Being a medical provider and running your own healthcare business is incredibly challenging – especially when it comes to marketing your practice. If you’re curious about investing in Google ads for healthcare businesses and medical specialists, today’s post is for you.
As a small healthcare business owner, you need to spend your marketing and advertising budget wisely. In the competitive medical field, small healthcare business owners and medical marketers are turning to Google advertising campaigns for healthcare to incorporate into their overall marketing strategy.
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Google Ads for Healthcare Providers
You’ve most likely heard about medical SEO and local search strategies for doctors. Those components play an essential role in the overall healthcare digital marketing strategy.
However, incorporating Google Ads for healthcare practices and doctors should be done to further maximize the results you get from internet marketing.
In this article, we’ve put together the essential things need to know to get started with marketing and advertising online for your medical practice.
Digital Marketing and Google PPC Ads for Medical Practices and Healthcare Specialists
Also known as PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, Google Ads is a form of search engine advertising. This means that you pay a fee when a user clicks on your ad posted on Google.
Compared to traditional advertising platforms such as billboard ads, radio, TV, or newspaper, you only spend your ad budget when there’s an action taken – this makes
Google Ads for healthcare a more cost-effective form of medical advertising. These actions typically include directing the user to your healthcare practice website, where they can call you to make an appointment.
Aside from Google and other search engines, social media platforms also offer pay-per-click advertising for doctors. Each online advertising platform will have its own effectiveness, cost, purpose, and results. In this article, we’ll focus on Google ads for healthcare.
Is Google Ads Worth It for Healthcare Practitioners?
Advertising on the most popularly used search engine can help you reach potential new patients online – especially when your medical practice website is new, you’re just starting out, or you need to amp up your healthcare internet marketing strategy.
When done right and integrated with strategic healthcare marketing techniques, Google PPC ads for doctors and healthcare practices can drive massive amounts of traffic to your medical practice website.
However, before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s discuss what Google advertising is, where an advertisement shows up on the Google search results page, and what options you have.
Previously known as AdWords, Google Ads is the search engine’s online advertising platform.
How Does Google Ads for Healthcare Work?
This online advertising platform for healthcare providers follows a pay-per-click advertising model.
Medical marketers and healthcare businesses target specific keywords related to their niche and place bids on these terms. They compete with other businesses that are also targeting the same key phrases.
Bidding on these terms is how medical marketers let Google know what search terms they want their healthcare ads to show up for on the search engine results page (SERP).
Bids can range anywhere from $2, $20, or $200 – depending on the competitive value of the keywords.
Advertisers and healthcare businesses will typically assign an ad budget to fund their daily keyword bids.
When a potential patient searches for a keyword in Google – related to your medical specialty – that you placed a bid on, they will see Google ads for healthcare providers that align with the search they did.
The sequence of the ads they see on the SERP will depend on the ad rank.
The ad rank is what Google does in the background to determine the value (and hence, the position) of ads on a Google search.
Google considers the Quality Score (relevance and quality of the ad) of healthcare advertisements and the bid placed on the keyword.
Targeting Potential New Patients with Google Ads for Healthcare
Let’s say you’re a dermatologist with a clinic in Austin, Texas. Your prospects type in “dermatologists in Austin” into Google. You want to target these potential dermatology patients within your practice area.
On the SERP, patients see several Google ad links to dermatology clinic websites in Austin on top of the organic search results. Your prospect sees your ad, goes to your website, and calls for an appointment.
That’s one of the most significant benefits of Google ads for doctors and healthcare practices.
These search engine ads target consumers precisely at the best moment they tend to interact with a business.
When you bid on the right keywords relevant to your medical field, you can get in front of prospective new patients at precisely the right moment they are looking for your healthcare services.
Google Ads Help Local Healthcare Businesses
While word-of-mouth advertising and referrals still work, consumer trends show that people who do local online searches interact with businesses close to their location.
As a local healthcare business, investing in Google Ads can be one of the most strategic marketing decisions you can make for your practice.
Local Google ads for healthcare specialists and medical practices are a helpful tool to reach potential new patients in the vicinity of your healthcare clinic.
Advertising on Google offers features such as call extensions and location to make it easier for potential new patients to call your practice or find you on Google Maps when they click on your healthcare ad.
By setting a geographic range when you set up your Google ad campaign, you don’t have to compete with brands focused on a more national reach. This ensures that you reach your local target audience.
Key Takeaway: Google Ads for Healthcare Practices and Doctors
With Google’s vast reach, chances are you’ve come across a Google ad or two – and so have your potential patients.
Does Google ads for healthcare work?
Yes – but only if you develop and manage the right Google advertising strategy for your healthcare practice. This means running highly targeted and quality advertising campaigns for your medical practice.
To give your small healthcare business an advantage in doing paid search advertising, make sure to partner with a professional and experienced Google ads and healthcare digital marketing agency.