Advertising your physical therapy practice online in today’s competitive landscape can be difficult. And if you’re like many physical therapists, you may have a smaller budget and need to make every ad dollar count.
Paid search ads are a great way to optimize your physical therapy marketing to drive more qualified leads and increase conversions. Here are some best practices that you can get started with and how Surefire Local’s business intelligence marketing platform can help you make the most of your PPC ads.
What Is Paid Search Advertising?
Paid search advertising is a form of digital marketing that allows companies to buy the top spots in the search engine results page. This substantially increases a brand’s visibility and the likelihood that users who are searching for the products or services that the brand offers will click on the result.
To purchase an ad, marketers will bid against one another for the top result for the keywords that are most valuable to them. For physical therapists, local keywords like “physical therapy in Dallas” or “Boston physical therapists” are generally the most competitive.
The more businesses who want to have a featured search result for that keyword, the higher the cost per click. When an advertiser’s bid is accepted and their result is featured, they will be billed however much they offered to pay for each user that clicks on the result.
Why Physical Therapists Should Be Taking Advantage Of Paid Search
Service providers can benefit substantially by using paid search strategies to generate local brand awareness, especially in the healthcare industry. That’s because the overwhelming majority of users – 92% to be exact – click on a business on the first page of Google when conducting a search, according to HubSpot.
Local SEO is more important for physical therapists than ever before and for good reason. PTs who invest in a good pay-per-click marketing strategy see more:
Visibility In Local Search Results
Search engine optimization is highly competitive and it can be difficult for physical therapy practices to rank, especially if they’re small practices or solo PTs. Paid search marketing allows smaller brands to compete for advertising space that they wouldn’t be able to get organically.
It also offers much faster returns than organic SEO and can be used to drive quick leads for a promotion or to meet a revenue goal. When you run well-managed PPC marketing campaigns, more users who are searching for physical therapy services in your area will be able to find your information.
Traffic To Your Website
The higher up your website is on the search results for any given keyword, the more traffic you’ll get on pages that are optimized for it. The further down your search result is, the fewer users will actually make it to your website before they click on a competitor’s or give up searching altogether.
PPC ads put your physical therapy practice at the top of the page for your most valuable keywords. These should be the hyperlocal phrases we mentioned above, like “physical therapist in Nashville.” These are the keywords and phrases that are most likely going to be used by people who are in your area and are actively looking for a physical therapist.
Qualified Leads
Pay-per-click also drives more qualified leads to your website than many other forms of digital marketing. The users who are most likely to click on PPC ads are highly motivated and many of them are ready to make a purchase immediately. They’ve moved past the awareness and consideration stages and have gotten much closer to making a decision.
Make sure your ads are highly relevant to these users and do an excellent job of answering their search queries. There should be no question in their minds that they’ve found the right search result and that your practice can help solve their problems.
Detailed Analytics
PPC advertising software can also provide physical therapists and practice managers with detailed analytics that show which ads are doing well and which aren’t driving as much traffic or engagement as you’d like.
With this information, you’ll know which ads to pull and which to put more money behind to make your local paid search ads even more effective. If you’re not making a habit of testing and analyzing your ads to promote only the best-performing ones, you’ll likely end up spending a lot of money on poorly performing ads that aren’t driving as many leads or conversions.
Paid Search Best Practices For Physical Therapists That Really Work
With pay-per-click advertising, you have a lot of control over how much you’re spending on your marketing, which demographics see which ads, and other key factors that play an important role in the overall success of your campaigns.
How you manage these details can make the difference between a great campaign and a failed one. Here are some effective paid search best practices that physical therapists can start using now to boost their PPC ads:
#1. Headlines
Your headline is arguably the most important part of your pay-per-click ads. It’s the first thing a user will read and if it doesn’t match their search intent, they’re not likely to click. Make sure your ad headlines:
- Include your target keywords
- Showcase your unique value proposition
- Connect with the emotions of the user
- Provide the user with a solution to their problem
- Don’t go over the character limit or your headline will get truncated
#2. Display URLs
The next most important part of your PPC ad is the URL. A good URL structure is key for search engine optimization and also plays a role in the overall user experience. Long, complicated web addresses are difficult to remember and type, which makes them less shareable.
Make sure your paid ads have URLs that are short, simple, and clear. They should also include your keywords and use hyphens to separate them and make the link more readable.
#3. Description Text
Your ad description should complement the headline and use supporting keywords to further show that your search result matches user intent. Since you don’t have a lot of space to work with, make sure you’re honing in on the most important points. Let users know exactly what they’ll gain from visiting your website and then follow through with those promises on the landing page that users will arrive at when they click your ad.
#4. Call To Action
Your ad’s call to action is what tells users what you want them to do next and gives them clear instructions on how they should go about it. Experiment with different tactics like adding a sense of urgency to your CTA or playing on a user’s desire to fit in or answer questions.
You should also make the offer low-risk and keep the ad copy short and sweet. You don’t want there to be any confusion about what users ought to do or where they should go next.
#5. Ad Extensions
Ad extensions allow you to include extra snippets of information beneath your ad to further inform users and entice them to click. These are called assets and can be used to display callouts, images, lead forms, prices, promotions, and more.
Ad extensions are free to use and help drive more traffic to your site by giving users additional opportunities to see what you have to offer and reach out to your physical therapy practice without having to dig through your website to find it. Extensions also have the potential to substantially increase your click-through rate — AdEspresso suggests that adding even one new asset can boost an ad’s CTR by as much as 15%.
If you’re not already using ad extensions to maximize the value of your paid search ads, now is the perfect time to start.
#6. Landing Pages
The web page that users go to when they click on your ad is called the landing page. Because this is the very next thing that users see after first showing interest in your practice, it’s important to optimize their experience as they browse your content.
The headline of your landing page is just as important as the headline of your PPC ad and should match user search intent just like the language used in your ad. You don’t want users coming to your page and wondering if they’re in the right place.
Use high-quality graphics and make it easy for potential patients to reach your office to book an appointment. If possible, offer the option to book online, right there on your landing page.
Ready For Better Leads? Attend A Surefire Local Marketing Platform Demo
Paid search ads are a cornerstone of effective marketing for physical therapists and can help you drive higher-quality leads to your landing pages and convert more of them into valuable patients.
Surefire Local offers a total marketing solution that can help you manage your paid search ads, social media marketing, SEO, and more all in one place. Request a demo of our business intelligence marketing platform now to see how our all-in-one software solution can help your physical therapy practice grow.