Google AdWords has become increasingly popular for companies across the board, including healthcare practices. Quite simply, you are able to create campaigns based off of relevant keywords and ads that lead back to your website. You create ads that appear at the top of search results in order to catch users' eyes. If it's that simple, what could go wrong? Quite simply, a lot can go wrong if you don't steer clear of these 7 deadly AdWords sins.
1. Choosing the Wrong Keywords
Google AdWords offers different "types" of keywords to use. Broad match keywords are words that show up in the search engine no matter what order someone types the words in. Those in the healthcare and wellness industry receive 94% more user clicks using this category. A modified broad search means you add another word like Tampa Radiology Center instead of just Radiology Center. It makes the keyword or AdWords more specific.
Phrase keywords only appear when a person searches for them using the word in the right order. Phrases often place your ad in a broader search category and are less specific. This limits the views your ad receives. Exact match keywords only show up for a search query if it's the exact search query. For example "black heels for sale" as a keyword would only popular for that exact search query. A good healthcare marketing company can help you with your Google AdWords campaign by helping you choose the right words, category, and setting up and advertising budget.
To get the most out of AdWords you have to choose strategic keywords that work for your healthcare business or service. Using a combination of all categories often works well because you reach more users.
2. Lack of Using Extensions and Badly Written Ads
Ad extensions are added into your Google account to increase the number of clicks you receive on the ads. Extensions enable users to add a line listing their product descriptions, phone numbers, prices, websites, and mobile applications that users can click on. Writing a compelling ad with a powerful title and copy that sells your healthcare services product is important. Extensions provide extra information for the patient or caregiver to stop and think about.
Extensions add information to the healthcare service description that makes potential patients want to click on the link to learn more.
3. Not Grouping Keywords Correctly for Ads
With Google advertising, keywords are categorized in different groups according to the type of ad run or services offered. Using one group of keywords and not taking advantage of different keywords for ads is a mistake many healthcare companies make. A good healthcare marketing company helps you will find the create successful adgroups in order to increase your quality score by maintaining relevancy through your keywords, ad copy, and landing page. For instance, a hospital runs ads on Google for its blood testing department, emergency room, and cancer treatment center. These are three different services so each ad should have different groups of keywords or Google AdWords. The AdWords targeted the audience they are appealing to. This makes the ads more effective.
4. Not Using Negative Keywords
Google AdWords allows negative keywords to be used to exclude keywords that are not good matches for your ads. For example, if you run a healthcare clinic that only treats women you can add the keyword men as a negative keyword. This eliminates your ad reaching patients that you do not serve. Negative keywords can be added to your ads and campaigns. A good healthcare marketing company can help you choose the best negative keywords to use. Not only does creating negative keywords increase your AdWords effectiveness, but it saves you money that would otherwise be wasted on useless clicks.
5. Advertisers That Don’t Bid on Their Brand
When you use Google AdWords you must use every tool to promote your brand. It is better to provide customers in your ad with two links instead of one. Healthcare users are more likely to click on one of them. You can have a paid link and organic link near each other. Aiming for both top paid and organic search results takes time but proves effective when using Google AdWords.
Use paid searches to drive patients to your website showing new products or medical procedures. You can add brand names to your keyword search so patients and caregivers find you quickly. An example is Mercy Hospital or Mayo Clinic. This is the hospital or clinics brand name. Advertising using your name brand will keep competitors from stealing patients and your healthcare business in the minds of current patients and caregivers.
6. Not Knowing Your Customer Lifetime Value
Most healthcare companies and doctor’s office don’t know how much money a patient will spend over a lifetime. If you run a healthcare business or hospital that is profitable spending more money on attracting new lifetime patients with Google AdWords makes sense. If you have a profile of your patients you can add keywords that attract more patients to your site with specific ads.
Aiming for lifetime patients is a way to ensure you get back the money you spend on advertising. Again a good healthcare marketing company knows techniques for attracting lifetime patients and maintaining them. They can help you calculate the value of lifetime patients by using information about how many times a year they come, what they spend, and how long they stay at your office or facility. Most patients need annual checkups and this means a lifetime yearly value to doctors. This factor is worth investing in for profitable health care businesses.
7. Not Knowing Your Competitors
When using Google AdWords it important to know what your competitors in healthcare are doing. Looking and studying their ads and the keywords they use will put you ahead of the competition. Visit their websites and see how the advertising connects to their healthcare services. Look at their ads and decide which one you would click on. Takes notes and compare Google ads in healthcare and decide which one you like best and least.
All this helps you design effective Ads for Google and use AdWords to your advantage. Always test new ad copy and change it until you begin to get more new patients or inquiries from the ad and keywords you use.
Google AdWords are an effective advertising tool, but often scares users away because it can hard to understand and set up correctly. Google AdWords are not for everyone as it can be an expensive way to advertise if you're not using your AdWords budget wisely. Healthcare and doctor‘s office that want to benefit from Goggle AdWords should contact a healthcare marketing company so you can ensure your budget is not wasted. At Atlantic Health Solutions, we can help you design an effective AdWords program and avoid many of the Google AdWords mistakes others have made.
Contact Atlantic Health Care Solutions to learn more about Google AdWords program and other healthcare marketing techniques that can help you attract new patients and retain old ones.