By Stephen Tweed

The preliminary results of a new survey of Private Duty Today and Home Care Pulse readers shows that most home care owners do not believe that lead generating web sites are very effective in getting leads that convert to admissions.

We are in the middle of this survey, and we still need more responses to be sure we have reliable data, so I hope you will take three minutes and complete the survey.  But here is what we have learned so far.

Which Site Have You Used?

We have just under 100 participants in the survey so far, and here are the top five sites they have used:

1. A Place for Mom – 54%
   
2. Caring.com – 41%
3. Care Scout – 34%
4. Service Magic/Home Advisor – 32%
5. Elder Care Link – 27.6%

How Many Leads have you received?

Here is the average number of leads generated per company by each site in the past 12 months:

1. Elder Care Link – 53.72
2. Service Magic / Home Advisor – 17.48
3. Caring.com – 16.21
4. A Place for Mom – 11.4
5. Care in Homes.com – 8.67

How Many Leads Converted into a Client Admission?

Here is the average number of lead conversions per company by each site in the past 12 months:

1. Elder Care Link – 2.53
2. Service Magic / Home Advisor – 1.61
3. A Place for Mom – 1.59
4. Caring.com – .89
5. Care Scout – .86

Which Sites would you “Highly Recommend” to your colleagues in private duty home care?

Here is the % of companies responding to the survey who would highly recommend each site:

1. A Place for Mom – 47.1%
2. Best of Home Care.com – 17.6%
3. Care Scout – 17.6%
4. Caring.com – 17.6%
5. Care in Homes.com – 11.8%
6. Elder Care Link – 11.8%
7. Service Magic/ Home Advisor – 11.8% 

It’s interesting to note that while Elder Care Link generated the highest number of leads, and the highest number of conversions, only 11.8% of respondents would highly recommend this site. 

To get a more complete picture of the value of these lead generating web sites, we would love to have a larger number of respondents.  Please take three minutes and answer these questions so that your input can be included in this important industry study.  Thanks so much.