NDIS marketing
Only 6 per cent of NDIS participants are agency-managed. The rest choose providers through people they trust, not ads.
Why ads underperform
A Google ad reaches whoever typed the query. In the NDIS, the shortlist is usually assembled by someone else: a support coordinator, a plan manager, a local area coordinator, or a family member doing the ringing around.
The NDIA's own numbers
Of 774,456 participant plans, 527,554 are plan-managed and 47,667 are agency-managed. Computed from the NDIA Plan Management types dataset, March 2026 release. The agency decides who gets paid for 6 per cent of the scheme. People decide the rest.
The real battleground
A support coordinator turns a plan into services by sending two or three providers with vacancy and a line of context. An ad cannot buy its way into that email. A vouch can.
The playbook
A one-page coordinator kit with a monthly vacancy update. Directory listings with real reviews. A page per service, per area. Genuine presence in peer communities. And a first fortnight worth talking about.
What you may say
The NDIS Code of Conduct binds registered and unregistered providers alike: act with integrity, honesty and transparency. Australian Consumer Law sits on top. And if your team includes registered health practitioners, Ahpra's advertising rules follow them in, including the testimonial prohibition.
The expensive mistake
It opens the agency-managed segment, which is 6.2 per cent of the scheme. It lists you in the provider finder. It tells referrers you have been audited. It does not generate a single referral on its own.
The short version
Write the coordinator kit. Claim the directories. Publish a page per service, per area. Start the vacancy email. Then fix the first fortnight, because referrers watch what happens to their referrals.
Tap below for the full playbook.