Medical PPC Best Practices: Search vs. Display Advertising

Medical PPC Best Practices: Search vs. Display Advertising

With all businesses trying so hard to crack the hard SEO nut, it can be hard for your medical business to rank higher on search engines. Fortunately, there are other easier routes: search advertising and display advertising. You know that people use Google to search for products and services, so your business might want to advertise on Google’s Ads platform. In this article, we’ll explore the differences between display and search ads, as well as things you can do to run an effective medical pay-per-click campaign.

How Does Search Advertising Differ From Display Advertising?

Search advertising targets people who are actively searching for what you offer or something similar. People who are actively searching for a product or service, like “dental surgery in Ohio” or “anxiety treatment therapy”, are prime candidates for PPC advertising for medical practices. They’ll be looking for information about the medical products or services that interest them and are likely to buy from companies that appear on top of the first search results page – and search ads appear at the top or bottom of SERPs. 

Display advertising is for engaging customers who might be interested in your products, but aren’t actively searching for them. For example, if you search the internet for “vision therapy clinic near me”, you’ll likely see ads from optical clinics in the next automotive blog posts you read. As a medical business, you can leverage ad analytics to capture the attention of potential leads and convince them to visit your website or call you. 

Although display ads are passive ads, they’re good for branding and awareness. They’re also ideal for driving traffic to a landing page.

So, which of the two is the better option? If you are actively searching for more patients, search ads are the better option, but if you want to attract new customers passively or create awareness for your business, try display ads. For the best results, consider using both strategies at the same time.

How to Make Your Medical PPC Ads More Effective

We all know that PPC is the easiest way to generate traffic and increase sales, but it’s not always as easy as just setting up ads and waiting to see results. Here are some things you need to do to optimize your ads and maximize your return on investment:

Have a Clear Goal in Mind

The first step to finding success with PPC is having a clear goal in mind. Start by defining the problem that needs solving. This can be as simple as identifying which keywords best represent your product or service and determining what ad types should run on those terms. Are you creating awareness about your medical business? Or are you looking for more patients? Once you’ve answered such questions, launch your campaign and measure results against these goals.

Know Your Audience

If you want to succeed with PPC, you must know your audience. You should also be able to define who your competitors are and how they target their audience. This will help you understand their strategies and tactics, which can then inform yours. 

Automate Campaigns 

If you’re not using automated campaigns, you’re doing yourself a disservice. It’s time-consuming and difficult to keep up with manually scheduling ads. By setting up automated bid adjustments, regular reporting, and lead management, you’ll save countless hours per month that you can spend on other tasks.

Use Ad Extensions

Ad extensions increase conversions and make your work easier, so use them as much as possible.

  • Sitelinks: These are links that appear at the bottom of your search ad, often on desktop but sometimes also on mobile devices. They allow you to direct users to specific pages in your store or other related content by linking directly to them from within the ad itself.
  • Call extensions: This is an extension that allows users to dial a phone number right away without having to open your contact page first. You can use these extensions for things like calls-to-action, surveys, and live chats.

Be Mobile Friendly

According to Statista, about 15 billion people use mobile devices. This means that mobile-friendliness is a ranking factor. Also, ensure your website has a better user interface if you want a better chance to convert visitors who land on your site via ads. Simply work with a web developer to ensure your website or app looks good on all kinds of phones, tablets, and computers—a responsive design helps!

Use the Right Keywords

Keywords are the key to a successful ad campaign, so it’s important to choose them wisely. The first step is to think about what your business does and how you want people to find it when they search for information about that topic. Then there’s choosing related keywords, but they shouldn’t be too broad, too narrow, too long, or too short. Finally, ensure your keyword combinations have enough search volume—and thus relevance—to be worth using in an ad campaign like yours.

Use Negative Keywords

Negative keywords are words you don’t want your ads to show up for. For example, if you have an eye clinic, there are some keywords, such as “glasses”, that are related to but might not be relevant to your business. To avoid wasting ad spend on such terms and increase the chance of getting more qualified clicks on average, add some keywords in the negative keywords list – this will prevent irrelevant traffic and save you money.

Write Compelling Ads

Write clear, concise, and catchy headlines that invite people to your offer. Use a compelling description and have a strong call to action (CTA). 

  • Offer something of value for the reader’s time and attention, such as free diagnosis, consultation, or a free subscription to an upcoming medical camp.
  • For display ads, include an image that conveys your message quickly and clearly, but avoid using logos or other distracting elements.

Constantly Test New Ads, Keywords, and Landing Pages

Testing is an essential part of PPC advertising. It helps you ensure your ads are as effective as possible, and it also helps you figure out where to focus your efforts. When it comes to testing new ads or landing pages, there are two main ways that you can go about doing this: by using both manual and automated methods. 

Manual testing involves having someone manually test each ad or landing page to assess how well it performs against competitors’ ads/landing pages. Automated testing uses computer-generated data from historical data patterns to predict what might happen with your campaign based on past results.

Have a Realistic Budget

PPC is a powerful tool that can help you reach your medical marketing goals, but only if you have the right budget. Before starting down the path of PPC optimization and spending, ensure you have a realistic budget in relation to your expectations.

Try Targeting

Targeting is a cost-effective way to reach many relevant leads. There are several targeting options available, including location-based and device-based. You can also target based on demographics, interests, and other factors that are important for your medical business.

Conclusion

PPC can be an effective way to promote your medical business and reach new customers, but it’s also important that you know how to use it effectively by avoiding common mistakes that can cost you money and sales. We hope the above tips will help you make your PPC campaign more efficient and profitable.