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Getting your business to the top slot of Google’s results page is no easy feat, particularly for dentists. Not only do you have to adhere to proper healthcare marketing strategies, but you also have to keep up with the ever-changing algorithms Google will throw your way. Also, with so much competition swirling around the same keywords, results can be hit or miss.
Fortunately, for dentists looking to solve these problems and get their ads to the top of the results page, there’s always PPC. Pay-per-click ads (or PPC) will help distinguish your dental practice from the rest of the crowd by putting you at the top of Google’s search results for related keywords. While a solid PPC strategy is one of the best forms of advertising for dentists to hedge their bets on, there are still several potential problems you should learn to avoid in the process.
Here are three strategies you should avoid while developing your PPC ads for your dental practice:
Directing To Your Home Page
This one is a common mistake that most businesses make and fail to realize actually hurts them significantly. In fact, 1 in 5 small businesses directs their PPC ads to their home page. These companies who lead their target audiences to their homepage massively underestimate the fact that their potential customers are looking for a streamlined experience. Today’s consumers are mostly looking up information related to their healthcare, on the go or as they multitask—meaning they’re not seeking to go on a scavenger hunt for your services. Your method of directing click-thru to your site should always start with helping users find relevant information immediately.
Don’t send users in search of “teeth whitening” to your homepage when you have a page on your site devoted to this service specifically. Remember, relevance is always important when it comes to search, so be sure to always steer your users to where they want to go. Avoid making your visitors go through extra steps and risk losing them to the frustration that comes with combing through your page. Instead, send them directly to where you know they want to go with your dental PPC. Your aim should always be focused on making it easy for the visitor to use your site.
Permitting Broad Matches
All advertisers mean well with their broad matches, and they want to be able to be found in results by as many people — so they tack on a general audience to their PPC whenever they set one up not knowing how much it hurts them. At the end of the day, however, the average account owner wastes more than 25% of their AdWords budget, on broad matches. The problem is that when advertisers create broad matches in AdWords, they’re paying for useless dental pay per clicks. They’re failing to target solely to the people who will click on their ads because they’re interested in their services.
Avoid allowing click-thru from visitors who have no interest in your site or service by narrowing down your target audience. Although it will decrease the amount of traffic to your site, it’ll ensure you’re hooking visitors who want your services. What’s more, it’ll save you from burning through your budget.
Creating Generic Headlines
By now you’ve probably noticed that some keywords like “dentist,” “dental,” and “teeth” cost more than others per click and that this largely has to do with demand. These expensive words might be tempting to spend on, but it’s important to know that their price tag doesn’t necessarily reflect their worth. Not only are these keywords more likely to burn a hole in your pocket, but they also put you against every other dentist out there.
To create a proper headline find search terms that are unique enough so that every other dentist isn’t using them, but still broad enough that users can find you. Consider bidding on words related to your name and your location. If you have a strong enough presence online, your website and local listings should show up first for your business name. This will allow you to save yourself some money on clicks.
