Measuring the effectiveness of your marketing strategies is the key to overall success. The right analytics can guide your decision-making and allow your community to maximize its marketing investment. For example, tracking analytics can alert your team to an underperforming marketing campaign or identify more successful strategies. With this information, your team members can immediately make any necessary adjustments or redistribute funds to more successful campaigns.

Utilizing these analytics is especially important for senior living communities. It can ensure you’re reaching the right audience, generating high-quality leads, and converting leads into sales. Fortunately, today’s technology allows communities to track and analyze vast amounts of data. Here's how to gain insights from specific analytics to optimize your community's marketing budget.

Website Analytics

Your website not only needs to be SEO optimized to ensure it shows up on various search engines, but it should also be engaging, informative, and user-friendly. Vital website metrics you should track include:

• Website traffic: Tracking website traffic helps you determine what pages grab your audience's attention. For example, high traffic on specific pages, such as Assisted Living or Memory Care, can indicate the senior care options your prospects are most interested in.
  
  
• Bounce rate/average time-on-page: Bounce rate reveals the effectiveness of your website by showing how many visitors leave after viewing just one page. For instance, a high bounce rate on your homepage could be due to an issue with your website design, content, or targeting. On the other hand, it could mean the page clearly answers all the prospects' questions. It’s recommended to pair bounce rate analytics with average time-on-page calculations to better understand how users engage with your website.
  
  
• Conversion rate: Tracking how many people book an appointment, schedule a tour, or request more information allows you to calculate your conversion rate. A 3% conversion rate may indicate an effective marketing strategy, but if your goal is to boost that rate, you may need to enhance optimization.
  
  

Lead Generation & Conversion Analytics

Lead generation is another critical metric to analyze for senior living communities. Doing so can help you determine where to spend your marketing budget and what improvements you may need to make. Here are the top three lead generation metrics to track:

• Lead source: Knowing where your leads are coming from can help you better allocate your marketing funds. For instance, if your Facebook Ads generate most of your tours, you may want to increase your budget for these campaigns.
  
  
• Cost per lead: While quality leads are important, you also want to know how much it costs to obtain them. This can help you determine your ROI and whether these efforts make sense. For instance, Google Ads may generate high-quality leads but at a higher cost than organic social media efforts.
  
  
• Lead-to-tour conversion: The most important aspect of leads is the ability to convert them into prospects. If only 10% of your leads convert into tours, you may want to look closely at your follow-up process or offer stronger incentives.
  
  

Social Media Engagement Metrics

Your community's social media profiles give you an opportunity to engage with prospects, highlight your services and amenities, and provide a glimpse into what it’s like to live in your community. Social media engagement metrics to track include:

• Engagement rate: Understanding how your audience interacts with your content is key to determining its success. For example, if your community’s Resident of the Month post receives 50% more engagement than other posts, consider making it a regular feature.
  
  
• Impressions/reach: Counting the number of times your content was displayed (impressions), and the number of unique views (reach), can indicate how well your posts are received. For instance, if a Facebook post about an upcoming open house achieves a high reach, you might want to invest in a paid campaign to further boost awareness.
  
  
• Click-through rates: If people are viewing your content but not taking the next step, you may need to consider revamping your call-to-action or refining your target audience.
  
  

Email Marketing Analytics

Email campaigns can be effective marketing tools for your Independent Living community by letting you connect directly with prospects and encourage them to take the next step. To make the most of these campaigns, it’s crucial to track these key email marketing analytics and make adjustments as needed:

• Open rates: If your open rates are low, consider creating more engaging subject lines or updating your email list to reach the right audience.
  
  
• Click-through rates: After opening, are your leads clicking through for more content? If not, it could indicate a problem. For instance, if the CTR on your "Download Our Senior Living Guide" is low, you may need to adjust your email content or make the offer more enticing.
  
  
• Conversion rates: Once readers click through for more content, are they taking the next step, such as booking an appointment? Defining this metric can help you determine what offers are most effective. For example, a high conversion rate on emails offering a limited-time promotion may indicate these special deals are motivating prospects.
  
  

Paid Advertising Analytics

Paid advertising can be a great way to reach your target audience. Tracking the following analytics can help you measure the success of your campaigns:

• Impressions/reach: Compare the number of impressions to the reach of the ad and conversion rates. For instance, if your ad impressions are high but conversions are low, you may need to adjust the ad copy, landing page, or targeting.
  
  
• Click-through rate: Knowing how many viewers interact with your ads is crucial. For example, a 2.5% CTR for a “Free Assisted Living Consultation” ad on Facebook is good, but optimizing with a better message could make it more effective.
  
  
• Ad spend: Calculating your return on ad spend can help you determine whether you’re targeting the right keywords or need to refine your target audience.
  
  

Referral and Review Metrics

Senior Living communities depend heavily on referrals and online reviews. To maintain your community's reputation, track these metrics:

• Referrals: Knowing the sources of your referrals allows you to strengthen these relationships. For instance, it may be worth partnering with local hospitals that generate referrals.
  
  
• Online reviews: Reviews reflect your community’s online reputation. For example, a consistent 4.8-star rating on Google may suggest your community is well-regarded.
  
  
• Net promoter score: A high score above 85 shows that residents love your community. Use this to your advantage to build positive marketing content, such as resident testimonials and case studies.
  
  

Refine Your Marketing Strategies With Powerful Analytics

Analyzing the right metrics allows your community to make informed marketing decisions and improve overall outcomes. Analyzing your data can be complex and time-consuming — our team at FIVENineteen can simplify the process and provide a greater ROI.

Contact FIVENineteen today to learn more about our marketing analytics support.