Editor’s Note: Today’s post is part two of Geoff Cooling’s PPC for Audiology Practices
Geoff Cooling
When you are designing an online ad, there are some elements you need to consider. They include what the advert is for, the keywords you want to target, the people you want to target and the advert copy you use to drive conversion.
All of these elements are important for success, and all of these elements need to be designed well to reduce cost per click (CPC), reach qualified prospects, increase conversion to leads and increase ROI.
What is The Ad For?
You need to focus the ad on one product or service only. If it’s earwax removal, then that is what the whole strategy is about. This will allow you the best return on the least investment. It ensures that your ad quality is high and your ad relevance is good–the two things that will reduce the CPC.
Google is just interested in the experience of their customers, the searchers. If your ad quality and relevance is high, they know that the searcher is going to have a good experience.
Then as Google tracks what happens with people who click through to your site, they become more sure that the experience is good. To do this they use certain signals to ascertain that, such as bounce rate, time on site and form submissions.
Therefore, you again need to target an ad on one service only, set up multiple adverts for the different services and products that you want to drive conversions for. This is the single best strategy to deliver good ROI.
The Ad Copy
Google does not give you very much space for your advert copy, it is basically 140 characters on two lines of seventy. It breaks our heart, because honestly, it can be difficult to write a compelling call to action in 140 characters.
Think of it as a headline, it needs to be sexy enough to get the click through. However, it also has to be completely relevant to the landing page.
We normally come up with a strong landing page title and then use some variation of that “headline” in the advert copy.
This ensures that the relevancy is high. There is also a title of the advert to consider, try localizing the title of the ad, “Earwax Removal in Nottingham” for instance, this helps with relevance if you are in Nottingham. It also helps to attract only qualified prospects.
Writing copy is a bit of an art; write it out a few times and see if it makes sense. Would it attract you if you were looking for the service or the product?
Targeting the Prospects
Initially as you set up the campaign, you will be given the opportunity to target the search term and the geographical area you wish to target. Make sure you are targeting only a geographical area where you can be reasonably sure that prospects will travel to you.
We were amazed at how many people were missing this; people were setting the targeting for the UK, instead of localizing the geographical area to their catchment area. If you are in Nottingham, what is the point of having someone from Belfast click on an earwax removal advert? It makes no commercial sense, increases your costs and reduces your ROI.
The Keyword Search
Pick your main keyword search carefully, it needs to be very relevant to the landing page. It will also be the basis of the keyword suggestions that Google offer and the broad matches that they generate.
Pick only the keywords that they suggest when they are relevant and feel like qualified searches. For instance, a search for earwax removal in your area is a qualified lead. They are searching for the service in your area. However, a search for earwax removal equipment is not. You do not sell it, it is probably someone looking for a home kit and they may never be one of your clients. So why waste money on attracting them to your site?
Conversion Parameter
When the campaign is enabled, you can set up conversion parameters. These will allow you to track how many viewers converted (undertook an action that you set).
Our main conversion parameter is always a thank you page that is generated by a form submission. Our secondary conversion parameter is a view of the Contact Us page on the site. It is not the conversion that we would like, but it gives us an idea that the prospect was interested.
Google Analytics Linking
You can and should link your adwords account to your Google Analytics account. This provides you with a deeper analysis of what is happening when people land on your site after clicking your ad. This also allows really in-depth tracking of those sources in your Google Analytics reports, which allows you to monitor your return on investment.
Managing the Campaigns
Managing the campaigns on an ongoing basis will allow you to ensure that the advert remains focused on qualified leads. It also gives you the opportunity to add keyword opportunities, change the advert copy and re-target locations.
Broad Match Keywords
Google will throw your ad up for broad-match keyword searches; you need to manage this on an ongoing basis.
Some of these broad matches are not qualified prospects, so you need to regularly look at them and exclude them if they are not right for your situation. Otherwise, your ad is being clicked by people who will never convert and it is costing you money!
Changing Copy
During the campaign it is possible to update your ad with differing copy. This allows you to test copy for click through rate. Small changes in copy can have big effects–the use of you in copy is powerful. For instance, “The Best Hearing Aids” and “The Best Hearing Aids For You!”. These two phrases are essentially the same but one speaks personally to the prospect. Guess which one has the better conversion to click through?
Could Your Practice Benefit?
Through our experience, we believe that there is a strong place for PPC advertising in an online audiology marketing strategy.
In order for your PPC campaign to deliver, it must be undertaken intelligently. It needs to be tracked, it needs to be tested and, most of all, you need to assess your return on investment.
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.
