Paid Social Services for Care Homes: Facebook and Instagram Advertising.
We reach adult children choosing care for a parent, and local care workers looking for their next role, then turn that attention into enquiries, visits and applications you can measure.
Free · No obligation · Backed by our 60-day results commitment
What are paid social services for care providers?
Paid social services are the planning, creation, management and optimisation of paid advertising campaigns on social media platforms. For care homes and home care agencies, that mainly means Meta Ads on Facebook and Instagram, set up to reach specific local audiences with a clear goal: family enquiries, visit bookings or job applications.
Unlike Google Ads, which reach people already searching for care, paid social reaches people before they start searching. An adult child scrolling Facebook in the evening, worried about a parent, can discover your home weeks before the crisis that sends them to Google. A carer who isn’t actively job hunting can see your vacancy and realise they’d rather work for you.
Professional paid social services make that reach count, with the right audience, honest creative, fast follow-up and reporting on cost per result.
Boosting a post isn’t a paid social strategy.
Facebook and Instagram are where many adult children researching care, and many local care workers, spend their evenings. Meta Ads let you reach both groups by location and interest long before they start searching on Google.
The problem is that most care providers only ever press “boost”. Boosting usually optimises for likes and reach among people who already follow you, not enquiries from new families or applications from new carers. Without a lead form, tracking and follow-up process, there’s no way to know what you got for your money.
Our paid social services replace boosting with structured campaigns built around a single goal, measured against a single number: cost per enquiry or cost per applicant. Here’s what we hear on almost every first call:
- “Boosting posts gets likes, not enquiries.”
- “We don’t know who is actually seeing our ads.”
- “Facebook leads never answer the phone when we call back.”
- “We need families and carers at the same time, on one budget.”
What’s included in our paid social services.
- Paid social strategy — a clear plan for how budget splits between family enquiries, recruitment and awareness, based on your occupancy and staffing needs
- Meta Business setup — Business Manager, ad account, page connections and permissions set up properly, owned by you
- Creative that feels real — images, short videos and copy that show genuine life at your home or agency, not stock photos that look like everyone else’s
- Lead forms and landing pages — short Facebook lead forms or dedicated landing pages, with qualifying questions that separate real enquiries from curious clicks
- Instant lead follow-up — leads delivered to your team immediately, with automatic confirmation messages so families expect your call
- Tracking and retargeting — Meta Pixel and conversion tracking set up correctly, plus ads shown again to people who have visited your website
- Continuous testing — several versions of every ad tested against each other, with budget moved to what performs best
- Monthly cost-per-result reporting — what each enquiry and each application cost, and which ads produced them, in plain English
The result: Your agency becomes a recognised name in your local community.
One managed process, covering enquiries and recruitment.
Set goals
We agree the split between enquiries and recruitment, your target areas and a monthly ad budget.
Create
We produce the ads, lead forms or landing pages and tracking, all set up in line with Meta’s advertising standards.
Launch and test
Campaigns go live with several versions of each ad, and budget moves to what performs best.
Report
Monthly reports show cost per enquiry and cost per applicant, not just reach and likes.
3 proven Meta Ads campaign types for care providers.
Our paid social services are built around three campaign types, each with its own audience, message and measure of success.
1. Family enquiry campaigns
Ads shown to people in your area who are likely to be arranging care for a parent or relative, leading to a short enquiry form or a landing page for a specific care type.
Measured by: cost per enquiry and visits booked.
2. Recruitment campaigns
Job ads shown to people within commuting distance, leading to a quick mobile application with screening questions. They pair directly with our staff recruitment marketing.
Measured by: cost per applicant and hires.
3. Awareness and open day campaigns
Promotion for open days, events, new services or a new home opening, building familiarity locally so families think of you first.
Measured by: event sign-ups, local reach and follow-on enquiries.
Who our paid social services target, and how we do it responsibly.
Good targeting in paid social is about reaching the right people with the right message, not about invasive data. Our campaigns focus on:
Location first
A defined radius around your care home, or the exact areas your home care agency covers, so budget is never spent where you can’t provide care or employ staff.
Broad, relevant audiences
Adults in the age groups most likely to be arranging care for a parent, and local people interested in care work, with Meta’s delivery system optimised towards the people who actually complete your form.
Warm audiences
People who have visited your website, engaged with your page or started an enquiry, reminded with helpful follow-up content.
We never target people based on health conditions, and all ads follow Meta’s Advertising Standards. We also avoid:
- Fear-based messaging that plays on families’ anxiety or guilt
- Ads that imply knowledge of someone’s personal circumstances (“Is your mum struggling?”)
- Photos of residents without recorded consent
- Recruitment ads that exclude people by age or any protected characteristic
Why Facebook leads “never answer”, and how we fix it.
The most common complaint about Facebook ads for care homes is that leads don’t pick up when you call back. It’s rarely the ad’s fault. It’s usually one of three things, and our paid social services address all of them:
Too slow
A family who enquires at 8pm and gets a call two days later has often moved on. We send leads to your team instantly and trigger an automatic confirmation message, so the family knows who will call and when.
