Support at Home
Marketing Strategy

Consumer acquisition

Because Support at Home is still relatively new, there's far less established content competing for it than there is for older, more saturated categories like residential aged care. Providers who build clear, specific, well sourced content about the program now are positioning themselves to own that search territory before the rest of the sector catches up. This is genuinely one of the better near term opportunities I see in aged care marketing right now.

Assessments

The wait is long before it's even a marketing problem. The Productivity Commission's most recent Report on Government Services put the median wait for an assessment at 27 days, and the median wait between approval and service commencement at around eight months. Families are often in the system for a long time before they're ready to choose a provider, which means your marketing has a job to do well before the point of conversion: staying credible and present through a wait that can stretch past half a year.

Source: Productivity Commission, Report on Government Services, Aged Care Services.

Conversion

Once funding is approved, the clock starts properly. Under the current rules, a person has 56 days from their approval letter to sign a service agreement and start services, with one 28 day extension available, or the funding is withdrawn. That's a short, high pressure window in which a family has to choose, and providers who make that choice easy, with clear information, fast response times and a straightforward next step, have a real advantage over those who don't.

Source: Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, My Aged Care, Support at Home funding wait times.

Package uptake

The 56 day window also means package uptake is won or lost on responsiveness as much as reputation. A family that's waited eight months for funding isn't going to wait another three weeks for a callback. Being genuinely easy to start with, clear pricing, a fast first conversation, a simple onboarding process, is a marketing advantage in this category in a way it isn't in slower moving parts of aged care.

Competition

More than 100,000 people were waiting for an ongoing Support at Home place as at the most recently published figures, with the government releasing tens of thousands of additional places through 2026. That's a large, currently active market, and the providers competing for it most effectively have moved past generic service descriptions and built a specific point of difference.

Source: Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, My Aged Care, Support at Home program data.

Private care

With care management fees now capped and package management fees removed, government funded margins are tighter than they were. Many providers are building a complementary private care offer for families who want additional support beyond their funded package, or who choose to pay privately while they wait in the queue. That's a distinct audience with a distinct decision process, and it needs its own messaging rather than an afterthought on a services page.

Source: StewartBrown Aged Care Financial Performance Survey, June 2025.

I work with Support at Home providers building their positioning for this category from the ground up. Start with a Marketing and Growth Diagnostic.