Business of Hearing Healthcare: Pay Per Click Advertising For Audiology Practices

By Geoff Cooling

Geoff Cooling

I wholeheartedly believe that Pay Per Click advertising can help drive real leads and appointments for Audiology practices, delivering a strong Return On Investment (ROI) that you can measure. If done properly and aligned with a strong website and web presence it can deliver perhaps up to a 20% increase in appointments, over and above what you are generating with all of your other strategies.

However, Pay Per Click (PPC) will only work if you target intelligently, set up your adverts well and then manage your campaigns.

PPC advertising is nothing new, it has actually been around for quite a long time. Probably the best-known platform for PPC is Google AdWords. In essence, PPC allows you to display ads that you design for people who are undertaking searches and browsing the web. The display of these ads is based on the viewer’s interest in the services you are advertising. You will set the parameters for the people you target when you set up the ad.

Therefore, your ads will only be shown to the people that it makes sense for you to target, right? Wrong.

Google likes to broad match search terms for your display ads. Therefore, your ads could be appearing for search terms that are not qualified–costing you money and not providing you with a lead. Let us look at how you can set up a campaign to target properly, how to get the very best out of a campaign and also how to manage the campaign on an ongoing basis to ensure it delivers for your practice.

The Elements You Need To Consider

There are two elements that you need to consider in relation to setting up PPC campaigns that work. The first is the landing page–the page that the person is sent to upon clicking your ad. The second is the set up of the ad itself.

Great care needs to be paid to both those elements in order that the campaign is successful and delivers the best value. If you have either of these elements wrong, every click is going to cost you more and your ROI will not be nearly what it should be.

Initially you should focus on your landing page, because it will set the parameters for the ad and for your onsite conversion of click throughs. A click through is when someone has clicked on your advert and landed on your site.

Designing an Audiology Landing Page for PPC: How & Why

Recently, we conducted a PPC experiment to assess the effectiveness and value of PPC as part of an overall audiology marketing strategy. In essence we found that PPC could be a very effective channel of marketing, but only under certain circumstances that could reduce cost and maximize ROI.

Your landing page needs to be well designed to immediately capture the attention, re-assure the person that they are in the right place, that you are the right person to do business with and encourage a conversion to an inquiry whether by a form submission or phone call.

There are many elements that drive engagement and that can be used on a web page, which we will detail here. They all have value and can be considered for the design of a landing page.

Relevance of the Landing Page

One of the most important parameters we have discovered is the quality and technical SEO{{1}}[[1]]Search Engine Optimization[[1]] of the landing page.

We have found that the more relevant the landing page was to the advert and its copy, the cheaper the cost per click and the better the on page conversion rate.

Example of a basic Landing Page

We keep the relevance of our landing pages exceptionally high, this drives down our cost per click dramatically. Increasing relevancy is not a mystical skill, you do it by simply focusing on the message of the ad across the landing page. You need to do this on all of the technical SEO elements of that landing page: the Meta title, Meta description, title header tags, and the copy for relevance to the advert copy.

In this way, the landing is completely focused on the advert copy.

You should ensure that you include keywords from the ad in your h1, h2 and h3 heading tags when you use them on the page. This increased relevance of the landing page to the advert will also assist with conversion of viewers to leads. That is, after all, what you are trying to do–convert website viewers to leads.

The Design Parameters

The copy is one thing, but design features of your page will also assist greatly with on-page conversion. We have looked at relevance, that addresses one part of the equation, however a relevant landing page might not convert anybody unless it is designed to do so. So what design elements make a landing page effective for conversion?

The principle factors are a strong adherence to the fundamental rules of conversion centered design:

• Use a clear and concise value proposition so visitors understand the purpose of the page immediately
• Focus the whole page on one single message, with one primary call to action (CTA)
• Use conversion design rules to make your CTA stand out (whitespace, colour, contrast, directional cues)
• Use clear stand out social proof
• Use attractive visuals
• If you are using a form to collect data, keep the amount of information requested to a minimum
• Include your phone number, BIG and Bold
• Include all supplementary information–terms & conditions, privacy policy, product details— as opposed to sending them to your website (which removes them from your intended conversion path)

Lets look at these elements a little further: first the clear value proposition.