Too easy
Forms that only ask for a name and number attract casual clicks. Adding two or three qualifying questions, such as the type of care needed, the timescale and the area, produces fewer but far better enquiries.
Unknown number
Many people ignore unknown numbers. A text before the call, introducing your team by name, makes it much more likely they’ll answer.
Paid social services vs Google Ads for care homes.
Both work, in different ways. Many care providers use both, which is why they’re combined in our Growth package.
| Paid social (Meta Ads) | Google Ads | |
|---|---|---|
| Reaches people | Before they start searching | At the moment they search |
| Strength | Awareness, recruitment and visual storytelling | High-intent, urgent care enquiries |
| Recruitment | Very strong, reaches carers not yet job hunting | Limited to active job searches |
| Creative | Photos and video of real life at your service | Mainly text ads |
| Measured by | Cost per enquiry or applicant | Cost per enquiry |
Paid social for care homes vs home care agencies.
Care homes
Care home paid social campaigns lean on visuals: the garden in summer, a birthday celebration, the food, the lounge on a quiet afternoon. Open day campaigns work particularly well, giving hesitant families a low-pressure reason to walk through the door.
Home care agencies
Home care agencies usually split paid social budgets towards recruitment, because growth depends on having enough carers in each area. Family-facing ads focus on reliability, continuity of carers and the areas covered.
Results from our paid social campaigns.
“Four permanent hires in the first month — including the two drivers we had been desperate for. Wallwide Media Ltd built us a values-based Facebook and Instagram recruitment campaign that actually spoke to the kind of people we were looking for.”
Domiciliary Services in Birmingham
Which package includes paid social services.
Meta Ads management is included from the Growth package upwards.
| Package | Included? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Foundations — £750/mo | — Not included | Not included at this tier |
| Visibility — £1,500/mo | — Not included | Not included at this tier |
| Growth — £2,500/mo | ✓ Included | Meta Ads for enquiries and recruitment |
| Dominate — £4,000/mo | ✓ Included | Everything in Growth, plus video content for ads |
Your Meta advertising budget is paid to Meta and agreed with you before launch. Every package is backed by our 60-day results commitment. Compare all packages →
How to choose paid social services for your care home.
The right paid social services partner understands care, keeps you in control of your ad account, and reports on enquiries and applicants rather than vanity metrics. Ask how they’ll follow up leads, how they’ll handle consent for imagery, and what a good cost per enquiry looks like for your area. Be cautious of any agency that:
- Reports mainly on reach, impressions and likes
- Runs ads from their own ad account, so you lose everything if you leave
- Uses fear or guilt to drive clicks from worried families
- Has no plan for how leads will be contacted, or how quickly
Frequently Asked Questions.
What are paid social services? +
Paid social services are the professional planning, creation, management and optimisation of paid advertising on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. For care homes and home care agencies, they typically include audience strategy, ad creative, lead forms, conversion tracking, retargeting, ongoing testing and monthly cost-per-result reporting.
Do Facebook ads work for care homes? +
Facebook ads work well for care homes when they target people in the care home’s local area who are likely to be arranging care for a parent, and send them to a lead form or landing page built for enquiries. Facebook ads are also one of the most effective ways for care homes to recruit local care workers who are not actively job hunting.
What is the difference between boosting a post and running Meta Ads? +
Boosting a post pays to show an existing Facebook or Instagram post to more people, usually with limited targeting and an engagement goal such as likes. Running Meta Ads through Ads Manager lets a care provider choose a business goal such as enquiries or job applications, target precise locations, test different ads, and track the cost of each result.
How much do paid social services for care homes cost? +
Meta Ads management at Wallwide Media is included in the Growth package at £2,500 per month, alongside Google Ads, GEO/AI SEO, staff recruitment marketing, and landing pages with call tracking. The advertising budget is paid directly to Meta and agreed with the care provider before campaigns launch. Every package includes a 60-day results commitment.
Can Meta Ads be used to recruit care workers? +
Meta Ads can be used to recruit care workers by showing job adverts on Facebook and Instagram to people living within commuting distance of a care home or home care agency’s service area. Recruitment ads must follow Meta’s advertising standards and must never exclude applicants by age or other protected characteristics, which we build into every campaign.
Why don’t Facebook leads answer the phone? +
Facebook leads often don’t answer because the follow-up call is too slow, the lead form was too easy to submit without real intent, or the call comes from an unknown number. Care providers get better results by contacting leads within minutes, adding two or three qualifying questions to the form, and sending a text before calling.
Should a care home use Facebook or Instagram ads? +
Most care homes should use Facebook and Instagram together through Meta Ads, because one campaign can run across both. Facebook typically reaches more adult children arranging care for a parent, while Instagram is strong for visual storytelling and recruiting younger care workers. Meta’s delivery system can balance budget towards whichever platform produces cheaper results.
Ready to reach families before they even start searching?
Book a free 30-minute audit and we’ll show you exactly how a well-run Meta Ads account could fill enquiries and rota gaps.
Book Free Audit →Free · No obligation · Results within 60 days · Adult social care specialist
Related services: Staff Recruitment Marketing · Social Media Management · Google Ads Services · Care Home Website Design · All 12 services