Running a veterinary clinic sometimes requires you to wear multiple hats. You have to manage customers, treat patients, maintain stocks of medicine and supplies, and keep your practice clean and sterile. With so much to do, finding the best way to bring in new clients might seem like another impossible task. However, there are certain online marketing methods that can help your business bring in new clients and appear high on search results pages, even before your competitors.
In today’s competitive environment, having an edge over other local veterinary practices is essential. Paid advertising is a great strategy to include in your online marketing plan that can help you jump to the top of the search engine results page. With the right approach and understanding of paid ads, along with the most valuable paid search best practices for veterinarians, you can get fantastic results and take your business to the next level.
What is Paid Search Advertising?
Paid search advertising is also known as PPC, or pay-per-click advertising. This type of advertising will place an ad at the top of a Google (or other search engine) search results page for specific keyword search phrases. Then, anytime someone clicks on the ad, you, as the advertiser, pay a charge to the hosting platform.
This type of advertising is one of the most popular forms of advertising online today. You begin by picking which keywords you want your ad to appear for, and then bidding on those keywords in order to appear at the top. From then, it’s all about creating a powerful ad that converts readers into clicks so that you can direct them to a landing page and encourage them to participate in a campaign or become a customer of your veterinary business.
A paid search ad will have the same set of components, no matter which search engine platform you use it on. Those components are:
- Headline: The headline is the large text that will draw the attention of a reader on the search engine results page. This needs to be compelling and intriguing to searchers so they want to read further into the ad and click on it.
- Display URL: The display URL will show your website directly underneath the headline so readers know where they will be directed to if they click on the ad.
- Description Text: The description text is the part of the ad that will showcase the details of your offer and explain to readers why they should go ahead and click on the ad. Pay attention to character limits and write compelling copy that will guide readers to your website with a powerful message.
- Ad Extensions: An ad extension is a way for you to take up more space on the search engine results page than just the traditional ad layout. It can help you provide more information, such as a phone number, location, or additional links, so your ad is more prominent on the page.
As you start to create paid ads, it’s important to keep paid search best practices for veterinarians in mind so that you have a strong strategy from the beginning. Without that approach, you might find yourself struggling to keep up with competitors and wasting your marketing dollars.
Have a Budget Review Process in Place
It goes without saying that you need to have a budget when you first start working with paid ads. After all, you don’t want to have an inflated cost that takes you way beyond your marketing budget. However, it’s also important to have a review process in place for that budget so that you can look back and make adjustments as you work on your strategy.
Many search ad platforms like Google will allow you to adjust your ad campaigns as they are running, so you can make changes to your budget or keywords in order to get better results. Look at which ads are performing well, and which might need more help, and don’t be afraid to change things up, rather than waiting for the campaign period to end before reviewing your budget choices.
Stay Up to Date on New Features
As with many different online tools, there are constant changes and new features being added to improve the experience for both advertisers and searchers. Being diligent and staying up to date on what is changing on different ad platforms will help you understand the best ways to utilize the tools available to you and take advantage of all the opportunities provided on the platform.
Subscribing to different online publications or email lists can help you know when a new feature or update is coming to an ad platform. This helps you stay informed and know when there might be a beta feature or tool that could work for your business that is worth exploring.
Run Paid Ads on Multiple Platforms
Many veterinary practices get caught up in the idea that Google is the only way to go with paid ads. While Google is certainly important, as it is the largest and most commonly used search engine, it’s also important to remember the other search engines like Bing and Yahoo that can also display search ads for your practice.
When you run ads on different platforms, you have a better chance of capturing the attention of a wider audience. You can even get in front of customers that your competitors have forgotten about with ads on other platforms. It might also be less expensive, as competition for certain keywords on Google might be expensive or outside of your budget.
Focus on Local Keywords
As a local business, you want to be found by people in your local area. So trying to compete for keywords like “best veterinarians” or “veterinary services” won’t be as impactful as keywords like “best veterinarians in TOWN” or “LOCATION veterinary services”. Focusing on local keywords not only helps you narrow down your audience but can help increase brand awareness of your name.
While most search ad platforms have location features, you want to use keywords with location indicators as well, as that will be what most people in your community are searching for. Doing keyword research for these local search terms before you start running paid ads is an important way of finding the best ways to appear on search engines.
Benefits of Paid Search Ads
Paid ads aren’t just another gimmicky tactic. There are real benefits that you can attain when you have a strong paid search strategy and are committed to putting in the work to find success (or work with someone who can help you do this). Here are a few of the biggest benefits that you can get from paid search ads.
More Visibility in Local Search Results
When you run search ads, you get to choose the location that you want those ads to appear in. That means that you will show up more often in local search results, and gain visibility for “near me” searches. This can help you find the right customers, increase brand awareness, and become a recognizable name in your community. It is also a great way to appear in Google Maps searches, not just a traditional Google search.
More Traffic to Your Website
Paid ads bring more traffic to your website. When someone clicks on an ad, they are usually directed to a landing page. From there, they can go in and explore more on your site to understand what your practice is all about and what services you offer. It’s a great way to boost the traffic to your website and then get more leads out of that traffic.
Higher Quality Leads
Speaking of leads, ads will bring in higher quality leads than a traditional organic search will. When someone searches for a specific keyword, like “vets near me”, they are more engaged than someone who stumbles across your website from another source. They are more likely to need your services immediately, and are of a higher quality than other sources of leads that might be colder or not need to contact your business immediately.
Detailed Analytics
Search ad platforms like Google offer a detailed analytics platform for the traffic and clicks you get from paid ads. This data can be used for many different applications, such as increasing marketing activity, understanding more about your audience, or learning what keywords resonate best for your business.
Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform Demo
At Surefire Local, we want to help veterinarians find clients and grow their business with marketing activities like paid search advertising. That’s why we provide business intelligence marketing software at just a fraction of the cost of other platforms or agencies. Our all-in-one solution will help you manage the most important online marketing activities, like paid search advertising, on a single platform. To learn more, get a demo of Surefire Local and see for yourself how we can take your veterinary practice to the next level with the most important marketing tools for your needs.