There are so many digital marketing terms thrown around nowadays that it is easy to get confused. Today we’re talking about pay-per-click marketing, or PPC, and how it can help you entice new clients through the doors of your hearing practice.
What is PPC?
When someone types a phrase into a search engine and hits submit, they’re sending a keyword so that they can receive a list of websites which match that keyword. Pay-per-click (PPC) ads offer a way for hearing companies to ‘bid’ on search engine keywords that their potential clients are likely to use when searching for services that they offer.
When users search for this keyword, the companies with the winning bid will get their advertisement at the top of the search engine’s results. As the name indicates, only when a user clicks on your ad do you get charged for that advertisement.
PPC helps fill your ‘lead generation funnel’
PPC is a great way to secure new clients to your hearing practice. But to understand how, we have to first understand what a lead generation funnel is. If you haven’t heard about it before, a lead generation funnel is used to describe the voyage your prospective clients undertake when engaging with your hearing practice. Just like a funnel, through advertising you usually receive a wide range of possible clients and reduce them down to actual paying customers.
The funnel’s process usually has a set sequence of events. It begins with acquiring simple information such as the name and address of the potential client and then goes on to obtain more detailed information.
As they respond to each step, potential clients become more and more likely to become fully-fledged paying customers with each step in the funnel, whereas others will drop off.
The funnel generally finishes with ‘ closing the deal’, getting customers to perform the action that will bring profits to your company. In the hearing practice world, the most profitable end-point would of course be for an individual to purchase a set of hearing aids from you.
Information exchange
PPC is an excellent way for you and your potential clients to start a conversation to learn more about each other. It must be stressed that the aim is not to use PPC to try and sell hearing aids directly to customers from the search engine.
We both know that your practice cannot sell a hearing aid to just anyone on the street. Rather, using PPC helps you to check to see if the potential customer has a hearing loss that would benefit from treatment. That’s why it is important to have this exchange of information occur before direct product-selling proceeds.
Three ways PPC can help bring you new clients:
- You get instant results
Once you have taken the time to organize your campaign, all you need to do is press the start button and your advertisements will start running directly. You can appear on page 1 immediately and be viewed by those who are looking for exactly what you are providing. This will provide an immediate boost of traffic to your website.
- You can specify your niche and pay less.
You no longer need to pay through the roof to advertise to the customers you are looking for. By targeting users’ specific searches connected to hearing loss in your area, you’re not competing with national companies and your price per click is likely to be smaller. For example, if you’re a hearing practice in Cincinnati, there’s no need to advertise to anywhere else outside the city and surrounding areas, or the rest of the United States for that matter. You can target your campaign to only be shown to that geographic region.
- It’s a great way to advertise a promotion you’re having
Are you offering a free hearing check, or maybe you’re in a position to offer a free 30-day trial for one of your hearing aids? Whatever it is, AdWords allows you the opportunity to promote this using your ad’s text.
Nick Fitzgerald is the President and Owner of AuDSEO. With 13 years of digital marketing experience, Nick is a highly data-driven marketer, with expertise in search engine optimization, digital analytics and forensics, social media, digital advertising, and web development. He has been involved in the construction and optimization of nearly 1,000 web presences, including some of the largest Fortune 500 companies
