The medical field is highly competitive, and promoting your practice can be challenging. Whether you are operating a medical practice or a dental clinic, knowing how to attract new customers isn’t always an easy task.
Digital marketing can be a minefield, with so many options available to businesses. Paid search, such as Google Ads, is a great option for medical and dental clinics looking to reach patients looking for answers and treatment. If you are unsure about what Google Ads is, and how it can help your clinic thrive, this article is here to help. The Web Surgery is here to answer some of the most frequently asked questions and common concerns medical professionals have about Google Ads. Let’s learn how to use Google Ads for your clinic.
What Is Google Ads And Why Should I Use It?
Google Ads has become one of the best marketing tools in the digital world and is excellent for increasing website traffic and boosting leads. You will have seen Google Ads yourself many times, probably without even realising it.
Every time you do a Google search, there will be a few sponsored adverts at the top of the page; these are Google Ads. You may also notice image and video ads on various websites, and these are Google Ads as well.
This form of digital advertising works to promote your medical practice depending on the keywords and criteria that you choose. When you set up Google Ads, Google will display your website at the top of a user’s search results or on a partner website, if they met your criteria.
Your business will only have to pay for the ads if a user clicks on them and goes to your website. Google Ads are great for helping visibility in a local area and providing your website with more real estate within search results.
According to a Google Study, one in 20 searches made on the platform is health-related.
With so many people searching for medical information online, the industry is highly competitive within paid search. Google Ads can help your business show to customers that might not usually find you through organic search and SEO.
You can even use hyper-targeted search terms to reach patients with specific conditions or concerns.
What Campaigns Can I Run On Google Ads?
There are various types of advertising available on Google Ads, and each has its own benefits and drawbacks for the medical industry;
Search: Google Search is the most common type of ad.
This refers to when your advert appears within the search results. For medical professionals, this type of advertising is great for increasing exposure to a targeted audience. The main downside to search ads is that they can be expensive within competitive industries like medicine and dentistry.
Display: Generally a still banner image, or animated html5 video
This allows advertisers to promote their business across many websites. They can be in the form of text, image or video. The benefit is that display ads are often cheaper than search; however, you have limited options over which websites your ads could appear on.
Video: Found on Youtube and on Youtube embeds
As the owners of YouTube, Google are able to display advertiser videos to the YouTube audience. They are great for medical practices because they have a range of advertising options within YouTube, but the downside is that the targeting can be poor.
Smart Display: A banner type design automated by Google
These ads work as part of the display advertising network but offer a simple and intelligent solution for managing the variables of adverts. Medical professionals can leave Google to work out automated bidding, targeting and ad creation so that you can focus on your patients.
Responsive Search: A search ad designed by you and automated by Google
This type of Google Ads works with search ads and allows advertisers to create an ad that will adapt to show more relevant messages to each customer. Responsive search is perfect for medical practices who want to target patients that are searching for specific symptoms or procedures and show them relevant content.
What Do Terms Like CPC, CPA And Impressions Mean?
Within Google Ads, various terminology is used, including;
CPC: Stands for Cost Per Click
It refers to the price you will pay if someone clicks on your advert.
CPA: Stands for Cost Per Action
Or commonly Cost Per Acquisition and is calculated using the total cost of paid conversions on your website divided by the total number of conversions.
Impressions: Every time a Google Ad is shown to a customer
On a search result page or on the display network, or video. It is essentially the number of times people have seen your ad.
How Do I Track Google Ads Effectiveness?
Knowing how effective your Google Ads are is essential to your advertising success. Being able to see insights into what works and what doesn’t can help you to hone your advertising and improve ROI. Google Ads works with Google Analytics which can track almost every aspect of your website. You can use Google Analytics to see the number of users to your website from a specific ad, and how many conversions you have had through Google Ads.
Attribution models allow you to dig deep into ad performance and understand if your customers are interacting with multiple ads. As well as Google Analytics, there are numerous tracking plugins that you can use to see even more detailed information on your ad’s effectiveness
Should I Use A 3rd Party To Run My Google Ads?
Google Ads can be a confusing platform to navigate, especially to those who have never used digital marketing tools before. Using a third party, such as The Web Surgery, can ensure that your ads are set up correctly and properly placed to promote your medical practice or dentist clinic.
When The Web Surgery team are handling your Google Ads for you, it gives you the time and energy to focus on what really matters to your business; your patients.
The Web Surgery work closely with Doctify on a regular basis. They are experts in helping medical professionals across the UK with their online presence through Google Ads.
If you would like to find out more or have any questions regarding Google Ads, then please get in touch to see how we can help – www.thewebsurgery.com or email info@thewebsurgery.com
Some 3rd parties will even run your website as well! Read our article about how to find the best website designers for your medical or dental clinic
