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Pay per click ads are what we call a “necessary evil” in the modern marketing mix. Google has built up a behemoth gateway to access the web, and they’re cashing in by making paid placements (rather than organic results) the easiest way to reach content people want to see. Given how dominant PPC is in your total advertising budget, let’s take a closer look at some tips and tricks to get the most out of them for your medical practice.
1. Never Trust Google to Spend Your Money Wisely
Google “generously” offers to hook up all pay-per-click advertisers with a free ad rep who can provide insights and suggestions. But surprise! These folks really exist just to get you to spend more. Magically, all of their recommendations will center around boosting your ad budget. Since we manage so many clients’ ad accounts, we continue to get hounded by these ad reps, and we have yet to see one recommendation from them that would improve ad performance without increasing cost.
Think this will be an area where AI can do a better job? Think again. The automated tools and suggestions within the Google Ads platform are geared to the exact same goal of endless revenue increases. All of this to say, it pays to have an experienced ad manager monitoring your accounts and only making changes that will maximize performance within your set budget.
2. Watch Out for “Speculative Medical Treatments”
Did you know Google has a MD degree? Neither did we. But it turns out, Google knows best when it comes to whether a particular medical treatment is effective and medically accepted, and they’ve compiled a list of treatments that, if you offer them, they don’t want your business.
The main one that trips up our clients is platelet rich plasma, or PRP therapy. If this is mentioned anywhere on your site, even if you don’t want to advertise it, Google will likely disapprove your ad campaign. The solution is to remove this treatment completely from the site (not ideal) or link your ads to an external site landing page (also not ideal). Thanks for the wisdom, Google.
3. Stagger Your Monthly Spend
With more fence sitters and people holding their money a little closer these days, competition is fierce in the Google pay per click marketplace as doctors try to grow their practices. And that competition is driving up costs. But here’s a helpful tip: while your competitors go full blast with a fresh budget to start the month, hold back a bit. Tailor your spending to show ads a bit less for the first half of the month when everyone is going all in and then ramp up when some of your competitors are running low on budget later in the month.
4. Flex Your Spending When Demand Is Higher
It shouldn’t be a news flash that aesthetic spending has seasonal trends. The holidays are big for nonsurgical, but less so for surgery. The start of the year sees cosmetic surgery interest increase as people set resolutions and think ahead to their “beach body” look. Then summer itself slows down again as people take trips and schlep kids.
You certainly can keep your monthly Google PPC budget the same each month, and still see pretty solid and consistent performance, but we think it pays to pay attention and dial back when there are fewer potential patients searching so that you have some extra money to capture leads during the times of year when demand increases.
5. Keep a Close Eye on Conversion Goals
How do you know whether you are getting your money’s worth on Google Ads? It all comes down to how many patients your ads deliver. That’s measured by how many people call the practice or fill out a contact form after seeing one (or more) of your ads. It’s called a conversion. Not all ad campaigns will convert at the same rate, even if they are allocated the same budget. We like to start new ad accounts with 2 to 3 campaigns for different services, see which ones convert strongest, then either rebalance ad spend to maximize conversions or even start some new campaigns to take the place of underperforming ones.
6. Always Be Testing
To provide real value, medical PPC management fundamentally must include active, engaged testing to determine what’s working best and see if performance can be improved even more. Too often, agencies will start campaigns then sit back and collect “management” fees just to simply keep your ads toggled on and occasionally implement a Google recommendation. Boo.
We are big fans of A/B testing, where the top ad groups in a campaign are put head-to-head with trial ad groups that have different messaging. In this way, we’re continually on the search for ads that convert better and better, helping to manage costs.
7. Track Leads All the Way Through the Funnel
Without tracking what happened to each of your leads from PPC (and all your online-based leads, for that matter), you really have no clue what kind of value you are getting from your PPC spend. For example, we could deliver 50 PPC leads in a month to 2 clients:
- Dr. Smart converts 80% of those leads to consults and 90% of the consults to surgery, leaving her with 36 procedures performed.
- Dr. Dumb converts 50% of those leads to consults and 75% of the consults to surgery, leaving him with just 19 procedures performed.
Don’t be Dr. Dumb! Whether through a CRM or other tracking method, closely monitor and regularly evaluate what happens to all your PPC leads after they reach your practice.
