time. Our email marketing basics post covers the plumbing.
Reviews, Google Business Profile and the families who already chose you
Your Google Business Profile is often the first thing the adult child sees after the ads. Use the most specific category that applies (assisted living facility, retirement community, or senior citizen center if that’s really what you are), list accurate tour hours, and post photos of real apartments, the dining room at lunch, and staff people will meet.
Reviews come mostly from family members. Ask after a good care conference, after a move-in settles, or at a family event, and send the same link to everyone. Google doesn’t allow review gating or incentives, and our guide to Google reviews has request templates you can adapt.
Your current families are also your cheapest referral source, since a family referral costs close to nothing per move-in. Make it easy: a mention at family nights and a thank-you note when it happens.
A first 90 days for a Houston senior living community
If we were starting fresh with a community at 85% occupancy, here’s the order we’d work in.
Days 1 to 30. Audit lead handling: who answers, how fast, what happens at night. Put every lead source into one CRM with first-touch dates. Publish pricing and care-level pages. Fix the Google Business Profile. Pull your referral agency contracts and list each one’s fee and referral period.
Days 31 to 60. Launch Google search campaigns by care level and town, with tour booking as the conversion. Start Meta under Housing with apartment walkthrough videos and an event. Build the nurture sequence for toured families.
Days 61 to 90. Start reporting cost per tour and cost per move-in by channel, agencies included. Shift budget toward the cheapest move-ins. Start a family referral program.
After that it’s a monthly rhythm: occupancy, tours, move-ins and cost per move-in, by source. If you want a senior strategist to build that plan around your building and your census, get in touch. Home care agencies chasing the same families may also find our post on how home care agencies get clients useful.
Frequently asked questions
How do assisted living communities get more residents?
Most move-ins come from families who toured, so the work is getting qualified families to a tour fast and staying in touch with the ones who aren’t ready. That means search ads for care level plus town, a website with real pricing and a tour calendar, quick lead response including nights and weekends, a written nurture plan, and a family referral program. Track cost per move-in by source.
How much do senior living referral agencies charge?
It varies by contract. A Place for Mom’s website, quoted in a 2024 Senate Aging Committee letter, said that on move-in the community pays the company the first month’s rent and care. Texas SB 1383, enacted in 2025, requires agencies to disclose who pays the fee and limits referral periods to three years after the referral. Read your contracts carefully.
Do senior living ads fall under Meta’s housing special ad category?
Ads that promote senior living apartments or availability are housing opportunities under Meta’s definition, and most senior living marketers run them under the Housing special ad category. That locks age to 18 to 65 plus, includes all genders, removes ZIP code targeting and lookalikes, and requires at least a 15-mile radius. Strong creative aimed at adult children works well despite the limits.
Can an assisted living facility in Texas advertise memory care?
Texas Health and Safety Code section 247.029 sets up a separate classification and license for facilities that advertise, market or promote personal care for residents with Alzheimer’s disease or related disorders. If your ads or website say memory care or Alzheimer’s care, confirm your Alzheimer’s certification covers it, and have your administrator and attorney review the wording before campaigns go live.
What is a good cost per move-in for senior living?
There’s no single benchmark, because it depends on your rates and length of stay. Multiply your average monthly rate by your average length of stay to get lifetime revenue per resident, which often lands in six figures. Compare each channel’s cost per move-in against that, and against what your referral agency contracts cost per placement, then move budget toward the cheapest move-ins.
Sean Melton is the founder of First Byte, a digital marketing agency in The Woodlands, TX. A former global CMO of a $250M software company, he has spent his career inside the businesses he markets. His team runs paid social, search, CTV and creative for brands like Equinox, Kroger and Viceroy, and shares what works here.