5 PPC Tips for Driving New Patients to Your Practice

Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is a proven digital advertising method. By paying for visibility in search results and on websites you can effectively select precisely where and when your ads will appear.

Yet, without some fundamental strategic optimization of your Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising account, you won’t be able to maximize your exposure to prospective patients. 

In this blog post, I’ll cover 5 suggestions for ensuring your practice’s search ads are reaching and appealing to the right audiences on Google and Bing.    

1. Geo-Target Your Ads

People search for dentists and orthodontists in their area. Nobody wants to commute to appointments so finding a great, local, practice is a logical goal. 

With the tendency for people to search local in mind, it makes sense to cater ad targeting to a specific geographic radius around your practice. First, figure out where most of your patients come from. Most likely, they live where your practice is located or close by. 

Consequently, limit search ad targeting to your city or set a maximum radius of 10 – 15 miles (unless you’re located in a remote spot). Doing so will ensure that your ads are displayed for the right audience on a consistent basis. 

2. Use Your Practice’s Location in Ad Copy

Let’s stick to the radius theme for this point as well. Remember, people tend to perform local search queries when looking for ortho and dental providers. 

That means including mentions of the geographic area in which you’re located in your ad copy. For example, if you have a dental practice in Seattle your ad copy could include the following mentions: 

By mentioning where your practice is located (in this example, Seattle) you add an element of relevancy to anyone living in the Seattle area searching for a dentist in the same area. 

Using geo-focused ad copy will help with reducing your click costs because of improved ad relevance and it should also improve the click-through rate meaning the rate in which people click on your ads. 

3. Have a Call-to-Action in Ad Copy

One crucial aspect of getting people to click on your ads is making the action you want them to take as obvious as possible. In most cases that will mean encouraging prospective patients to contact you. 

Let’s use the previous ad to illustrate this point. The 2nd line of the ad details what action the person should take and what they will get. 

Here it is, called out: 

Being clear with the action you want a potential patient to take will improve the click volume you attract and, thus, should generate more leads coming your way. 

4. Use Negative Keywords

Selecting the right keywords for driving people to your ads is a necessity. You almost certainly have a finite budget to spend on PPC so ensuring your budget goes to relevant keywords is a must. 

That’s where negative keywords can be very useful. By telling Google or Bing which keywords you DO NOT want ads to display for you can prevent clicks on your ads that have no chance of turning into customers. 

Let’s use a Sesame-related example for this point. It turns out there is a famous kid’s tv program that also has the word “Sesame” in it. As a result, we’ve added A TON of keywords to our account-wide negative keyword lists that try and remove our ads from any search query pertaining to said show. We’ve now reduced this traffic to a trickle, saving what will equate to a boat-load of money in the long-run. 

5. Use Long Tail Keywords

Long tail keywords can be loosely defined as terms that are 3+ words in length. Due to their specific nature, they do not get the same search volume as shorter terms. That’s perfectly fine. 

Terms that are longer in length are far more relevant than shorter terms and they’re generally cheaper on a per-click basis as well. By being sure to include long tail terms in your search ads targeting you will put yourself in a great position to attract some very relevant clicks from potential customers. 

If you’d like to learn more about long tail keywords, please read my post dedicated to the topic. 

 

By following the 5 recommendations on ad copy and keyword targeting above you’ll make great strides in positioning your practice for PPC success! As always, please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions or are in need of PPC support for your practice. 

 

—Michael Fitterer, Sr. Marketing Manager, Sesame Communications