How this was measured
Keyword data from the DataForSEO Labs API for the United States market, pulled on 2026-10-15. The source last refreshed these keywords in September 2026. Cost per click is the average paid by all advertisers on that term, not what Brookdale Senior Living paid. Spend is DataForSEO's estimate of paid traffic value and should be read as an order of magnitude, not an invoice. The keyword list is what the data provider observed in paid results, so a term missing from it is not proof that Brookdale Senior Living never bids on it. Anyone can see the ads a company is running right now in the Google Ads Transparency Center.
Nothing here comes from inside Brookdale Senior Living. This is what the outside of the account looks like, which is the only thing anyone can check.
The finding
Brookdale Senior Living is one of the largest senior living operators in the United States. Organically it ranks for 24,876 keywords, valued at about $2.4M a month in equivalent traffic. The paid side observed here is small by comparison: 111 keywords at an estimated $7,766 a month, about 0.3% of the organic value.
And it is mostly the company's own name, one town at a time. 61 of the 111 keywords are Brookdale plus a place, like brookdale vernon hills or brookdale valencia. These are searches from people who already know which community they are looking for.
What Brookdale buys
The top of the list by search volume.
| Keyword | Monthly searches | CPC | Ad position | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| brookdale vernon hills | 1,300 | $8.05 | 1 | Brand |
| brookdale valencia | 880 | $12.45 | 1 | Brand |
| brookdale brighton | 720 | $5.33 | 1 | Brand |
| brookdale highlands ranch | 720 | $4.96 | 1 | Brand |
| assisted living facilities in jackson ms | 480 | $7.34 | 2 | Local category |
| brookdale auburn ca | 480 | $6.96 | 1 | Brand |
| brookdale austintown | 480 | $10.44 | 1 | Brand |
| brookdale briargate | 480 | $8.65 | 1 | Brand |
| brookdale franklin tn | 480 | $7.77 | 1 | Brand |
| brookdale lake charles | 390 | $7.68 | 1 | Brand |
The community is the brand
Brand terms carry 9,320 monthly searches against 4,890 for everything else on the list, and they cost a median of $7.77 a click against $8.27. Senior living is chosen locally and often by a family, and a search for the name of a specific community comes from someone who has already heard of it. Owning that result protects a visit that was already likely.
The rest of the list follows the same local logic. Category searches appear only with a place attached, such as assisted living facilities in jackson ms or retirement communities in mckinney tx, and others are names of specific communities that do not carry the Brookdale name.
Memory care costs more
The national category terms are not in the observed set. memory care facilities, senior living communities and nursing homes near me, which the paid media cost index prices at $25.56, $9.93 and $6.37, do not appear. Memory care does appear in local form, and it is where the most expensive click on the list sits: memory care facilities kansas city at $49.76, with the ad in position 8.
Read the small number carefully. A paid estimate this small next to an organic footprint this large can mean a company that leans on search rankings, or simply a provider that observed fewer of its ads. Both readings fit the data, and this page does not pick one.
What to take from it
For a single community or a small group, the transferable part is the name. Search your community's name the way a family would, with the town attached, and see who appears. If it is a referral site or another operator, your own name is the cheapest and most valuable term you can buy. Category terms work best with the town in them, and memory care deserves its own budget line because it prices differently.
If you want that read done on your own account, see how senior living marketing works here, or start with the paid media audit. For other advertisers, see the ad spend teardowns.
Figures are third party estimates of publicly observable advertising, published October 2026. They describe what is being bought, not what it returns: no revenue, conversion or ROI figure here is claimed or implied, because none of that is visible from outside. Brookdale Senior Living is not a client and had no involvement in this analysis.