Home Care Client Acquisition Metrics: CPL, MQL, Intake, and Booked Hours

Growth in a home care business depends on turning interest into care delivered. The clearest way to manage that journey is to track four linked metrics across your funnel: cost per lead, marketing qualified leads, intake conversion, and booked hours. Together they show where you are spending, where you are qualifying, how well you are converting, and what value you are generating downstream.

When you measure these consistently, you can tune home care marketing, improve intake operations, and forecast staffing needs more confidently. If you are considering home care software or AI technology in home care, align these tools to the same four metrics so your data stays actionable.

CPL: Cost per lead

Cost per lead is the average dollars you spend to generate one inbound inquiry. It is the first warning light for inefficient spend and the first proof point when a campaign works.

• What to include: media spend, creative costs, landing page tools, agency fees, and the portion of staff time dedicated to lead generation.

• Benchmarks vary by channel and market. For branded search in established geographies you may see lower CPLs (see more on "Is paying for home care ads worth it?" here). For new markets or referral partnerships, CPL will be higher early on and fall as you refine targeting.

• Actions when CPL rises: tighten keyword match types, improve ad relevance, simplify forms, and optimize local listings. Shift budget toward sources that drive qualified traffic rather than raw clicks.

CPL alone does not tell you quality. Tie it to MQL to avoid paying for noise.

MQL: Marketing qualified leads

A marketing qualified lead is an inquiry that meets predefined criteria showing real intent. In home care, quality hinges on fit, readiness, and contactability.

Define your MQL criteria clearly:

• Geography: inside your service area.

• Service fit: non-medical home care versus skilled services, aligned with your offering.

• Timeline: care needed within a defined window, not vague future interest.

• Decision maker present: the family caregiver or client can make or influence decisions.

• Contactable: valid phone and email, consent to communicate.

This is especially important if you are paying for leads from sources like A Place For Mom and Caring.com.

Key habits:

• Record MQL rate by source. A channel with higher CPL may still be better if its MQL rate is strong.

• Review disqualified reasons monthly. If most fails are out of territory, fix your geo targeting. If fails are service mismatch, clarify messaging.

Intake conversion

Intake conversion tracks the percent of MQLs that complete your intake and sign service agreements. This is where operational friction, not just marketing, can hurt growth.

Common bottlenecks

• Slow follow up: Families evaluating care often contact multiple agencies. If you are not first back, you lose.

• Complex paperwork: Long forms, repeat questions, or scattered steps cause drop off.

• Scheduling lag: If assessments are hard to book or move frequently, trust erodes.

• Unclear pricing and care plans: Families want transparent ranges and a plan that reflects their need.

In the age of AI, consumer expectations are rapidly shifting — they expect high-touch follow up, comprehensive communication and easy ways to track their loved one's care.

Operational improvements

• Instant call summaries and follow ups. With Sage, you get personalized drafts ready to send before you hang up, which reduces lag and increases response quality.

• Fewer steps, smarter data capture. Automate transcription, extract key details once, and prefill intake records.

• Consistent availability. Offer assessment slots within 24 to 48 hours whenever possible.

Track intake conversion by source and by intake owner. High variation often points to training or process differences you can address quickly.

Booked hours

Booked hours are the outcome metric that translates acquisition into revenue and care delivered. It captures the total hours scheduled in the first 30 to 60 days after intake. This period is where you confirm fit, stabilize schedules, and build caregiver relationships.

Measure these dimensions:

• Hours per client in the first 30 days. Early under utilization often reflects unclear care plans or scheduling gaps.

• Care continuity. Cancellations and missed shifts reduce trust and future hours.

• Service mix. Companion care versus personal care may carry different average hour profiles by client segment.

Why it matters:

• Forecasting: Booked hours drive revenue predictability, caregiver staffing, and cash flow planning.

• Feedback loop: If booked hours are low for a specific source, review MQL criteria and intake quality for that source. You may be qualifying leads that need different services or more budget transparency.

• Growth prioritization: Invest in channels and workflows that lift booked hours, not just lead counts.

Connecting the funnel

These metrics are strongest as a chain. Look at them together to diagnose where to improve.

• CPL to MQL: Are you attracting the right families at a reasonable cost? If MQL rate is low, refine targeting and messaging before you scale spend.

• MQL to intake conversion: Are qualified families choosing you after first contact? If conversion is weak, improve speed, clarity, and paperwork.

• Intake to booked hours: Are new clients scheduling meaningful care quickly? If not, strengthen care plans, caregiver matching, and scheduling reliability.

A practical dashboard might show:

• CPL by channel and campaign.

• MQL rate by channel with top disqualification reasons.

• Intake conversion by owner and by source.

• Average booked hours in day 0 to 30, segmented by service type.

Use this to hold weekly reviews. Identify one bottleneck per week, ship a change, and measure the impact. This cadence builds momentum without overwhelming your team.

Where AI technology in home care helps

Sage is purpose built for home care operators. It removes busywork in intake so you focus on care and connection.

• Automating call recording, transcription, and summarization so you never have to take notes on a call again. This improves follow up speed and accuracy, raising intake conversion.

• Generating instant follow ups, giving you personalized drafts ready to send before you hang up. Faster response improves win rates against competitors.

• Populating draft care plans based on call data. Families see a concrete proposal early, which lifts confidence and booked hours.

• Syncing directly with your existing agency management system. Clean data reduces duplicate entry, aligns reporting, and keeps CPL, MQL, intake, and booked hours visible in one workflow.

Aligning your intake with home care software that fits your operations will compound gains across the funnel.

Implementation tips

• Set clear definitions. Publish MQL criteria, intake steps, and booked hours tracking rules so the whole team works from the same playbook.

• Instrument first. Even simple tracking in spreadsheets helps until you roll metrics into your system of record.

• Train to scripts and summaries. Use consistent discovery questions and leverage AI summaries to standardize handoffs.

• Review weekly. One metric focus per week is enough to move the needle without burning out staff.

Strong measurement gives you the conviction to invest in home care marketing, expand service areas, and staff proactively. The goal is not perfect dashboards. The goal is a reliable system that turns inquiries into care with less friction and more connection.

To see how Sage can streamline intake and lift conversion and booked hours, schedule a demo today to learn more about how Sage can help you grow your business.