In our work with dental practices, we’re seeing an upward trend with dentists who use PPC (pay-per-click) advertising as a primary strategy in their marketing efforts. These dentists are reporting increased visits to their websites, more calls and contact form submissions, and higher rates of conversion from web searchers to patients.
Simply put, PPC is one of the most effective ways to reach your potential patients at the right moment and promote your practice and services across multiple channels and devices.
What exactly is PPC?
PPC advertising is part of Google’s AdWords advertising service. It enables you to display ads on virtually millions of websites – targeting locally, as well. It’s great for building awareness of your practice and generating leads.
As part of Google’s PPC service, you can also run text ads like the ones you see when you do a Google search:
Does PPC work?
Yes! Consider these statistics:
- Google PPC ads yield 180 million impressions per month
- Paid search results are 1.5 times more likely to result in conversions
- 46% of people can’t accurately identify a paid ad
PPC campaigns also:
- Provide immediate visibility on Google Search
- Are conversion-driven
- Have results that are measurable and trackable
- Complement other Google marketing strategies
- Work well with SEO because your brand “owns” more real estate on the search page
How PPC Works
To run a successful PPC campaign, Whiteboard Marketing PPC specialists follow a number of steps:
- We set up your PPC program and create the ads and text ads you will run along with a strong call to action. We’ll use copy and graphics that speak to your prospective patients.
- We’ll integrate the PPC program into Google analytics, call tracking, website and landing page/thank you pages so that we can track where results are coming from and optimize the programs. Landing and thank you pages also build trust and credibility.
- You pay only when an interested person clicks on your ad.
- You set the budget to control costs.
- You can reach your target patient for the services you choose based on a number of demographics: geography, age, gender, interests, income and more. We’ll recommend where your ads should run for maximum impact.
- You can change the program, stop it, or expand it at any time.
- PPC results are fast, and ads start running immediately.
PPC Strategy
Here are some of the best strategic practices we employ when developing a PPC campaign for dental practices:
Decide where to advertise
What channel is best for your practice and patient audience? Popular sites include:
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- Google Map
- Google Mobile
- YouTube
Here’s an example of a Google Map/Google Mobile ad with a call button added for tracking:
Make the PPC campaign “brand” and “sales” focused
The primary purpose of PPC is to generate a conversion:
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- Promote overall brand (comfort, great smiles start here, gentle, excellence, family, cosmetic, etc.)
- Promote a service (Dental Implants, Invisalign/6-Month Smiles, braces, etc.) with a special offer or another incentive
- Promote a new patient offer such as a complimentary consultation
- Be sure to train your front desk team to be welcoming, explanatory and ready to schedule an appointment when you run PPC campaigns.
Here’s what Whiteboard Marketing knows for sure based on our many years of experience in PPC for dental practices:
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- Consultation offers convert
- Dental implant campaigns run during non-office hours result in high conversion rates
- Extending the number of hours the ads run and when they run can lead to more conversions
- General dentist ads run during office hours convert callers into patients
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Understand your audience and how/when they are online
Target the exact patient demographics at the right time of day for a specific service
- Front-load the budget so the majority is spent at the beginning of each month
- Invest in campaigns with high search volume keywords
Tracking Results
One of the best things about PPC campaigns is that we can track results quickly and make changes as needed. We will:
- Build tracking measures into each campaign:
- Landing pages for each ad
- Thank You pages for each ad
- Phone numbers on ads for call tracking
- Tracking mechanism on your current website
- Analyze budget daily, or at least weekly
- Review the keywords searched, conversions from each campaign, time of day budget is spent
- Revise campaign based on analysis and results
- Change time of day ads run, allocate budget where conversions are
- Change when searchers’ search habits change
- Turn campaign off if it’s not working
- Apply what we learn to other marketing initiatives
- Use the most commonly searched keyword terms in SEO efforts, on the website, and in blog content
PPC Campaign Costs
We know that budget is key to success. We also know that $500 or less per month is simply not enough to generate conversions. We recommend the following amounts based on our years of experience in PPC campaign development and tracking for dental practices:
PPC Overall Advertising Budget: $1,000 – $1,500/month
Plus:
Landing pages and Thank You pages: $300 – $500 to build
Call-tracking budget: $99 – $199/month
Google Analytics integration: $250 – $300/month
We will maximize your PPC budget through several strategies:
- Run ads based primarily on general keywords (the words people use to search for dental practices or services). Ads will appear when these keywords are used in searches.
- Retargeting – tag every visitor to your website and then display your ads to them on other sites – Facebook, YouTube, news sites, and more.
- Remarketing – collect user data from your website and then email users with targeted offers.
In the End, PPC Matters
There is a noticeable difference in results among dental practices with a strong PPC program and those without. Those who use PPC regularly show increased conversion of searchers into patients, an uptick in calls to the practice, and more awareness of the practice in their geographic locations.
PPC works! Call us today for a consultation on how we can take your dental practice to the next level.