Bypass Common Hospital PPC Mistakes for the Best Campaigns

Search engine optimization brings organic traffic to healthcare facilities, but results take a while. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising fills in the gap. PPC for hospitals raises brand awareness and conversions quickly until you generate non-paid leads.

However, PPC is complicated, especially in healthcare. How do you avoid costly errors? This article gives you five tips:

1. Understand and follow industry and network policies and rules.
2. Pick the right keyword match types.
3. Maximize your Google assets.
4. Align campaigns with goals and user intent.
5. Track your campaigns cautiously.

These strategies help balance compliance and marketing when done right. Read below to learn how to do them. Let’s go!

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

1. Learn and Follow Industry and Network Policies 

Healthcare is one of the most highly regulated industries, but advertising for healthcare varies tremendously depending on your location and type of service. Google, for example, prohibits certain countries from running particular health-related ad campaigns.  

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) rules introduce further complications. Any protected health information (PHI) must be carefully safeguarded with things like a business associate agreement (BAA), but many advertising companies will not enter this agreement with you. This means that you cannot use or give them access to PHI. 

If you violate the regulations, you are susceptible to hefty fines and penalties, ad rejections, or even account suspension or termination.

Understanding and following these industry policies should be your primary paid-ad strategy. If you are unfamiliar with them, work with a competent PPC agency.

• Look for proven experience in managing hospital or healthcare-paid campaigns. General PPC experience is not enough.
• Ensure they know and comply with healthcare marketing guidelines, and optimize campaigns within various regulations.
• Ask about their approach to campaign structure, targeting, keyword research, and optimization. Seek sophistication and customization.
• Examine their analytics. How do they collect information? What tools do they use? How do they protect and interpret data? 
• Consider cultural fit and look for outstanding communication, collaboration, and transparency.

2. Pick the Right Keyword Match Types 

A common PPC mistake is not utilizing the full range of keyword match types. Campaigns often simply use broad-match keywords. This leads to irrelevant traffic, high ad costs, and lower ad rank because of poor click-through rates.  

Consider a broad match to capture high-intent queries that exact or phrase-match keywords cannot cover. Suppose you are a hospital offering telemedicine services. Use “online doctor visit” or “virtual medical consultation.”

Meanwhile, pick exact-match keywords to trigger ads that drive a specific target audience to your landing pages. A good example is people typing geo-based or local queries, such as “24/7 ER in LA.”

One of the advanced strategies for hospital PPC ads is creating a negative-keyword list: queries with unwanted or irrelevant words. This tactic further creates more cost-effective, user-focused campaigns. For instance, “physical therapy certification” becomes a negative phrase if your campaign targets seniors searching for physical therapy services.

Lastly, conduct effective PPC keyword research while remaining HIPAA-compliant with these tips:

• Avoid using any real patient names or PHI when searching keywords. Stick to generic condition names, symptoms, and treatments only.
• Leverage Google’s autocomplete and keyword-planner features to discover search trends and suggestions without entering actual, sensitive queries yourself.
• Find common terminology that healthcare professionals use by searching industry websites, publications, and medical codes. 
• Brainstorm keywords around the patient journey, such as “just diagnosed with X,” “stages of Y condition,” or “living with Z disease.” Think of general patient mindsets. 

Blending match types increases PPC relevance and lowers costs per click. However, because this is healthcare, practice researching keywords without overstepping regulations such as HIPAA. 

3. Maximize Your Google Assets 

Formerly called ad extensions, assets display information beyond your basic PPC text ads. They help your copy stand out on the search results page. Even better, they improve your CTR, conversion, and user experience. 

Google offers many assets. These range from call to location, callout, and site links. Suppose you are a New Jersey tertiary hospital. Here are examples of how to use these assets in your ads:

4. Align PPC Campaigns with Goals and User Intent 

Because PPC is not cheap, you cannot create generic campaigns and hope for the best. Driving real returns requires strategy and alignment with user intent. These include matching the landing page with the audience and marketing goals. 

One of the hospital PPC ad strategies for the highest ROI is a well-developed landing page, which increases the ad quality score. When your score is high, the cost per click declines. Ad rank also improves, which means you secure better search positions for a wider targeted reach. 

Consider these examples:

• For doctor searches, send traffic to provider profile pages highlighting their credentials, experience, awards, and patient reviews.
• For service line searches, match them to the relevant condition overview or department page on your site with details, specialties, and treatments.
• For appointment-scheduling queries, create dedicated booking or appointment request landing pages with online forms, contact info, and insurance FAQs.
• For location-based searches, leverage location-specific landing pages.
• For branded keywords, send traffic to your homepage, About Us section, or other pages that reinforce your brand story and strengths.

5. Track Your Campaigns Cautiously 

The best PPC campaigns for hospitals analyze and track data consistently. Doing this answers some pressing, essential questions, such as the following:

• Which keywords attract the best leads?
• How much should you budget for the next PPC campaign?
• Are the marketing efforts delivering the desired outcomes? 

Digital Authority Partners (DAP) shared excellent metrics and key performance indicators for healthcare PPC analytics. Regardless of which you measure, be cautious when following this tip. 

Use HIPAA-compliant platforms or software. If you cannot, such as when running Google Analytics, consider these ideas:

• Avoid looking at query-level data for individual search terms. Only review aggregated keyword themes and categories. 
• Do not record or store IP addresses, browser fingerprints, or other identifiers tied to users.
• Disable location-tracking capabilities in your PPC platforms and analytics. 
• Never integrate PPC data directly with any patient records, medical CRM, or EHR systems. 
• Mask any PHI before it enters forms or tracking systems. 
• Have your HIPAA compliance team review data flows from PPC to analytics to identify potential issues.
• Only share PPC performance reports containing aggregated statistics, not individual data points.
• If using call tracking numbers, do not store call recordings or make notes about the medical details mentioned.

Limit PPC analysis to high-level performance metrics, trends, and insights without drilling down to individually identifiable information. 

Summing Up

A good PPC strategy prevents waste as you channel the budget into the precise keywords, ads, and placements that convert searchers into patients. These tips offer your practice strategic tools to avoid costly, irreparable mistakes and drive efficient growth even as platforms and algorithms evolve. 

If you want expert advice on PPC for hospitals, contact DAP to schedule a free consultation. Learn how we can help increase your return on ad spend by up to 10 times.