Guide · Built on the RaisedCare research library
How to Get More Clients for Your Home Care Agency
A step-by-step home care marketing plan based on what families told us, what they write in their reviews and what they type into Google.
Many agencies lose families who have already reached out. Before you spend more to get more calls, fix the places where families give up: your website, your first phone call and your online reviews.
- 589families surveyed with USC's Leonard Davis School of Gerontology
- 13,247Google reviews of 600 home care agencies
- 1.1M+monthly home care searches reviewed
Start here
Who you're really marketing to
Home care is usually chosen by two people with different needs: the adult child who searches online, compares agencies and looks closely at your website, and the senior who prefers a phone call and a calm, patient conversation. In the RaisedCare and USC survey, 72% of respondents in the age-group comparison were Children Buyers, typically adult children managing the search, and 28% were Senior Recipients seeking care for themselves.
Both are making a hard decision. 77% of respondents in the survey's broader panel of 1,082 adults said choosing care was extremely or very difficult emotionally.
A home care marketing plan has three parts:
- Help families find you. Show up where families look, and get referrals from the people they trust.
- Turn calls into clients. Make your website, your phone calls and your pricing easy for families.
- Earn families' trust. Show proof you're reliable: good reviews, real caregivers and 24/7 phone coverage.
Part 1
Help families find you
Families look for help before they look for an agency
Most home care searches aren't for an agency at all. Families start with general questions about care, and only later search for a provider.
About 34,000 monthly searches are people looking for an agency, compared with 795,000 general care searches. If your website only speaks to families who are ready to hire, you're invisible during most of their research.
Families search the most in summer
July is the busiest month for home care searches, about 75% above December's low. January brings a real bump after the holidays (+21%), but it's far smaller than the summer peak. November is the second-busiest month, and February through May is the slowest stretch. These figures compare relative search interest from Google Trends (January 2025 to March 2026), not exact search counts.
What to do: plan your marketing and referral visits so they're in full swing by June.
Families trust doctors and friends the most
What to do: get to know local doctors' offices, and ask families you already serve to tell their friends.
People are searching for caregiver jobs, too
More than 114,000 monthly searches are about caregiver jobs and training. "Caregiver jobs" alone gets about 17,000 searches a month (16,907), and 93% of those searches lead to a click.
What to do: add a page to your website called "Caregiver Jobs in [Your City]." More caregivers means you can say yes to more clients.
Part 2
Turn calls into clients
Families judge your agency by your website
59.8% of families said a poor online presence influenced their decision to dismiss an agency. For 16.5%, it was enough on its own. Adult children judge hardest: 64.1% said a poor online presence influenced a dismissal, compared with 48.2% of seniors.
Put your caregivers on your website
Children of care recipients rated Meet the Team even higher, at 7.34. And in 13,247 Google reviews, 54.2% of positive reviews are about caregiver quality. Families hire people, so show them yours.
Call families back within 2 hours
About 1 in 5 families (19.3%) expect a meaningful, personalized reply within 2 hours of inquiring, and 57.7% expect one within 12 hours. Those expectations held in every region and age group. Poor communication is also the #1 complaint in negative Google reviews of home care agencies (28.2%).
What to do: make a rule that every call and web form gets a reply within 2 hours, and decide who covers nights and weekends.
Ask families how they want to hear from you
| Who | Phone call | Text | |
|---|---|---|---|
| All families | 51.2% | 16.5% | 16.7% |
| Children Buyers (adult children) | 45.5% | 18.7% | 19.0% |
| Senior Recipients | 65.7% | 10.9% | 10.2% |
The rest had no preference (15.7% of all families). What to do: call seniors. Offer adult children text and email too, and ask every family which they prefer.
Families want to know what care will cost
Cost shows up at every stage. Before families call, there are more than 48,000 monthly searches about cost and Medicare or Medicaid coverage. While they decide, about 60% of the survey's broader panel said cost delayed their decision, affected their timeline or led them to a less expensive option, and 23.1% of families found it difficult to get clear pricing. After they hire, billing is the only topic where complaints outnumber praise in Google reviews.
What to do: add a page explaining your rates, minimum hours, and what insurance does and doesn't cover.
Make the first call feel helpful, not pushy
40.5% of families felt moderate or high pressure during their first call with an agency. Among adult children, usually the ones making the decision, it was 44.2%. Only 19.3% said the agency's information felt very honest and trustworthy.
What to do: listen to a few of your own first calls. Ask questions first, and let families decide on their own timeline.
Part 3
Earn families' trust
Families compare agencies before they call
Year over year, searches for "affordable home care" grew 110%, "best home care" grew 100% and "24-hour home care" grew 80%. Families are vetting agencies before they pick up the phone.
Round-the-clock coverage is part of that vetting: 24-hour phone support is the technology families rate most important when choosing an agency (7.80 out of 10).
Reliability matters just as much once care starts. About 1 in 4 negative Google reviews (24.8%) are mainly about reliability: no-shows, late arrivals and schedule changes.
A franchise name doesn't win more trust
Families rated franchise and independent agencies about the same: 43.9% found franchise agencies very or somewhat trustworthy, compared with 45.6% for independent agencies. The brand name doesn't settle it, so put your effort into what families can see: your caregivers, your reviews and your reputation in the community.
Reply to your bad reviews
Across 600 agencies and 13,247 Google reviews, 75% of agencies reply to at least some reviews and 57.8% of all reviews get a reply. But only 28.4% of negative reviews (1–2 stars) get one, and those are the reviews families read most carefully.
