Paid Search for Physicians: Everything Doctors Need to Know

There are several digital marketing strategies you can use to accomplish this goal, and one of the most effective is paid search — specifically pay-per-click advertising, or PPC.

If you’re interested in learning how WebFX can help your practice reach more patients with PPC, call 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist, or keep reading to learn how PPC ads work and why they’re so effective.

What is PPC advertising?

PPC stands for pay-per-click, and as the name implies, it’s an advertising model in which you only pay when someone clicks on one of your ads.

PPC advertising is most often found on search engines. If you use Google to find information online, you’ve most likely seen these ads at the top of the results page.

Advertisers can run ads based on the specific words and phrases that users search, which are called keywords. This means that you can target your ads directly to users who are actively searching for the services you offer.

Once you select keywords to target, PPC platforms also require you to set bids for how much you’re willing to pay for each click.

If your bid is among the highest for a keyword, your ad will display above other companies bidding on that keyword. Still, you won’t pay a cent unless a user actually clicks your ad and visits your website.

You can adjust your bids, targeted keywords, and ad copy at any time. Popular PPC platforms like Google Ads even provide data to help you make informed decisions on all of these details. You can also set limits on how much you’re willing to spend on your campaigns, making PPC an extremely budget-friendly option.

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Why is PPC important for medical practices?

The extreme levels of targeting and budget control make PPC a popular advertising option for businesses in almost every industry, but it can be particularly valuable for those in the medical field.

That’s because most people search for keywords related to medical practices to make an appointment, and they typically want one quickly.

For example, a user might search “women’s denim” and browse different sites with no intention of making an immediate purchase. But searches like “urgent care in Philadelphia” have a much clearer intent.

When you run PPC ads for these keywords, you have the chance to appear above regular search results and show users information about your practice with a single click. This makes it easy for them to determine whether you’re the right choice for their needs.

How are PPC ads different from traditional ads?

While traditional advertising can still be an effective way to market your practice, it can be hard to determine just how effective your ads are. The target market, rate, and potential response are based on good assumptions, but assumptions nonetheless. PPC ads, on the other hand, offer the following advantages:

Better targeting

People are relying more and more on search engines and online directories to find physicians in their area. PPC ads are placed based on the keywords users search for, so they only appear in front of people who are in the market for your practice at that specific moment.

Advanced analytics

How many people saw your ad in the local paper? How many of them responded to it? Which copy generated the best response? These answers are either difficult or impossible to find in traditional advertising, but very easy to quantify on online channels.

More cost-effective

Each magazine, radio station, and other traditional channel has a certain (or estimated) number of subscribers or listeners, and you pay to reach every one of them—whether they’re interested in your practice or not. The cost of a PPC ad, however, is based on the number of people that respond by clicking on your ad rather than the number of people who may or may not have seen it.

How your medical practice can start using PPC

Creating an effective PPC campaign requires a basic understanding of your platform and some careful planning to select the right keywords and bids.

If you’re just getting started, you’ll most likely want to begin with the most popular PPC provider: Google Ads.

Once you’ve created a Google Ads account, you can create your campaigns and reach the people who need your medical practice with a few quick steps.

1. Make your keywords as specific as possible

Much like with SEO, keyword research is the first step to any successful PPC campaign.

This is how you determine the most cost-effective words and phrases your potential patients used to find medical care.

Select keywords that are as specific as possible. The more specific a search is, the clearer it is what a user wants.

Ideally, your keywords should contain both location- and service-specific terms. For example, if you’re a pediatrician in Harrisburg, PA, users searching “pediatricians in Harrisburg” are much more likely to make an appointment than those searching “doctors in Pennsylvania.” That’s because someone looking for “pediatricians in Harrisburg” knows exactly what they want, so they’re probably closer to converting with an appointment.

Specific keywords bring qualified traffic to your site, and because they’re so much more specific, you won’t have to spend as much to beat your competitors. As a result, your cost per click will be lower.

Altogether, that means you get more appointments while spending less on advertising!

2. Set bids carefully

In a PPC ad campaign, you decide how much you want to spend on every click. The higher you bid, the more likely your ads will be to display. However, it doesn’t do much good to get a top placement if the higher cost per click isn’t raising revenue or return on investment. When placing a bid, focus on what rate will generate the highest return.

This rate will vary from term to term. You may find that one term generates lots of revenue at 25 cents but doesn’t change much at 50 cents and ends up generating a lower return on investment. Another term may perform poorly at 15 cents but do great at 45 cents because the ad places higher. Don’t try to just bid high or low—bid for the best return on the dollar.

3. Optimize your landing pages

As you create your ads, you’ll need to determine where you want your ad to take someone after they click on it. Many advertisers make the mistake of linking to their homepage, but this is rarely the best choice.

If you create ads based on specific services you offer, they link to pages about those services on your site. Or if your ad copy mentions making an appointment, it should direct users to a page that allows them to do so.

Then, you can optimize each page using conversion rate optimization (CRO) to generate as many conversions as possible.

CRO is the process of testing individual elements on your site to see which versions are most effective at getting visitors to take the actions you want, like filling out a contact form or requesting information.

By running these tests, you can increase the number of visitors who schedule appointments and maximize the results you see from your PPC campaigns.

4. Write compelling calls to action

Your ad appears in search results. Now what? How is the user going to respond? Your ad may be of great interest, but that won’t help much unless you give the searcher a way to act on that interest. That’s why a call to action is a must for PPC ads.

Maybe your offer is a downloadable document or a free consultation. Tell the searcher what you’re offering, then tell them how to take advantage of it. Make sure the ad goes to the logical next step, such as a landing page or a contact page where they can submit their information.

5. Drive traffic to high-converting pages

In addition to improving the conversion rates of your landing pages, you can also use PPC campaigns to drive traffic to pages that already generate conversions.

You’ll need to research more keywords to determine which ones will attract potential patients, but once you do, you can combine get even more appointments from your high-converting pages.

Attract more patients to your medical practice with PPC

A well-researched and -managed PPC campaign can yield great results for any medical practice.

If you’re ready to start using PPC for your practice, we’d love to help. At WebFX, we have years of experience with PPC campaign management, and we’ve created successful campaigns for a variety of businesses in the healthcare industry.

Contact us today for more information and a free quote!

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