7 KPIs for Boosting ROI PPC for Hospitals (Short List)

Pay-per-click (PPC) or paid advertising is one way to get your medical services to patients and people who need them the most. With PPC for hospitals, you can increase traffic and conversion rates. And it has a great return on investment (ROI).

But that's the ideal scenario. If you fail to monitor the right key performance indicators (KPIs), you may spend too much on PPC. Here are seven KPIs you should keep an eye on:

1. Click-through rate (CTR)
2. Number of clicks
3. Cost-per-click (CPC)
4. Cost-per-acquisition (CPA)
5. Conversion rate
6. Impression Share
7. Quality Score

Find out the importance of these KPIs to medical PPC. 

Let’s go!

7 KPIs To Boost Hospital PPC ROI

More consumers search online for health information and medical services. To compete, you should focus on PPC and monitor key metrics. PPC involves keyword performance, clicks, and conversions. This data helps you understand customer behavior and produce better marketing. Regularly monitoring PPC will help you achieve your marketing goals.

     1. Find Your CTR

The click-through rate, or CTR, tells you the number of clicks your ad received divided by total impressions in a specific period, such as a month. A good CTR depends on your industry. In healthcare, CTR is ideally 3.27%, with dating and personals topping the list at 6.05%.

CTR helps you understand clients; it tells you what does and doesn’t work in your campaigns. Low CTR means you are targeting the wrong audience or not using their language. Here are a few tips to improve CTR.

• Try negative keywords. These keywords block your ads from showing in irrelevant searches.
• Use registered or trademarked symbols in your headlines. Such symbols help you stand apart from your competitors and promote consumer confidence.
• Include site link extensions. These give your users more options to check out your web pages that answer their questions. Hospitals can have site links to their pages like careers, doctor lists, services, and contacts.
• Utilize a strong call to action. Calls-to-action (CTAs) grab the attention of your potential leads and encourage them to take action. Strong CTAs for hospital PPC include “Click to download our free brochure” or “Protect your family now.”

     2. Count the Number of Clicks

Over time, the number of clicks on your ad may not define your ad's overall performance, but you can use it as part of your mid-month or monthly check. By counting clicks, you may decide whether to improve, adjust, or suspend your campaign. Here are some ways to enhance your ads’ total clicks. 

• Use competitor keywords. These keywords help you rank alongside your competition in search engine results pages (SERPs). You can use online keyword tools to help you uncover competitive keywords.
• Create the best ad copy. Write meaningful headlines, include value in your ads, and add CTAs. Keep your ads simple, and always test your ads to ensure you're using the best copy.
• Try Dynamic Search Ads. Your headlines and landing pages will be from the content of your website to keep your ads more relevant and help save time. You can update Dynamic Search Ads through your Google Ads account.
• Use ad extensions. Ad extensions make ads stand out and show more information about your business. Your audience will likely click on your ad when they find what they are looking for.

     3. Determine Your CPC

Your PPC ROI depends on the price you're paying for every click. Cost-per-click (CPC) tells you whether you're paying too much for an ad and describes the source of valuable clicks. To determine CPC, split the ad campaign cost by clicks. To reduce your CPC, 

• Choose your keywords well. Don't just go for the cheapest keywords; choose according to volume and the search queries you want to rank for (volume and intent). Use a mix of low-cost and high-reward keywords for a lower CPC.
• Enhance ads and landing pages. Doing so will improve your ad’s CTR and Quality Score. Include your core keywords on the landing page and ad copy.
• Check out Google’s Search Partner Network. Google continues to dominate the global search market with an 83% share. Therefore, having your ads show on additional Google sites or those with an online search feature/tool under Google can reduce CPC.

     4. Understand Your CPA

Your cost-per-acquisition (CPA) is the cost of every new customer you acquire. The Quality Score and how you strategize your campaign affect it. Take advantage of a helpful AdWords tool called Target CPA to optimize CPA-based conversions. AdWords will generate a bid-winning campaign based on your CPA. Here are other techniques to lower CPA.

• Improve your Quality Score. A higher score means your ads are more relevant and, thus, shown to a larger audience, reducing your CPC and CPA. 
• Test and optimize campaigns constantly. PPC changes, and you need to test your campaigns and optimize them until you get the results you're looking for.  
• Use more effective keywords. Look for keywords that are underperforming and pause them. Please don't remove them, as you still need the keyword data in the future.  

     5. Explore Your Conversion Rate

The conversion rate is the most important indicator for determining an ad campaign's success. A user must perform a value action to convert. Signing up for a hospital newsletter, booking a service, or visiting a page are some activities that can improve your conversion rate. Here are some tips.

• Create the best landing pages. This is not just about your content but also your website design, overall web appearance, font sizes, loading times, etc.
• Use relevant and engaging ad copies. Your ad and your landing pages must have similar mentions. If your ad is about your new diabetes screening program, the ad landing page should lead to this program and not to another diagnostic procedure or service.
• Find out negative keywords. Identify and filter out negative keywords to improve conversion rates and avoid wasting your PPC budgets. Visit your Google Ads search terms report to look for negative match terms and add these to your negative keywords list.

     6. Describe Your Impression Share

Impression share compares your advertising to others. This KPI represents total impressions divided by potential impressions. A 60% impression share implies that your competitors own the 40% remaining. Improving ad impression share involves:

• Increase your ad budget. Your ad budget controls the frequency of your ads. The more your ads are shown, the higher your total impressions, as more people can see them.
• Raise your bid. A higher bid can likely increase the number of times your ad will show in a particular ad auction.
• Improve ad targeting. Reducing your regional targets can lead to an increase in impression share. But note that by doing this, you are also reducing the potential number of impressions available for you.
• Enhance ad quality. Use Quality Score to improve keywords, landing pages, and ad copies.

     7. Find Out Your Quality Score

Google examines ad quality before determining per-click costs. The ad's Quality Score is 1-10 and format, relevancy, CTR, and user experience matter to how it determines Quality Score. Ads with a score of six or lower may cost extra per click. Higher scores mean lower per-click costs. This will boost your Quality Score.

• Organize your campaigns. Use as many ad groups as possible, and for each group, use the best-related keywords.
• Use compelling ad copies. Use your best-performing keywords in an ad group in your headline, description, and URL.
• Ensure ad formats are responsive. This will increase your chance of achieving a high CTR. You can update your ad formats from your Google Ads account.
• Add as many ad extensions as possible. Ad extensions don't impact the Quality Score but may increase CTR. Ad extensions add more information and expand ad space.

Summing Up

Keep in mind these seven KPIs to improve your PPC ROI. Monitor your click-through rate, cost-per-click, cost-per-acquisition, conversion rate, impression share, and finally, Quality Score. With all these metrics, your PPC campaigns will be more optimized, effective, and cost-efficient.

Find out how PPC can improve your hospital marketing efforts. Contact Digital Authority Partners today and get the latest in PPC for hospitals.