We have seen many within the industry use an ad for one keyword or another that leads to a page that covers everything that they offer. This will not deliver the best possible conversion.

People have clicked through for a particular purpose, your page needs to focus on that purpose.

The headline needs to be very simple and leave no doubt about the purpose of the page and the service or product. You should then reinforce the headline with a well-written explanation of some of the core benefits directly below. Keep it concise and clear, no techno babble.

Concentrate on one single call-to-action (CTA). You may display it several times in different formats, even with different wording, but the CTA has to be focused on one single action. This is not a do this or that “oh and look at this” exercise: a landing page should be focused on one single action you want your viewer to take.

The focus for us is to acquire a lead, so our CTA is nearly all about getting a contact. For example: “Safe, Instant & Comfortable Earwax Removal, Call us at 100000000” or “Book your appointment online now!”

While we are offering two options, they are both focused on making a contact to book an appointment. There is little doubt left in the mind of the viewer what they should do next to get the service. All of your CTAs need to be just as focused.

CTA Design

When designing the CTA you need to ensure that it stands out, consider the use of whitespace, colour, colour contrast and directional cues. We nearly always use contrasting and obvious CTAs in designs. Make sure the button that is clicked to submit contact information stands out from the overall CTA box or element.

Social Proof

You need to use social proof on a landing page. Its use is often necessary to get the best conversion rate possible. We try to ensure that there is a social proof element on every page on a website, not just on landing pages.

Social proof is a powerful tool if used properly. Try to highlight the testimonial in some way, again contrasting color and the size of text can be used to make it stand out.

You need to add an image of the person giving the testimonial to the page. Images add real power, it allows the viewer relate to the person who has given the testimonial. We believe that video is the ultimate social proof, wherever possible we will use auto play video testimonials with sound. It drives conversion like no other form of social proof.

Imagery

Your choice of imagery on your landing page is important, it should be product or message related. Consider that carefully though, a great image of a happy couple of our target demographic can be message related. The imagery just has to be in context, it does not have to be industry related. In the case of some services always try to use personalized imagery, we really like to use imagery from the specific practice concerned.

Forms

On a landing page, you should use a form to capture contact details. Some do not and rely on driving inquiries through a phone number. We would advise doing both, our demographic can be funny, some will submit a form, and others prefer to use the phone.

You need to give them every opportunity to connect with you in the best way possible for them.

The form on any landing page should ask for the least amount of information you need to fulfill a task. On a booking form, the information requested can be as simple as a name, email address and/or phone number. The more information you ask for, the less chance it is filled out. Really all you need on an inquiry is a way to contact them, so their name and a contact route is all you need.

The information that you ask for on any form needs to be balanced with the perceived value of the item being given in return. For instance, some landing pages may be focused on free downloads that gather prospect information.

If you are offering a free download, for instance, what is the value of that download to the viewer? Not just that, at what stage of the journey to purchase is that download designed for? Answer these questions and you will understand how much information you need and how much they will be willing to give.

Make Everything Clear

Explain everything pertaining to an offer on page, all of the terms & conditions, your privacy policy, product details etc. You have designed a funnel, do not give them a reason to go off-funnel looking for information.

This is imperative: you have captured them, give them all the information on page and explain what happens next. In this way, there is nothing ambiguous, there is no uncertainty.

Audiology landing pages are important, they are the conversion drivers on your website. The elements that we have discussed here are useful for the design of any web page, not just your landing pages. However, we really need to use them to their best effect on landing pages. When we provide landing pages for customers these are all the things we consider and the parameters we work under.

*Images courtesy mag-corp, unbounced. Stay tuned for part 2: Setting Up the PPC Campaign.  

Geoffrey Cooling is the co-founder of Audiology Engine, a company offering web services to hearing healthcare practices. He is a qualified hearing aid dispenser in Ireland and worked in private practice. Following private practice he began work for a major hearing instrument manufacturer. Geoffrey has written about online strategies and business development for hearing healthcare on the Just Audiology Stuff blog since 2009. He has a passion for futurism, technology, online marketing and business development.