Is your Google AdWords management company doing its job for your dental practice? Done well, Google AdWords can bring in just the right patients. These three criteria will determine whether or not your management company is doing its job right.
Google AdWords can work really well for dentists. It can bring in high value patients who are ready to quickly move forward with treatment. The reason for that is, unlike other types of advertising, your ads are shown only to people who are actively searching for a particular treatment, such as implant, cosmetic, and orthodontic.
If it’s set up properly, AdWords can bring those patients to your practice. Yes, there’s the perception that it’s expensive, but it’s expensive only if your ads are not managed well. Chances are good you have a company that manages your practice’s AdWords, and unfortunately, many management companies do the bare minimum amount of work. They take advantage of the fact that you, as a dental practice owner, do not know much about how AdWords works, and you probably don’t have the time to learn.
If you’re not confident in your AdWords management company, check to see if they’re following these three criteria. If not, then it might be time to find a new provider. I’ve also included a tool at the end of this article that automatically grades your AdWords account performance. Using this tool will give you an idea of how well your account is being run.
Criteria 1: Monthly reporting
First, you should receive a monthly report from your AdWords management company. If you aren’t, it’s time to find a new provider. If you do receive a report, it should include cost per click, cost per views, and total clicks. These metrics are not useful alone as they do not give any indication about how much revenue or how many patients the ads are generating.
The only way to have a successful AdWords campaign is if you track the cost and inquiries, otherwise known as cost and lead. This means that you should know how much you’re paying per inbound call or online inquiry, (meaning someone filled out a form on your website). Check your report now. If there is not a cost and inquiry (could be labeled conversion) value, it’s time to find a new AdWords provider.
You should be paying $15 to $50 per inquiry or lead, depending on the type of treatment—for example, implant inquiries cost more than emergency dentistry—and your location—small towns and cities tend to cost less. So check how much you’re paying. If it is above $50 per inquiry, it’s time to find a new provider.
Criteria 2: Use landing pages
The next thing you should check is where your ad traffic is being sent. When people click on your ads, they should never be sent directly to the home page of your website. Let me explain why. If a person clicks on an ad for a $500 discount on Invisalign, only to reach your homepage that has no mention of the $500 offer, the person will likely become confused and quickly click back to Google.
This is like giving someone directions to a restaurant and then forgetting to mention that it’s actually in the alley behind the main building. Sure, some people might keep looking for the restaurant, but many will become frustrated and go to the place across the street.
In order to get as many inquiries as possible from your ads, it should be really easy for people. Give people a specific offer, explain how the offer works, and then tell them exactly how to claim the offer. If it’s confusing, people will bounce right back to Google and look for someone else.
Instead of sending people to your homepage, all ads should go to offer-specific pages, called landing pages. These should be just one page, with no other links or distractions, and should include info only about the offer in the ad. If you’re not doing this, you’re wasting money on clicks that are not going to turn into patients.
Criteria 3: Use a tracking phone number
Many of the leads from AdWords will call into your office. You should be tracking these calls with a tracking phone number. This is a number that redirects to your main office line but will register in AdWords that a call was made using this number.
This goes back to proper tracking and reporting of the amount of calls and online inquiries from criteria number one. Proper tracking of your ads allows you to optimize ads based on how many inquiries you receive.
If you’re not sure if your AdWords company is doing any of the above, check out Adhancement to evaluate your AdWords account performance. Adhancement will automatically review your AdWords account and give you a performance-based score. It can also tell you how you can make adjustments to your account to get better results. It only takes 30 seconds and your management company won’t know that you’ve checked up on them.
Click here to get your AdWords report now.
