5 Tips for Designing the Strongest PPC Hospital Ads

Paid ads can deliver to healthcare businesses what organic marketing strategies can't: the fast results you want. But it happens only when you have a solid grip on PPC hospital ads.

This post shares the top five pay-per-click (PPC) strategies that work for medical practices:

• Take advantage of new PPC trends and tools.
• Know healthcare rules to avoid costly violations.
• Gather first-party data to improve accuracy and controls.
• Maximize remarketing ads to reduce bounce rates and increase the return on investment (ROI).
• Consistently track performance to make smart business decisions.

Ready to learn more? Read on!

Develop a Reliable Hospital PPC Campaign With These 5 Tactics

Hospital marketing is complicated. It is bound by various rules that range from federal regulations to search engine guidelines. But you can execute a fully compliant PPC campaign and hit your goals by following smart hospital PPC marketing guidelines.

Here's how you do it:

     1. Take Advantage of New PPC Trends and Tools

The new paid ads trends and tools don't just make your life easier. They help improve your conversion rate by decreasing ad costs, developing more lead-centric copies, and automating repetitive tasks.

Some of the fast-growing options include:

• Smart bidding. This system uses machine learning to help you buy the most cost-effective keywords based on previous auction performances, customer behavior, and other factors.
• Responsive search ads (RSAs). These new kids on the block give you more control over what your potential customers see. With RSAs, Google will test different combinations and deliver the best-performing ad to searchers.
• Artificial intelligence (AI). This one is big on hyper-personalization—that is, breaking down audiences into more specific segments. These include past buyers, location, time of day, etc.
• Social media ads. Social sites can deliver more targeted traffic at an affordable rate and high conversions. For instance, sponsored content with engaging visuals can hit about 40% click-through rate (CTR).

     2. Know Healthcare Rules To Avoid Costly Violations

HIPAA is the most vital of the many healthcare laws that can impact your hospital marketing strategies.

HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It's a federal law that protects the privacy of patient health information.

This regulation is one of the guiding principles for Google's Health Content guidelines that also mention you cannot take advantage of other people's hardships.

Ergo, you cannot easily advertise healthcare products and services focusing on chronic conditions, traumatic personal experiences, treatments, and procedures like gene or cell therapies. Otherwise, be ready to pay huge penalties, fines, and potential ad bans.

What can you do instead?

• Master HIPAA. Do this, and you'll never go wrong. You can attend training or, for less hassle, look for a healthcare digital marketing team or attorney.
• Ask patients for permission. You can avoid running into trouble by asking your patients to sign a release form that gives you the go-ahead to use their information in marketing materials. But be clear that your use is compliant.
• Get certified by Google. The search engine may allow you to publish sensitive ads, such as addiction recovery services, only if you use a Google-certified account.

     3. Gather First-party Data To Improve Accuracy and Controls

Data is the lifeblood of effective PPC hospital ads, but not all are created equal.

The most valuable insights come from first-party information you gather from your website and interactions with patients and prospects. It gives you more control and accuracy than those from other sources.

When it comes to PPC, first-party data can help you:

• Develop audience personas. You can use data gathered from your website, customer relationship management (CRM) system, and surveys to create fictional representations of your target patients. These help you know what people want and how they behave online.
• Build lookalike audiences. Lookalike audiences are groups of people with characteristics similar to your best patients. Use first-party data to create these on Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and other platforms.
• Create custom intent audiences. These people have recently visited specific pages on your website or taken actions that indicate they're ready to engage with your hospital. For example, someone who's visited your pricing page is more likely to convert than someone who's only seen your homepage.

First-party data is also valuable for retargeting or remarketing campaigns. You can use it to create lists of people who have visited specific pages on your website or taken certain actions, such as filling out a form. Then, you can show them ads encouraging them to take the next step in the patient’s journey.

     4. Maximize Remarketing Ads To Reduce Bounce Rates and Increase ROI

PPC is expensive, but it becomes costlier when you can't convert. After all, every target lead comes with a price.

Fortunately, not everyone who skips your ad is a lost cause. You can use PPC to reintroduce the brand, recover leads, and re-engage even previous patients.

Consider doing these:

• Use your CRM. You can create targeted lists of patients or leads based on their demographics, location, previous interactions, and other factors. Then, show them relevant ads on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other platforms.
• Install a tracking pixel. A tracking pixel is a piece of code that allows you to track website visitors and show them targeted ads. Different websites have specific instructions, so refer to their resources or FAQ pages for more information.
• Perform A/B tests. Try different versions of your ad copy, images, and calls-to-action (CTA), and offer to see which performs better. Then, use the winning combination for your main campaign.
• Bid more on abandoned pages. These are pages that people visited but left without taking any action. They could be your pricing page, appointment scheduling form, or any other step in the buyer's journey. You can use Google Analytics to see high bounce rates and then bid more on these keywords.

     5. Consistently Track Hospital PPC Performance To Make Smart Business Decisions

The best healthcare PPC marketing campaign is not a one-time event. It is a long-term plan tweaked time after time to align with business goals, industry guidelines, and consumer behavior changes.

But how do you know what to improve, sustain, or remove from the strategy? Consistently track your performance. These ideas help:

• Compare your performance to industry benchmarks. See how you measure up to others in terms of key metrics, such as CTRs, ROIs, abandonment rates, and conversion rates.
• Use analytics tools. Google Analytics is free, but some paid options have more features, such as heatmaps and session recordings.
• Correlate tracking data with other financial reports. See how changes in your PPC campaign affect other areas of your business, such as revenue and leads. It helps you decide where to allocate your resources.

Summing Up

PPC for hospitals can take you one step closer to increasing leads, revenues, and conversions as soon as you publish. But it takes a deep understanding of the most effective techniques and the laws to work. These five steps provide you with a head start.

We highly recommend working with a digital marketing team for more advanced healthcare PPC strategies. Digital Authority Partners (DAP) has the tools, people, and expertise to develop a hospital PPC campaign that matches your goals and needs. Schedule a consultation with us to learn more about our ideas.