The Best Way to Get New Dental Patients Fast

Search engine optimization is a critical component of any successful, long-term digital marketing strategy. But it takes time. It's a long-game to keep your website visible and ahead of your competition in the search engines. 

So what do you do if you need patients now?

The answer is Google Ads.

Google's pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platform, Google Ads, allows you to place your ad in front of people actively searching for a dentist in your area. This is the best option for dentists looking to generate website traffic immediately upon launching a new website, while making SEO updates and waiting for organic results to kick in, or for those looking to broaden their reach to nearby towns.

3 Reasons to Choose Google Ads

REASON #1 – See Results Fast

Once your campaigns are up and running, you can start generating new patient leads right away. Because you're bidding for top listings against other advertisers, the amount of exposure you get, thus new dental patient leads, is largely in your hands. It depends on your budget, your ad quality, and targeting.

Over time, you'll see what is working, what isn't, and be able to fine-tune your ads to attract even more of your ideal patients.

REASON #2 – Targeted Campaigns to Reach the Right Patients

Every Google Ad is targeting specific keywords. For example, if you search for "health food store near me" and see ads at the top of the search results for local health food stores, it's because those businesses are bidding on the keyword phrase "health food store near me" and have set the parameters of their campaign to include your location.

That's exactly what we do with Google Ads for new dental patients. You can target the keyword "dentist near me," set your campaign to show to people within a certain distance from your practice, and have your ad seen by local people who are actively searching for a new dentist. With the right ad text and a customized landing page, you're just moments away from booking more new patients.

REASON #3 – Easy-to-See ROI

For any marketing strategy to be truly effective, you need to be able to calculate the return on your investment. With the Smile Marketing Google Ads service, call tracking and form submissions allow us to see exactly how many new patient leads you're getting and what each lead costs. As long as you know the lifetime value of a patient, you'll be able to see how valuable each new lead is.

This data also allows our PPC specialists to refine your campaigns by seeing which specific ads are getting clicks, which result in phone calls, and more. The more refining they do, the better quality leads you get. 

How Do I Know if Google Ads Are Right for Me?

While Google Ads can be incredibly successful at helping dentists attract more new patients, they aren't for everyone. Factors to consider before setting up a Google Ads campaign are:

1. Your local competition

The more competition, the higher the cost per click

2. Your overall budget and amount you're willing to spend per lead

Figure out the lifetime value of a patient to determine what a lead is worth

3. The search volume and population in your area

We can't manufacture search volume, so if there aren't enough searches, or enough people, in your jurisdiction, it may not be worth it

An experienced PPC professional can do an analysis of these factors to determine how profitable Google Ads could be for your practice.

The Key to Successful Google Ads

There is something very important to the success of any Google Ads campaign to keep in mind: relevancy. The relevancy of your ad text and landing page to the user's search is critical in Google determining your ad's quality score. The higher your quality score, the better your ad position.

It starts with an organized account structure. If your ad groups are organized in a logical way, you can create ads that correlate better with the keywords, thus improving your relevancy and quality score.

For example, if a user searched "dentist near me" and saw the following ad, how likely are they to click? 

Not likely. The ad copy is all over the place and not relevant to the specific keyword phrase the user searched. So if this ad campaign is targeting the keyword "dentist near me," Google considers the relevancy and it is reflected in the ad's quality score. Quality score drops and so does visibility.

Now, take a look at this ad shown for the search "dentist near me."

That is relevant. The ad will get more clicks from more prospective patients than an ad with less-targeted, more generic wording. It provides plenty of information to the searcher and is well-written.

Another component of relevancy is your landing page. Sending visitors to your homepage might be fine in some cases, but typically you want to send them to a customized landing page to:

1. Speak to what they were searching for and what your ad said (i.e. if your ad text mentions a "New Patient Special," the landing page should be about the new patient special). This also impacts quality score.
2. Capture the lead through a form fill or a phone call using a tracking number. This is important for determining the ROI of your campaigns.

Cohesive ad campaigns and landing pages not only impress Google, they create a great user experience that results in a visitor more likely to convert.