Online marketing moves quickly. If you aren’t pushing the envelope and continually striving to get better, chances are your competition is. Some professions have been slow to adapt or slow to find the cutting-edge expertise they need to help them. We’ve seen that quite a bit with dentistry.

Whether it’s using older marketing techniques or poorly adapting newer ones, those who provide dental services seem to miss the mark with some frequency when it comes to their search engine marketing. Delivering the right message at the right time is key online. If you are missing that moment of truth with a potential client, they are probably going to your competition for dental services.

One of the first places to start is with Google AdWords. Google AdWords offers dentists a variety of online marketing tools and services suited to serve their specific advertising needs.

The ad services provided to dentists and most other businesses frequently exist on a Pay Per Click (PPC) basis. This means that dentists pay only when their ads are clicked on. These are the moments of truth in online advertising. Are you going to be the one who pulls that client in or is your competitor? It is for this very reason that dentists need to understand the importance of designing ads that not only impress the search engines with high click through rates but also compel the readers to take action. This makes the entire process worth the monetary, time and psychological investment that was made.

Google AdWords Campaigns that work wonders for dentists

There are a wide variety of AdWords campaigns strategies, but finding the right combination of tactics and techniques can be tricky for a service-oriented business like dentistry. Below are three basic AdWords campaign elements that make PPC marketing for dentists worth the while.

1. Basic text ads

An ordinary text ad contains a headline, URL and a brief description of the service or product being advertised. When setup right, these will make the world of a difference to the exposure of your dental office. What you choose to include in each of the three sections is what determines how effective your ad will be in terms of visibility on the search engine. The content also influences the readers’ attitude towards the ad and may either compel them to click on it or ignore it.

Take the image below. There are a variety of different ad approaches taking place.The business at the top could actually be paying less per click then one the below it if it’s ad copy was thoroughly tested and optimized. Looking at the ad copy, however, we think it’s likely they are paying considerably more per click because they aren’t taking advantage of many different ad extensions available to them, like the others. It’s a very basic text ad. The simplest ad you can place in Google AdWords.

2. Call to action

With most campaigns, you want to create a call to action that will compel patients to reach past their anxieties and reach out to you. The call to action can take several forms but the two most common in marketing for dentists are having client fill out a form or contacting you via phone. (Make sure you are tracking both!) The forms allow you as the dentist to start building a record with the patient’s details for follow-up and further contact if necessary. The calls offer a fast and effective way for the two involved parties to connect and for you to book that appointment right then. Your website and ad should push those lead conversions.

3. Extension ads

Ad Extensions enhance your ads by showing extra information about your business. Strictly speaking, extensions are not stand-alone campaigns but are instead used to complement other ad types. They are usually used with ordinary text ads and offer a variety of options for the internet user to click on to access different and specific information. These usually work wonders for dentists as they allow them to take advantage of organic ads with high visibility to advertise more than one service at a time.

Importance of a well-designed PPC ad to a dental business

It goes without saying that a well-designed and optimized PPC ad is good for business. The benefits can go beyond just AdWords, however. Below are four more specific reasons why your dental business needs to work on continually optimizing this source of traffic.

· It is a worthy investment as every click you pay for is a chance to pull in a new client. Getting this traffic to your site allows you to test on-site messages and site usability. Work on improving those lead conversion rates and it will help you no matter what source brings people to your site. AdWords gets you immediate traffic.

· The ads are easy to measure. This mainly applies to the call to action campaigns where every action is measured in terms of that form conversions or phone call. This data allows the marketer to come up with ways to improve your ad and your business in general. Want to automatically track a phone call back to the exact keyword a client saw you on? AdWords can do that.

· The performance of the PPC ads can help you figure out what works in terms of keywords and ad content. This content can also be leveraged for your SEO or other offline marketing materials. You will get data fast and can test different messages. (Our agency runs constant ad split testing because we know we can improve ad copy by grinding away to beat our existing ads.)

· Geographical targeting allows you target only the area that is most likely to convert. Statistically, you might be able to determine that 90% of your business comes from a very specific geotarget. This information not only helps your online advertising but what you are doing offline, as well.

5 Tips to Optimize Dental Office PPC Campaigns

Below are five foolproof tips for PPC marketing for dentists. When applied correctly, they should help not only increase your search visibility but also the returns from interested prospects. (If you’ve made it this far down the article, congrats! The next 5 tips are a must!)

1. Use very specific keywords

Dental practices offer a very wide variety of services. It is therefore very important that as you set up your online ad to remember to be specific in terms of what exactly it is that you are marketing. This means that instead of having an ad reading “Dental services”, go for something more specific like “San Diego dental services” if they are searching on a San Diego dental keyword or “$795 Dental Implants” for someone searching a “dental implant” keyword. This helps increase your relevance with patients who know exactly what they are looking for. Higher relevance, means higher click through rates (and often, lower costs).

2. Have direct landing pages with the relevant information

There is nothing more annoying than clicking on an ad and landing on the advertiser’s home page instead of the specific page with the information you want. It only takes a second to press the back button and go to another site. To avoid losing potential clients like this, you need to make sure that the link on your ad takes them directly to the page with the information that is relevant to their search. If I’m searching “dental implants,” take to me to a page on that.

3. Make your ad geo-specific

Dentistry is one of those businesses that thrive off the local traffic. It is therefore very important to include your location in your ad and to geotarget your ads. This helps you target patients in or around your area helping you advertise to a sustainable client pool.

4. Constantly measure and monitor ad performance

Keeping track of how the ads are doing is important as it helps you find out what it is that you are doing right and what it is that you need to change. One way to do this is through monitoring the click through rate (CTR). Keep improving those CTRs. You can also monitor those lead conversions by keeping track of calls and forms. Success and failure data is vital. As an agency, this is the first thing we set up on your website.

5. Use a remarketing ad

This is one of the most genius marketing tips out there. After a potential client clicks on your ad, goes to your site, but doesn’t take action, the remarketing ad can keep your business in front of them throughout the Google ad network. When they are finally ready to make that buying decision, you are there in front of them. There are a variety of complicated remarketing tactics and you do have to be careful with some restrictions to dental services in what you can and cannot say in your ad.

Bottom line

It goes without saying that PPC marketing is a great tactic for dentists to adopt. Having qualified professional help like Zero Company, a Premier Google Partner, can help you get the most out of your AdWords and dominate your local search marketing. Give us a call today to see how we can help your dental practice with PPC, SEO, web design and online reputation monitoring.