Dental PPC Strategies That Work

Attracting patients and growing your dental practice is the goal, and a robust, respectable online presence is essential. First, you need a mobile-friendly website for your dental practice. If you don't have one, get one right away.

Next, organic SEO is something every dental website needs, but it's only one piece of the puzzle. Pay-per-click advertising should also be part of your digital marketing strategy.

PPC is a pay-per-click advertising model. That means you only pay when your ads are clicked. The ads are based on search engine keywords. It's an economical way to target the exact people who may need your dental services.

Search engines, like Google, derive a lot of their income from PPC ads. It's ideal for small, local businesses, such as dental practices. But, it requires know-how and a strategic approach to be effective. We'll go over setting up a successful PPC campaign yourself. If you don't have the time, a digital marketing partner that specializes in PPC for dentists can also help.

What Is Your Unique Selling Point?

As a healthcare professional, you may not be accustomed to thinking of what you do as having selling points. But, finding the things that make your practice uniquely attractive to potential patients is a key selling point.

Your dental PPC ads can use these selling points to attract new patients. So, think about what makes your dental practice different from others in your local area. These points should figure prominently in your ads.

Here are a few examples:

• Evening & Weekend Appointments
• Same-Day Appointments
• Se Habla Español
• New Patient Specials
• Uninsured Welcome

Your unique selling points solve a problem for the potential patient; for example,  they can't get off work, or they don't speak English. Solving problems is a great way to attract new patients.

Organize Your PPC Ad Campaigns

An organized PPC account means you'll spend less time dealing with it and be better able to track your results. In the long run, this leads to lowering your cost-per-click bids.

The first thing to do is organize different campaign types according to keywords and the corresponding services.

Next, you'll want to test your campaigns to see if your ads perform best on smartphones, tablets, or desktops. You can adjust your ads using this information.

Setting up a bid strategy is something a PPC expert can help you with. While automated bidding can dramatically cut down on the time needed, you’ll need to correctly configure your campaigns for the algorithm. If you’re unfamiliar with Google Ads and you're going it alone, use the Enhanced Bidding strategy. This somewhat automates your bids to go up on keywords that are likely to convert and go down on less likely keywords.

Choosing Your Keywords

As a dentist, you need to focus on location-based keywords and local niche keywords. So, if you're an orthodontist in Miami, orthodontist is your niche, and Miami is your location. Thus, you might use the following keyword phrases:

• Miami orthodontist
• orthodontist in Miami
• orthodontist near Miami
• orthodontist near me

The advantage of using location and niche-based keywords is you'll have less competition, lower costs per click, and a more targeted audience.

Also, you can organize your keywords into different ad groups. For example, in addition to orthodontics, you might also do general dentistry. So, your orthodontist ads can be categorized separately from your general dentistry ads.

Use Ad Extensions for Longer Ads

Google PPC ads are limited to 90 characters or around 10 words. Fortunately, you can buy ad extensions for a little more space.

You can buy extensions to include:

• Additional landing pages
• Your phone number
• Your address, linked to Google Maps
• Special offers
• Your Google reviews rating

As you can see, these extensions can really help drive traffic and convert clicks into new patients.

Design Your Ads for Phone Calls

New patients are going to have to call and make an appointment, so make that easy to do right from the ad. In fact, if they see your phone number in the ad, they can call without clicking, saving you money.

If you buy a call extension, it can be set to only run your ads during office hours. If you want to get technical, you can use the free Google Forward feature to track calls when someone goes to your website. This can help you to track the actual number of calls generated by your ads. However, you'll need someone to install the code onto your website. A technical SEO specialist can help you do this.

Create Landing Pages That Convert

Every ad should have a specific landing page. When someone clicks on your ad, you want them to call to schedule an appointment. A landing page is designed to convert page visitors into new patients.

However, as a healthcare professional, you want to avoid loud, overly promotional language that could come off sounding unprofessional. Your landing page needs to not only reflect the ad, but also reflect professionalism. For example, if your ad is for a teeth cleaning special, the landing page should describe your teeth cleaning service. Make it straightforward, professional, and don't forget to include your contact information, address, and a map.

Effective PPC for Dentists Requires Constant Testing, Tracking, and Modification

This is where running PPC ads can get time consuming. If you don't have the time, a PPC specialist can do it for you. They'll have the experience to run tests, track results, and analyze the data. Also, they'll be able to use that knowledge to tweak the ads for maximum effectiveness.

Testing is an ongoing process for any effective PPC ad strategy. The first step is identifying the important performance indicators, tracking the results, and modifying as you go.

These include:

• Keyword rankings
• How many clicks
• Cost per click
• If the clicks resulted in a new patient
• Form submissions
• Number of phone calls

There is a lot of data to examine and analyze if you want your dental PPC campaigns to pay off. Once again, this is the hardest, most confusing part of the operation. If you don't have the time or dislike crunching numbers, hiring a part-time PPC expert is definitely worth it.

Ineffective Dental PPC Campaigns Are a Waste of Money

Unfortunately, PPC for dentists can be a time-consuming dental-marketing strategy. It also involves crunching numbers and analyzing reams of data. If you don’t have the time, desire, or know-how, hire someone who does. When you hire a fractional PPC specialist, your ads will perform, bringing in new patients every week. They can design a strategy that will attract new patients while keeping your costs low and your ROI high.