Use PPC Tactics To Win New Patients to Your Medical Practice

People rarely accept second-best when it comes to their healthcare. This makes many people willing to navigate a competitive market filled with challenges for medical practitioners. These roadblocks include regulations, ethical considerations, and longer buying cycles. To win new patients, doctors must use pay-per-click (PPC) tactics, an important strategy in digital marketing.

With PPC for doctors, your practice can stay ahead of the curve. This guide shows how you can use PPC tactics to attract more patients. It talks about:

• Understanding your target patients,
• Using relevant keywords,
• Creating compelling ad copy,
• Optimizing landing pages,
• Scheduling ads for optimal times, and
• Tracking and adjusting campaign performance.

Let’s go!

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

Understand Your Target Patients

A clear understanding of the target audience forms the foundation of every marketing strategy. When deploying PPC tactics for a medical practice, it is pivotal to comprehend who the ideal patients are. Identifying patient demographics — age, geographic location, and specific health concerns — is a step that medical practitioners must not overlook. 

PPC platforms, such as Google Ads, offer tools for demographic targeting. These tools empower medical practitioners to fine-tune their ad visibility based on age, location, and interests. 

For instance, a pediatric clinic would want to target parents in a specific city. On the other hand, a geriatric care provider might target adult children looking for healthcare options for their elderly parents.

Utilizing these tools to focus on the right audience ensures your ads reach potential patients likely to require your services. Remember that it is not about casting the widest net; it is about strategically casting the net to capture the right audience.

Use Relevant Keywords

In PPC, keywords connect potential patients to your medical practice. They are the phrases or terms people enter into search engines when seeking healthcare services. As such, your PPC strategy must include meticulous keyword planning. 

Emphasize long-tail keywords. These are key phrases that are more specific and often less competitive. For instance, instead of using a broad term such as "dentist," consider a more specific keyword phrase such as "pediatric dentist in San Diego." This specificity can result in ads that are more targeted and effective.

Negative keywords are also important. These are words that you can use to avoid wasting money on people who are searching for medical terms but are not potential patients. For example, use the negative keywords “careers,” “jobs,” or “employment” to filter out job seekers from your pool of potential patients. You do not want to pay for someone searching for "pediatric dentist in San Diego jobs" unless your practice is currently hiring.

Healthcare practitioners should also not hesitate to use medical terms in their keywords. Potential patients may use these terms when searching for specific treatments or conditions. Keyword tools can provide valuable insights into the medical terms potential patients use when searching for healthcare services. You may find that many patients have a sophisticated medical vocabulary, especially when it comes to terms describing a chronic condition that they have been dealing with for a while.

Keyword strategies can evolve. Regularly revisit and revise the keywords to ensure they align with your practice's services and your potential patients' search terms. 

Craft Compelling Ad Copy

The ad copy is potential patients' first interaction with your medical practice. Compelling ad copy is critical to getting users to click on your ad. It should concisely convey your services and how they solve the potential patient's health concerns.

Start with a powerful headline that grabs attention. Follow this with a description that delivers your unique selling proposition. Ask: Why should a potential patient choose your practice over others? Perhaps your clinic offers weekend appointments, or you have the top-rated orthopedic specialist in town.

End the ad copy with a strong call-to-action (CTA) that prompts the user to immediately act. This could sound like "Book your appointment today" or "Contact us for a consultation."

Remember, the ad copy must resonate with the target patient demographic and reflect the search intent behind the keywords you are targeting.

Design Landing Pages That Convert

Once potential patients click on your ad, the landing page they are directed to is critical to converting them into actual patients. A well-designed landing page validates the user's decision to click on your ad and guides them toward taking the desired action.

Ensure the landing page content aligns with the ad copy. For example, if the ad copy promises a free consultation, the landing page must deliver on this promise.

The landing page should also provide the necessary information about your practice. This can include office hours, location, services, and practitioner credentials. Avoid making the viewer click around further to find contact info. An online booking tool on the landing page can also facilitate immediate action, capturing the user's interest at its peak.

Schedule Ads for Optimal Times

In the healthcare industry, online search patterns fluctuate. Therefore, scheduling your ads for when potential patients are most active online enhances visibility and boosts return on investment. 

Using Google Ads, analyze your audience's active times and align your ad schedule with these high-traffic periods. For example, a pediatric clinic might find peak activity during early afternoons, while a cosmetic procedure clinic may see increased activity over weekends.

Scrutinize your data to identify patterns and trends. With these insights, schedule your ads for optimal exposure. Proper timing can significantly increase the visibility and effectiveness of your PPC campaign.

Track and Adjust Campaign Performance

In the healthcare industry, understanding the effectiveness of your PPC campaign is vital. With patient preferences, search patterns, and healthcare trends constantly evolving, performance tracking is the pulse check for your campaigns.

Google Ads, a prime tool for PPC campaigns, offers an array of metrics to track the campaign's performance. Metrics such as click-through rates (CTR), cost-per-click (CPC), and conversion rates are particularly insightful. They provide data about user interaction and the economic efficiency of your campaign.

If the metrics say a campaign is not performing as expected, reassess your strategy. An underperforming campaign does not signify failure. Rather, it highlights an opportunity for adjustment and growth. This can include revising the ad copy to better appeal to health-conscious users and refining the keywords to align with current healthcare trends. 

Summing Up

Navigating PPC for physicians can be challenging, yet it holds immense potential. If you are keen to unlock your practice's digital potential, consider the experts at Digital Authority Partners (DAP). With DAP, you can craft a PPC strategy that effectively wins over new patients and enhances your healthcare service. 

Contact us today and begin the journey to a more fruitful digital presence in the healthcare industry.