Inside How Beztak, Sonida Senior Living Pivoted From Third-party To In-house Referrals

More senior living operators are in 2025 subsisting on locally sourced leads as they take a step back from large, national third-party referral partners.

For example, Farmington Hills, Michigan-based Beztak has cut its contracts with A Place for Mom. Sonida Senior Living (NYSE: SNDA) also has sought to drive more prospective residents to its website, with local referrals making up 56% of the company’s totals in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Senior living operators are reducing their reliance on third party aggregators for a multitude of reasons, including a changing Google algorithm that now prioritizes first-party search results and the fact that sourcing leads in-house is often simply a more effective marketing spend at the end of the day.

Referral partners like A Place for Mom and Caring.com grew into referral giants through SEO sophistication, and now senior living operators are shifting to grassroots marketing efforts to lure more leads to their websites instead of a page run by a third party. Additionally, operators are looking to connect with other local businesses residents frequent to help spread the word about their services and gain referrals.

“Your business neighbors are important to your residents,” said Jennifer Bishop, vice president of sales at Sonida Senior Living.

But senior living operators aren’t throwing out the baby with the bathwater. In fact, they are still leaning on older tried-and-true methods including mailing out physical ads, albeit with a digital twist.

Shifting referral relationships prompt new strategies

Senior living operators have in the past played ball with large third-party referral partners – somewhat reluctantly – in an effort to keep new leads flowing. But in 2025, those relationships are shifting and more operators are weighing whether third-party referrals should represent a smaller piece of the overall marketing pie.

According to Jason Kohler, executive vice president for senior living at Beztak, companies like A Place for Mom and Caring.com have increased the rates they charge operators for successful leads. At the same time, A Place for Mom has altered how it works with operators, replacing its customer success team with a new team of senior living advisors that directly connect families to senior living communities.

While referral partners say they are undertaking such moves to improve relationships among operators and make all parties more successful, operators have responded in part by pivoting away from national aggregators and toward organic leads.

Beztak pivoted by reinvesting the money it usually spent on third-party referral sources to building out a stronger in-house marketing team, including by hiring a digital marketing manager and social media manager.

“It did free up some resources that we put to good use elsewhere, where we knew that this is the future, and where we wanted to spend more time, effort and money,” he said. “It was a great decision.”

Sonida’s decision to take a step back from relying on third party aggregators also comes down to conversion rates. In 2024, the company attributed 11,000 leads to one third-party aggregator, with only 200 residents moving in at the end of the day, according to Bishop.

Sonida is in the process of aligning its sales and marketing departments to work closer together. According to Bishop, the teams already worked together, but functioned independently of each other. Now, she said, the idea is to offer support where it is needed and increase the efficiency of both departments.

The previous year was one of growth for Sonida, with Bishop noting the company added 20 communities to its portfolio. As it grew, the company invested in its regional operators and focused on getting sales directors out in their local communities more.

“There’s always gaps, so we try to have some failsafes,” Bishop said. “We have a position called trusted advisor. So they’re that person that as leads come in, they’re our safety net to make sure that the residents and their families that are inquiring get that prompt attention that they deserve. It’s given us a good balance that we can grow upon this year.”

Kohler added Beztak has shifted more of its efforts back to its home office to allow sales teams to focus on selling.

“It’s much more efficient when you do that,” he said.

Old marketing ways still relevant

In 2025, it seems as though the whole world is shifting to digital practices and away from older marketing techniques. But the old ways still hold marketing power – with some small changes, according to Kohler and Bishop.

Beztak returned to sending out mailed ads after halting the practice for years. In the mailers, Beztak detailed events going on in its communities to show they are vibrant places where residents can thrive.

So far, the response rate has been positive, Kohler said. He links that success to the fact that the mailer included a QR code prospects could scan to learn more and answer questions. That effort garnered a 30% conversion rate, Kohler said.

“It blew my mind,” Kohler said. “We’ve, stumbled onto something here by revisiting direct mail, but [it’s a] little bit more fine-tuned than we used to do it in years past.”

Sonida also took a similar approach by sending out 600 postcards in a targeted area to advertise communities with a summer concert series and invite residents in for a free meal.

That effort led to 90 new additional leads in Sonida’s database that weren’t there before. Of those 90 prospects, 18 have moved in since the end of that campaign, according to Bishop.

“There’s no way or method to the madness that we could have engaged those 90 other people, but yet it paid off for us in dividends,” she said.

However, even with the direct mail campaigns, the end goal is to drive prospects to each company’s respective website. As such, both Sonida and Beztak have been dedicating resources and efforts into revamping the website, which Kohler and Bishop both said are seen as the central hub for marketing efforts.

“We’ve really taken a look at the keyword strategy, map pack[s], content marketing, building out a resource page and lead magnets, anything to drive traffic back to the website.,” Kohler said. “We see that as central in the future. If we can get people to our website and convert then I think we’ll do well.”

The post Inside How Beztak, Sonida Senior Living Pivoted from Third-Party to In-House Referrals appeared first on Senior Housing News.