Have you ever thought about advertising your practice through ads on Google or Facebook?

As everything moves online, digital ads are the future of marketing your medical practice. The biggest platforms for marketing your practice online are Google Ads and Facebook ads. Each has its own unique advertising benefits and downfalls, and each can really benefit your practice. For the sake of keeping this article short, I will not talk about the details of how to set up or maintain each ad platform. Instead, we will review the differences of each platform, and I will leave links to learn more.

Attracting patients online with Google Ads

Let’s start with Google’s advertising platform, Ads. Google’s advantage is that…well, it’s Google! It is the main platform people use to search for information, including searching for doctors. Paid ad campaigns on Google will help you get your practice information into one of the top four slots of the search results, but for a price. Here is how Ads works:

  • You tell Google when, where, and for which keyword you want your ads to show up during a search. You can choose your keywords. They may be things like “orthodontist near me” or “best dermatology clinic in Houston.”
  • Because Ads is an online auction system, the price you pay for your ads is based on what other competitors are willing to pay for the same keywords in that area.
  • You write the ad’s headline, URL, and text of the ad. This gives you complete control of what the ad says and even allows you to customize different ads for different keywords.
  • For example, you can write an ad specific to the keyword “emergency dentist” to an ad that is designed to talk about your emergency dental procedures.

Here is an example of what the ad could look like. I searched for “eye care near me” from our office in Lehi, Utah.

As you can see, there are three ads, each with unique ad copy for eye care providers in my area.

As a side note, you can also see additional features, such as reviews, testimonials, location, etc., on some of the ads. These are ad extensions and can be added to Ads, and Google decides when and how to show them.

PPC has some downfalls. However,  Since it is an online auction, prices for clicks can become more expensive than other methods.

  • For the medical industry, the cost per click averages around $3.17 and, in some cases, can get to $10-$20. So, if you aren’t careful with setting your budgets and your target keywords, you can end up wasting money fast.
  • Google Ads has a lot of great features and can be very profitable, but it can also be complex and require some expertise in setting up and maintaining the account. Google provides some good online resources, or there are online ad agencies that specialize in managing your ads for you.

Attracting patients online through Facebook advertising

Facebook has very different advantages and disadvantages than Google. Where Google is focused on targeting the keywords people search, Facebook targets users by user information.

This means that if you work for a high-end dermatology clinic, you can create ads that target specific demographics, like women from the ages of 30-50 in whatever target cities you want who have graduated with an undergrad from a university and make above $80,000 a year. Facebook continually purchases lists of emails and phone numbers and collects data on social status, current jobs, and schooling. All of which they use on their platform to help advertisers target their best audience possible. So, if you know your target persona (your ideal client and what characteristics they have), you can target them in your location with an image or video that promotes your business. Facebook has a learning center as well as a help center for questions.

You can target users by age, gender, location, education, work, finances, home, and politics, or target specific users with email, name, and phone number lists.

Facebook does have a great competitive edge, but it also has some disadvantages. Even though the ads are very targeted to your ideal clients, when people are scrolling through their feeds, they may not be in the “I need a new doctor” mindset, whereas Google Ads targets people currently searching for a doctor. So it is great to get people aware of your brand to the right audience at a much cheaper cost than many other old school advertising, like billboards and magazines.

Google and Facebook have many great and different advantages to advertise your practice. My suggestion is to test each one out! They can both show you how many visitors they’ve brought to your site and how many called your practice or filled out a form based on the ad. This helps you see how much is spent, how many clients you are bringing in, and for what cost. Give it a try! If you have questions, feel free to ask in the comments.

 

Want more information? Check out our free guide, “The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need to Get More Patients.”

For more information on online marketing, check out the free guide “Online Reputation Management: Why It’s Essential for Your Practice.”