An incredible number of people go online to conduct health-related searches. You might have heard that a great way to attract these searchers to your practice is through content marketing – which includes ongoing blogging and social media.

But you’re likely asking yourself: how can I possibly find the time to blog and post on social media regularly when I have a practice to run?

Fortunately, there is a way for you to make a tremendous impact with your marketing efforts, without investing an incredible amount of time or energy. That solution is paid advertising (aka Pay Per Click).

Your PPC efforts can help you gain more patients, referrals, and recognition for your practice in a time-saving, cost-effective way.

Knowing how/when to invest your time and money with PPC

Many medical professionals we work with know how impactful PPC can be; they’re just not crazy about having to spend money for these ads.

But if you know how and where best to invest your money, you’ll discover that paid ads almost certainly deliver your best return on investment.

When it comes to digital marketing for your dental practice, you want to focus on services and locations.

Why are services an important focus for your paid ads?

Because Google has discovered that 45% of searchers are looking for specific procedure information (such as root canal therapy) or department information (such as orthodontics).

By crafting ads that highlight your services, you’re focusing on a narrow set of keywords your prospects are using, as well as providing relevant information that all but inspires your readers to click to read more.

Location is also key for your paid ads because, according to a Healthcare Success survey, consumers are more likely to choose a dentist based on convenient location (58%) than the amount of the copay (45%).

In other words, location is the driving force behind the decision process of your prospects.

Know your audience by creating personas

At the crux of any marketing strategy is the ability to connect with your audience. You can only do that by knowing who they are, what their pain points are, and what they’re searching for.

That means you need to create patient personas and then craft paid ads that speak directly to these personas.

The ad you craft for a mother of two in an upscale suburb looking for a dentist for her children will not be identical to the ad copy you write for a single 30-year-old man who’s new to the area and looking to establish a relationship with a dentist who’s covered by his company’s insurance.

That’s where patient personas come in handy: to help you differentiate your audiences and put a face to the people you’re looking to target.

As you create your patient personas, remember that the language you use in your ads is key toward the success of their performance.

When building your patient personas, tap into the language your target audiences use on a daily basis.

To do that, our healthcare digital marketing department suggests leaning on surveys, market research, analytics, and on-the-street interviews to help you truly understand what language your ideal patients use when they describe the work you do, and when they’re searching for your types of services.

Your paid ads should make it easy for folks to contact you

No matter what type of ad campaign you create, make sure your contact information is easily available for your prospects to get in touch. You can do this by:

• Setting up call extensions, location extensions, and sitelink extensions for all of your campaigns. These extensions are easy to set up and will extend the real estate of your ad. Not only that, but they’ve been known to improve ad rank on SERPs.
• Adding your contact information to every landing pages. Here’s a good rule of thumb: if you have a landing page, then it must have your contact information. Period.

Paid ads are a tremendous way to help your dental practice reach your ideal patients

There’s no question that SEO is important to your digital strategy, but blog posts and specialized healthcare social media alone won’t bring in the traffic you’re after.

With the medical field being one of the most competitive sectors on the web, eventually, you’re going to have to turn to paid ads.

But by investing your time and money wisely, focusing on local markets, and knowing who you’re targeting, then the business you earn from your PPC campaigns will almost certainly outweigh the associated costs.