Unless you’re planning for global dominance, you don’t need to run digital marketing campaigns that target patients all over the world. A patient across the Atlantic ocean cannot use your dental services. If you’re on the west coast, patients in the midwest will likely not search for dentists in your local area. So, how can you stop squandering ad spends and wasting clicks?
The answer is Local PPC Campaigns.
In this guide, we will define Local PPC Campaigns and share tips on how you can make the most of them. You’ll also learn how to start running these types of paid ad campaigns right away.
What are Local PPC Campaigns for Dentists?
Local PPC campaigns are paid online advertisements that target patients in a specific location. You can run these advertisements on search engines, like Google or social media platforms. This dental marketing strategy involves using local SEO keywords and geotargeting to create and your dental practice’s online ads.
PPC is short for pay-per-click. These kinds of paid ads campaigns involve paying ad publishers only when your ad is clicked. With local PPC campaigns, you’ll only have to pay for your ads when prospective patients in a specific target region click your ads. The more relevant, specific, and targeted your keywords and campaigns, the more you can gain from your PPC campaigns.
Google Ads is one of the most popular ad publishers, and this tool is set up to help you get the most out of local PPC campaigns. In Google Ads, these campaigns are also called local search ads. Local search ads allow you to feature your dental practice’s physical address in your ads and on your Google profiles.
This particular feature is also called Location Extensions. Location extensions help people find your dental practice easily. It makes it easier for internet users, specifically your prospective patients, to find you while using Google’s search engine or Google Maps. If you’re looking to target patients in proximity to your practice, this is an excellent feature to use.
5 Best Practices for Running Local PPC Campaigns for Your Dental Practice
1. Be Location-specific with Your PPC Campaigns
The goal of running local PPC campaigns is to target and reach your patients exactly where they are. Avoid targeting an entire country; get specific and target cities or a particular radius area from your dental practice. The more specific you are with your local search ads, the more likely you are to reach patients who are most willing to book an appointment with you. This will help you stop wasting ad spends on patients in areas your practice doesn’t serve.
2. Use Google Trends to Gain Regional Insights
If you’re unsure about what specific location to target or keywords to use, consider using Google Trends to conduct location and keyword research and gain more location-specific insights. With Google Trends, you can identify dental-related search queries or keywords that searchers, or patients, in a particular area are looking up. You can also use tools like SEMRush, Moz, and Ahref to conduct some more in-depth keyword research.
3. Include Relevant Regional Terms in Your Keyword List
If you live long enough in an area, you’ll learn some terms that are very popular in that area and can recognize those terms wherever you hear or see them. If possible, you should include relevant regional terms in your keyword lists for your local PPC campaigns. These terms will make your ads stand out and be more relatable to patients in that specific region. You can use this tool to find some regional terms that are relevant and relatable to individuals in specific US cities.
4. Add Target Location in Your Ad Title
Similar to those relevant regional terms, the name of your target location is very recognizable for patients in those regions. Consider including your target location in your ad title. If the text in your paid ads matches your prospective patients’ search queries, Google’s search engine will highlight that particular text, so your ads stand out.
5. Don’t Forget to Enable Location Extensions
Location extensions allow you to display your dental practice’s business address with your paid ads. When prospective patients see your address and realize that you’re nearby, they’ll be more willing to visit or contact your practice.
How to Run Local PPC Campaigns
You can either run your local PPC campaigns by yourself or work with an expert specializing in paid ads campaigns for dental practices.
If you plan to run your campaign yourself, you can use Google Ads to do so. Make sure you set up your geotargeting parameters (Settings > Locations and Languages), so you can add target locations and exclude locations you don’t serve. You can also use the Bulk Location tab to add, exclude or remove locations in bulk.
If you’ll like to work with a dental marketing specialist who’ll conduct in-depth location and keyword research, create a highly targeted local PPC campaign, and manage your campaign to ensure you’re meeting your goals, contact a Contact the Doc marketing specialist today.
Remember: you shouldn’t spend your ad budget targeting a broad audience. Save cost and time by investing in local PPC campaigns that reach patients in your target region.
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