How Google Ads Can Benefit Your Dental Practice
Google Ads, formerly Google AdWords, is a powerful platform that allows businesses to reach customers through paid search results. For dentists, running Google Ads campaigns can be an extremely effective way to attract new patients and grow your practice.
Creating and optimizing Google Ads campaigns requires strategy and expertise to yield results. Now Media Group, a full-service digital marketing agency based in San Diego, CA, uses best practices for dentists to create effective Google Ads campaigns. We can boost your visibility and create new loyal patients with a team of SEO and PPC marketing specialists dedicated to growing your practice.
To get started with our agency, contact us today by calling (858) 333-8950 to speak to one of our consultants.
Know Your Goals and KPIs
Before creating your Google Ads campaign, determine your goals and key performance indicators (KPIs). Typical goals for dental Google Ads campaigns include generating leads and appointments, increasing website traffic, boosting brand awareness, and acquiring new patients. Define one to two primary goals and the KPIs you’ll use to track them, such as:
- Generate 25 new patient appointments per month
- Increase website traffic by 30 percent month-over-month
With clear goals and KPIs, you can optimize and measure your campaigns accordingly.
Research Target Keywords
Conduct thorough keyword research to identify high-value search terms and phrases related to your dental services and location. You may want to focus on longtail keywords with high local search volume and low competition, such as:
- [city] dental implants
- dental veneers [city]
- emergency dentist [city/neighborhood]
Include popular treatments (e.g., teeth whitening, braces), services (e.g., pediatric dentistry, orthodontics), and any unique specialties your practice offers, informing potential customers of how you can benefit them.
Optimize Ad Groups
Group keywords into tightly themed ad groups, such as specific treatments, services, or location variants. This allows you to create highly targeted ads and landing pages. For instance, “dental implants” and related terms would go in one ad group, while “ceramic braces” keywords would have their own ad group.
Set Up Conversion Tracking
Install conversion tracking like Google Ads conversion pixels on your website to measure actions like phone calls, contact form submissions, appointments booked, etc. This allows you to optimize campaigns for actual conversions rather than simply driving traffic. Make sure to match conversion goals with your defined KPIs.
Create Locally-Targeted Campaigns
Dental practices depend heavily on local search to attract patients living nearby. Set up location-based ad groups and target them to geographic regions of your practice services. Use radius targets, city/metro targets, or map regions to focus your ad spend. Make sure business information like full address, phone number, and driving directions are prominent on your landing pages.
Write Appealing Ads
Your ad copy is your first impression for searchers, so you’ll want to ensure that your ads are compelling and relevant with targeted keywords. Ads for dental treatments, for example, should highlight benefits like “Get a Brighter Smile with Teeth Whitening” and “Reduce Jaw Pain with TMJ Treatment.” Include a strong call-to-action like “Book Your Appointment.”
For location-based ad groups, always include your city/neighborhood to improve local click-throughs. Check that ad extensions like call, location, booking, and callout are enabled to boost ad visibility.
Design Mobile-Friendly Landing Pages
With Google’s mobile-first indexing, your landing pages must provide an excellent user experience on mobile devices. Use responsive design, minimal scrolling, large tap targets, and clear calls to action. Pages should quickly communicate your dental services and ability to solve patients’ problems. Add structured data like LocalBusiness and FAQPage to enhance SEO, too.
Split-Test Ad Elements
It’s always a good idea to continuously try different ad copy, headlines, keywords, and landing pages to improve performance. Set up A/B split tests for bigger changes, or use Google’s responsive search campaigns feature to automatically test combinations and find the optimal elements. Examine search query reports to identify new relevant keywords and apply them to new ad groups.
Bid Strategically
Leverage Google’s automated bid strategies like target cost-per-acquisition, target ROAS, and enhanced cost-per-click to optimize bids and lower CPA. Set individual bids based on keyword intent and value — bid higher on commercial transactional terms like “ceramic braces cost” and lower on informational queries. Monitor search impression share and set minimum bids 20 to 30 percent above the first-page bid estimate.
Schedule Ads to Align with Office Hours
Make sure your ads run during your actual business hours, when you can field calls and appointments. Limiting ad schedules can also help manage daily budget caps more efficiently. Use ad scheduling to easily pause campaigns overnight or on days when your office is closed.
Track Conversions in Google Analytics
Connect your Google Ads account to Google Analytics to import cost and conversion data. Set up goals in GA to further analyze your campaigns’ performance per channel, keyword, placement, and more. See which keywords and traffic sources generate the most conversions to optimize for profitable results.
Evaluate Performance Weekly
Check campaign metrics weekly in the Google Ads interface. Look at clicks, impressions, CTR, conversions, cost, average position, top-performing keywords, and similar metrics. Run reports on specific ad groups, ads, and keywords to identify winners and losers. Remove underperforming elements and continuously add new keywords.
Boost Google Ad Performance With Now Media Group
Following these best practices will help dentists get the most out of Google Ads and see a strong return on ad spending through new patients and more appointments. To maximize results, partner with a pay-per-click management agency, like Now Media Group, with skills specific to the healthcare and dental industry.
Call (858) 333-8950 today to schedule your consultation with our digital marketing representatives. We look forward to working with you to grow your practice and get more patients the quality care they deserve.