What to do this week: reply to every bad review. Keep it short and kind, invite the family to call you, and never share client details.
Putting it together
Four things the research points to
| What to do | What families search for | What families told us | What reviews say |
|---|---|---|---|
| Show your caregivers | Not measured | Meet the Team pages help families decide most (6.87/10) | 54.2% of positive reviews are about caregivers |
| Reply quickly | Not measured | 57.7% expect a reply within 12 hours | Poor communication is the #1 complaint (28.2%) |
| Be clear about cost | 48,000+ cost searches a month | 23.1% had trouble getting clear prices | Billing gets more complaints than praise |
| Be reliable around the clock | "24-hour home care" searches up 80% | 24/7 phone support is the top-rated technology (7.80/10) | Reliability is the main theme of 24.8% of negative reviews |
Your plan
Your 90-day home care marketing plan
Step 1: Find your weakest area
Answer yes or no. The area with the most "no" answers is where you start.
| 1. Helping families find you | 2. Turning calls into clients | 3. Earning trust |
|---|---|---|
| Does our website answer early questions, like "signs a parent needs help at home"? | Does every call and web form get a reply within 2 hours? | Have we replied to every bad review? |
| Do we visit local doctors' offices regularly? | Does our website show our caregivers' photos and names? | Does someone really answer our phone 24/7? |
| Do we have a marketing plan for June and July? | Can families find our rates on our website? | Do our reviews mention our caregivers by name? |
Step 2: Three things to do this week, for free
- Reply to every bad review. Short and kind. Invite them to call. Never share client details.
- Call your own agency after hours. Hear what a worried family hears at 8 p.m. on a Sunday.
- Write your call-back rule. Every family hears back within 2 hours. Name who covers nights and weekends.
Step 3: Your 90-day plan
| Area | Month 1 | Month 2 | Month 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helping families find you | Add a web page: "Signs your parent needs help at home" | List nearby doctors' offices and start visiting them | Add a "Caregiver Jobs" page and plan your summer marketing |
| Turning calls into clients | Start your 2-hour call-back rule and a nights-and-weekends plan | Add caregiver photos and a page about your rates | Listen to first calls and coach a calmer, question-first call |
| Earning trust | Reply to every bad review | Ask happy families for a review that names their caregiver | Make sure your 24/7 line works, then show it on every page |
Start with the row for your weakest area from Step 1. Add the other rows when you can.
Step 4: Check whether it's working
Once a month, write down four numbers. A notebook or a simple spreadsheet is enough.
- How many families called or filled out a form, and how they heard about you
- How long it took, on average, to call them back
- How many of those families became clients
- How many new Google reviews you got
Want help with your plan?
Step 1 is one person's view. A real diagnosis takes your whole team.
ClarityTrack is RaisedCare's assessment that gathers answers from several people on your team, finds where your agency is losing families, and turns it into a prioritized plan for what to do first, second and third. No long-term contract.
Not ready for that? Start with the Brand-Aid Diagnostic. It takes 16 questions and gives an instant score out of 45 across the same five areas as ClarityTrack: strategy and positioning, marketing and visibility, intake and conversion, recruiting and retention, and leadership and execution.
Get your Brand-Aid score Schedule an intro call →FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How do you market a home care agency?
Work in three parts. Help families find you by showing up during their early research and building referral relationships with doctors and families you serve. Turn calls into clients with a website that shows your caregivers, replies within 2 hours, clear pricing and a low-pressure first call. Earn trust by replying to every negative review and proving your 24/7 coverage works.
How do home care agencies get more clients?
Start by fixing where families already give up. 59.8% of families said a poor online presence influenced their decision to dismiss an agency, 40.5% felt pressured on their first call, and only 28.4% of negative Google reviews of home care agencies get an owner response. Fixing those comes before spending more on ads.
When do families search for home care the most?
July is the busiest month for home care searches, about 75% above December's low. January rises 21% after the holidays, November is the second-busiest month, and February through May is the slowest stretch.
How fast should a home care agency respond to an inquiry?
Within 2 hours. 19.3% of families expect a personalized reply within 2 hours and 57.7% within 12 hours, and poor communication is the top complaint in negative Google reviews of home care agencies (28.2%).
What should a home care agency website include?
Families rated a Meet the Team page as the website element with the most influence on their decision (6.87 out of 10), followed by client reviews and service descriptions (6.76 each). Clear information about rates, minimum hours and insurance also matters: 23.1% of families found it difficult to get clear pricing.
Sources
Where these numbers come from
- USC Survey. RaisedCare and USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, The State of Home Care 2026. 589 family respondents; 495–496 for age-group and most other comparisons; 1,082-adult full panel for the 77% and 60% figures.
- Reviews Report. RaisedCare, What Families Actually Say About Home Care (May 2026). 13,247 Google reviews of 600 agencies in the 30 largest U.S. metros; negative reviews are 1–2 stars.
- Search Report. RaisedCare, How Families Find Home Care in 2026. 891 keywords, 1.1M+ monthly searches, 53 weeks of data; Moz Keyword Explorer (March 2026) and Google Trends US (January 2025 to March 2026, relative search interest).
Cite this guide: Theodore, Mike. How to Get More Clients for Your Home Care Agency. RaisedCare, 2026. raisedcare.com/insights/how-to-market-a-home-care-agency
