Anyone who’s run a chiropractic practice knows it can be a lot of work. In addition to satisfying your existing patients, you have to constantly work on obtaining new patients. One of the best ways to attract new patients is through pay-per-click advertising — statistics show this method can increase brand awareness by 80%. Here’s a closer look at what pay-per-click ads are and how they can help improve your chiropractic business.
What Is Pay-Per-Click Advertising?
Many businesses depend on search engine optimization, or SEO, to get website traffic. Put simply, SEO is organic traffic generated from search engines. The higher your chiropractic website ranks on Google, the more visible it is to potential patients.
While SEO is a valuable tool for any company, what happens if your chiropractic practice simply isn’t ranking high enough? With so many local businesses competing on Google, SEO alone isn’t enough to attract your prospective patients. That’s where pay-per-click advertising comes in.
Pay-per click advertising, or PPC, is a marketing strategy designed to boost your website traffic with paid advertisements. Most PPC is done directly on Google. Through this method, your ads will appear at the top of Google searches, overtaking the organic results. In exchange for getting to highlight your chiropractic services, you’ll have to pay for every click your paid advertisement receives.
What Are the Benefits of PPC?
Some businesses might be reluctant to try PPC due to the associated costs. However, this advertising method offers several benefits that will take your chiropractic marketing skills to the next level. These include:
- Increased visibility
- Enhanced quality
- More specific targets
- Speed
The most obvious advantage of PPC is the ad position — by having your chiropractic services advertised at the top of the page, you immediately attract the attention of potential patients. You can also customize these ads with images, addresses and useful information about your chiropractic office.
In addition to customizing the appearance of your ad, you can also influence who’s able to see them. For example, if you want to connect with the local community, you should create targeted ads based on geography. Considering that PPC traffic leads to 50% more conversions than SEO traffic, it’s safe to say that targeted ads are a great way for health care practices to get more patients.
Finally, PPC offers a level of speed that can’t be achieved by SEO. Building up your search rankings organically takes time that many chiropractic practices simply don’t have.
How to Get New Chiropractic Patients Using PPC?
Now that you understand the benefits of PPC, you might be wondering, “How do I use it to effectively improve patient acquisition for my chiropractic office?” Here’s how to get started.
Plan Your Budget
Before you start creating paid advertisements, you need to decide how much you’re willing to spend. According to Google, businesses make about $2 for every $1 they spend on Google Ads. To help plan your budget, consider your online conversions, or the amount of website visitors who end up becoming actual patients. In general, the higher your conversions, the more you can afford to spend on PPC.
Figure out Your Goals
Before you launch any ads, ask yourself what you hope to accomplish. Are you trying to encourage new chiropractic patients to visit your business? If so, you might want to create testimonial videos that highlight your happy patients.
On the other hand, maybe you just want to share information about your business and get your name out there. In this case, you might want to provide details about your chiropractic offices and explain how you can help with pain relief. Whatever your goals are, they’ll guide your overall PPC campaign.
Determine Where to Advertise
There are several types of PPC ads you can use. These include:
- Search ads
- Display ads
- Social media ads
As mentioned earlier, search ads (which appear on Google search) are the most common method for pay-per-click advertising. You choose which keywords you want to associate with your business, then place a bid on them — this bid determines where you appear on search results.
If you want to try PPC but don’t want to splurge on search ads, consider trying display ads. These advertisements will appear for users who’ve indicated some sort of interest in chiropractic care. While they’re less expensive than Google Ads, they’re not as specific.
Finally, every business should try social media marketing. With over 3.5 billion users across the world, social media pages like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook offer easy ways to connect with people.
Choose Your Keywords
If you decide you want to use PPC to boost your Google search results, you’ll need to select the keywords you plan to bid on. The more relevant these words are, the better your results will be. To help you choose, try a free online tool like Keyword Planner, which offers the following resources:
- Keyword suggestions
- Website traffic estimate
- Cost estimates
You’ll want to ensure that your keywords are effective and meet your budgetary needs.
Watch Your KPIs
Your KPIs, or key performance indicators, give you a quantifiable measurement of your advertising success. This includes things like your revenue, the average number of patients you have and the number of new patients you’ve obtained over a certain period of time. Keeping track of this information lets you know if you’re on the right track or you need to make an adjustment.
Consult Experts
Running a chiropractic business and trying to obtain new patients are essentially two full-time jobs. Instead of trying to handle both, try consulting a marketing expert like Lead to Conversion™. Our team is highly experienced in PPC and can help with the following:
- Curating keywords
- Achieving clicks and conversions
- Integrating PPC with SEO
- Ensuring solid returns
