Google Ads Performance Analysis — Adavacare (2026-02-04)
Reviewed during [1]. Analysis covers account performance trends since November 2025, root causes of CPC increase, and strategic direction.
Overview
Adavacare's Google Ads account is experiencing a significant squeeze: impressions and clicks have collapsed while cost-per-click has more than doubled. The silver lining is that traffic quality has improved markedly — conversion rates have climbed from ~2% to 5–7% — but total conversions remain flat and the cost-per-conversion has not improved proportionally.
Key Metrics (January 2026 vs. Prior Period)
| Metric | Prior (early 2025) | January 2026 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Impressions | ~24,000 | ~6,000 | ▼ 75% |
| Clicks | ~1,100 | ~400 | ▼ ~64% |
| CPC | ~$2.63 | ~$6.00 | ▲ 128% |
| Conversion Rate | ~2% | 5–7% | ▲ Strong |
| Conversions | ~23–24/mo | ~23–24/mo | → Flat |
| Cost per Conversion | Flat | Flat | → |
Root Cause Analysis
1. Rising Industry Competition
The most significant driver of CPC increase is market-wide. Locale IQ's Healthcare Search Advertising Benchmarks Report documents a 32% YoY CPC increase for Assisted Living, Elder, and Home Care Services. Adavacare's CPC increase (from ~$2.63 to ~$6.00) tracks above that benchmark, suggesting the Milwaukee market may be especially competitive.
Auction Insights confirmed a crowded landscape:
- Adavacare impression share: 21%
- Top-of-page rate: 66%
- Absolute top-of-page rate: 23%
- Key competitors in auction: A Place for Mom (aggregator), Caring.com, SeniorLivingNearMe.com (aggregators), plus at least one direct local competitor worth investigating further
Aggregators are difficult to outbid directly; focus should remain on direct competitors.
2. Budget Tightening / Campaign Pauses
Two poor-performing campaigns (by location) were paused prior to this review. This accounts for the sharp drop in impressions seen in November. The pauses were intentional and correct — they eliminated low-quality traffic — but they reduced total volume.
The November impression cliff (from ~14K to ~6K) is largely explained by these pauses, not organic account degradation.
Strategic Assessment
Pausing the underperforming campaigns was the right call. The surviving campaigns are running at 5–7% conversion rates versus the ~2% baseline, meaning the remaining traffic is substantially higher quality.
The core strategic question is now: can we scale the high-converting campaigns profitably?
Given that:
- Adavacare has ~10 facilities with ~3 open beds each (~30 beds to fill)
- Average resident revenue is ~$5,000/month with a ~22-month average stay
- Each filled bed is worth ~$110,000 in lifetime revenue
There is significant headroom to increase spend on the well-performing campaigns before hitting diminishing returns on cost-per-conversion.
Action Items
- [ ] Gilbert — Investigate Adavacare CPC increase via Auction Insights and competitor research (SpyFu, direct competitor website review); send findings to Sebastian
- [ ] Mark — Send Adavacare MCP/SpyFu competitive findings to Sebastian (account manager); ask him to discuss strategy with Gilbert
Open Questions
- Which specific local competitor(s) in Auction Insights are worth deeper investigation?
- Can budget be reallocated from paused campaigns into the surviving high-converting campaigns to recover volume?
- Is Milwaukee CPC tracking above the 32% industry benchmark due to a specific new entrant?
Related
- [2]
- [3]
- [4]