Is Your Lead Generation Actually Working — or Just Keeping You Busy?

In senior living, it’s easy to feel like things are working when leads are flowing in. The CRM is full. Your digital ads are getting clicks. Your contact forms are active.

But here's the real question: how many of those leads are turning into move-ins?

We work with senior living communities every day that are generating decent lead volume — but struggling to see that activity translate into occupancy growth. The problem usually isn’t awareness. It’s what happens next: messaging misalignment, sluggish follow-up, broken processes, and a lack of visibility into what’s working (and what’s not).

If you’re wondering whether your lead generation strategy is truly driving results — or just keeping your teams busy — here’s how to find out.

Volume ≠ Value

Let’s be clear: more leads is not the same thing as better leads.

The average senior living digital lead converts at just 31.84%, and even top referral platforms only average around 47.77%, according to a Q2 2024 Lead Source Analysis from Bild & Co. That means more than half of your leads are going nowhere — and that’s assuming they even receive follow-up.

Worse still, Invoca’s data shows that the average cost of a senior living lead is $431. That’s per lead — not per move-in. Which means if your funnel isn’t optimized from the first click to the deposit, you’re burning money fast.

The Metrics That Actually Matter

If you're only tracking lead volume or web traffic, you're missing the bigger picture. Here are the core metrics we help communities monitor and optimize:

Inquiry-to-Tour Conversion

This shows how many inquiries actually progress to scheduled tours. If your inquiry-to-tour rate is under 25%, that’s a red flag. It could point to:

• Poor lead qualification
• low response times
• Unclear or inconsistent messaging
• A lack of operational readiness

Tour-to-Move-In Conversion

This is your real sales engine. A strong tour-to-move-in rate falls between 30–40%, depending on care level. If you’re below that range, it's time to look at:

• How emotionally engaging your tours are
• Whether prospects are being guided toward next steps
• How follow-up is handled after the tour

Senior Living Smart notes that many sales teams miss the mark by treating tours as information sessions, rather than relationship-building opportunities.

Cost Per Move-In

This is the number that really matters. If you’re spending $10,000/month on marketing and getting five move-ins, your cost per move-in is $2,000. Not great.

While lead cost averages around $431, Invoca emphasizes that inefficiencies in the funnel often double or triple that spend when you calculate it per resident.

At Entyre, we help you calculate this across every lead source — and cut the fat where it's not converting.

Don’t Just Track Leads. Track Lead Quality.

Source performance is a key part of your marketing strategy. Different platforms attract different types of inquiries — and some will always perform better than others.

You should be asking:

• Which channels bring in the most qualified leads?
• What’s the conversion rate by source?
• How does the cost per move-in differ between digital vs. referral vs. organic?

The Q2 2024 Bild & Co study found that communities with high-performing move-in numbers often optimize underperforming sources rather than abandon them. That might mean better follow-up, sharper landing pages, or improved CRM workflows.

Operational Gaps: The Silent Lead Killers

No amount of leads can compensate for a broken process. We regularly identify three operational gaps that stall conversions:

1. Slow Follow-Up
   LeadGenie reports that contacting a lead within the first five minutes increases conversion likelihood by 400%. After 30 minutes, that number plummets.

If your team isn’t responding the same day — or worse, the next week — you’re losing people who are ready to say yes.

2. Messaging Misalignment
   If your marketing says “luxury memory care” and your staff on the phone says “I think we do that,” the trust gap grows immediately. Alignment matters — across digital, print, tours, and day-to-day team language.

3. Disconnected Sales-to-Ops Handoff
   The emotional journey doesn’t end with a signed lease. Families need to feel supported through assessment, move-in prep, and onboarding. If there’s a handoff breakdown here, even great marketing will leave a bad taste.

How Entyre Helps You Fix It

Entyre Solutions isn’t just a marketing agency. We’re a senior living growth partner.
Here’s how we help communities turn busy marketing into actual occupancy gains:

• Custom lead source audits to pinpoint what’s driving results
• Inquiry-to-move-in funnel mapping to find where leads stall
• Sales training & messaging refinement to align digital and on-site experience
• CRM optimization & automation to speed up and personalize follow-up
• KPI dashboards to track cost per move-in, conversion rates, and source performance in real time

We don’t just get you more leads. We make your entire marketing and sales ecosystem work smarter — and get measurable results.

Bottom Line: It’s Time to Measure What Matters

The senior living space is changing. Families are doing more research, asking smarter questions, and moving faster once they’re ready.

If your team is overwhelmed by lead volume but still falling short on occupancy, it’s time to step back and ask: is our strategy built for activity — or outcomes?

At Entyre, we help operators close the gap between strategy and execution. If you're ready to align your team, sharpen your funnel, and improve your cost per move-in, we’d love to talk.

Let’s make your marketing work — for your team, your census, and your bottom line.