Dental PPC and Lead Generation Tips To Gain More Patients

Getting patients from the web to the dentist's chair takes more than a website. Nowadays, dental clinics and professionals combine pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and lead generation for a steady flow of patients.

PPC for dentists displays ads to people who need them, while lead generation attracts prospects and nurtures them until they are ready to book a visit. This article dives into the following PPC and lead generation techniques:

• Localize targeting.
• Create specific campaigns.
• Use a remarkable landing page.
• Develop an irresistible offer.
• Use ad extensions.

Learn about these best practices today. Let’s go!

If you want to learn how Digital Authority Partners can increase your PPC effectiveness, watch this video!

Localize Targeting

Some dentists run their own clinics, while others are part of a dental network. Regardless of how they serve their patients, they focus on a specific location, such as a community, city, or county. This makes PPC and lead generation the right marketing strategies to gain more patients.

Localizing PPC and lead generation involves using local keywords and adjusting paid ads to reach the people who need them the most. The following are PPC tactics to attract new patients:

• Study the ad platform’s targeting options. Google Ads has excellent targeting features to focus on customers from a specific area and nearby areas.
• Exclude locations that are not part of the campaign. 
• Gather regional insights about customers through Google Trends.
• Add regional terms such as “24-hour dentists in Las Vegas” or “Las Vegas pediatric dentist.”
• Optimize the title by adding the name of the target location. This appears bold when it matches the user’s query.

These localized targeting strategies create particular campaigns that marketers use to attract patients effectively.

Create Specific Campaigns

For PPC ad campaigns to reach patients and generate more leads, they must be highly specific. From the ad title to the landing page, a PPC ad must focus on audiences with specific demographics, interests, and behaviors. Marketers also consider these factors when deciding on the best keywords to target.

Aside from the audience’s location, marketers can create more specific PPC ads and increase their lead generation efforts using these top strategies:

• Find the campaign purpose: sales, app promotion, leads, product and brand consideration, or brand awareness and reach. Choose leads if the campaign is about increasing leads and new patients.
• Choose the campaign type and give it a name. Create a logical naming format so it is easy to distinguish them, for example, teeth whitening—seniors—brand awareness or dental braces—teenagers—leads.
• Decide which ad network to use. Using a social media platform for ads allows dentists to enjoy more specific ad options. Meanwhile, Google Ads allows professionals to reach prospects on hundreds of Google-affiliated sites.
• Include a set date to start and complete the campaign. This avoids wasting ad budgets and traffic on an offer or service that is no longer available.
• Customize the final URL of the page the viewer lands on with tracking information. URL parameters that indicate the source, campaign, search terms used, and so forth simplify campaign tracking and customization.
• Use dynamic search ads (DSAs) to increase clicks in Google Ads. DSAs are not for websites with daily deals or offers or those with pharmaceutical products.
• Change the ad language targeting for ads with multiple versions in various languages.

Once the campaign is ready, it is time to create a remarkable landing page.

Use a Remarkable Landing Page

Someone searching for dental veneers might be looking for nearby cosmetic dentistry clinics. When they click on an ad about dental veneers, they expect to land on a page where they can find more information, perhaps including a discount on installation or a related service package. 

A good landing page is concise yet provides more information about the offer presented in the ad and guides users through their journey. The following are some ways to enhance a landing page: 

• Set specific PPC goals, such as booking a clinic appointment or signing up for a special offer.
• Align the ad offer with the landing page. Keep the page information accurate, updated, and specific.
• Practice the above-the-fold strategy: users can be in a hurry, so placing the most important information on top allows them to immediately access what they need.
• Use concise paragraphs and bullet points to highlight the offer, product, or service.
• Keep the page simple and uncluttered. Remove the menu, navigation bar, and ads.
• Create a mobile-friendly landing page. Organize images, paragraphs, and calls-to-action. Use clickable clinic phone numbers and improve page loading speed.

Part of creating a remarkable landing page is having a good offer. Learn how to create irresistible dental offers in the next step.

Develop an Irresistible Offer

How can marketers get people to click on their ads? An irresistible offer can seal the deal. Ads show up in search results side by side with competitor ads. That means an ad with an attractive offer, such as 20% off dental veneers or a free cleaning, has a better chance of standing out and enticing people to click.

Customers are looking for something valuable, so coming up with great offers helps dentists capture their target market. Projecting good value and low cost or showing urgency to make offers irresistible are also good strategies. A clinic could offer dental implants with a free consultation and cleaning valued at $600. Now, that’s hard to resist.

Dentists can try the following: 

• The core offer is a dental clinic’s flagship service plus strategies to improve the customer's experience. It includes features, benefits, discounts, bonuses, guarantees, and warranties. It also highlights scarcity and urgency. Examples are money-back guarantees, lifetime warranties, and rewards.
• An entry offer is when a customer exchanges a small amount of time or money to try the service or product. It always leads to a core offer. For example, an entry offer for laser teeth whitening at 50% off leads to the core offer of teeth whitening services with free cleaning.
• A lead magnet is a free offer to acquire the name, phone number, and email address of a lead. These offers are meant for people who are not ready to purchase but want to learn more about the offer. Most lead magnets offer quick wins and are consumed quickly. Examples are a percentage off on braces or a free nutrition handbook.

Use Ad Extensions

PPC ads have limited space in search results, making it challenging to present offers, products, or services. A Google text ad has a headline, a display URL, and a short description. Headlines have two parts limited to 30 characters each. The URL has two parts, and they are 15 characters each. Meanwhile, the ad description is only 80 characters long.

To improve ad space and provide more information, marketers use ad extensions. Ad extensions can boost dental ads for lead generation and more clinic visits.

• Call extensions. Customers can call the number on the ad to make quick appointments. This is a great ad extension for a dental clinic that offers emergency services.
• Message extensions. With these extensions, customers can text the phone number listed on the ad to book an appointment or ask questions.
• Site link extensions. These let the customers jump straight to a page related to the ad. For example, an advertisement about teeth whitening has site links that lead to a related page about teeth whitening, dental hygiene, and teeth cleaning.
• Callout extensions. These extensions highlight information about a service or product, such as why a service is better than what other clinics offer.
• Structured snippets. These are bits of information about a service or product. Snippets start with a heading that allows marketers to fill in specific details. 
• Price extensions. Dentists can use these extensions to promote their services and products by showing price details.
• Review extensions. You can use these extensions to display reviews, awards, or third-party ratings below the ad. Dental clinics can include positive reviews or ratings from satisfied customers.
• Promotion extensions. These extensions highlight sales or offers on specific services or products.
• App extensions. These are helpful for dental clinics that use an app to book appointments or help patients manage their dental health. Clicking the link leads to a page on Google Play or Apple App Store where they can download the app.

Summing Up

Marketers can make valuable PPC offers that increase leads and sales by localizing ad targeting, creating specific campaigns, and optimizing landing pages. Also, having an irresistible offer and utilizing ad extensions can further enhance PPC success.

Find out how PPC can help your dental office or practice boost lead generation, sales, and revenue. Contact Digital Authority Partners for expert dental PPC today.