It doesn’t matter what type of business you’re running – success in terms of marketing is all about getting the right message in front of the right person at exactly the right time. In a service-based business like physical therapy, that window is quite a bit narrower than most. People don’t need a physical therapist every day but when they do, you want to do whatever it takes to increase the chances that yours is the name they think of.
These days, the vast majority of people will discover your physical therapy practice for the first time via a search engine like Google. Not only that, but about 87% of people use Google to evaluate local businesses before they make contact for the first time. That “local” aspect is particularly important in this context, as getting your ad in front of an interested prospect will ultimately mean nothing if that person lives 100 miles away from your physical therapy practice.
All this is part of the reason why online ads have become crucially important for people like physical therapists in particular. According to one recent study, about 10% of all traffic on Google goes to the paid Google Ads and the majority of that attention will be centered on the top three results. Making sure that yours is the business that appears first will significantly increase your visibility, which increases traffic to your website as well. That traffic will also increase your organic ranking in local search results, which is another powerful way to make sure as many people as possible come right to your door.
Understanding the Impact of Online Advertising in Localizing Your Online Presence
If you needed a single statistic to prove that online ads contribute to local visibility, let it be this one: for every $1 that a business spends on Google Ads, it is estimated that they generate about $8 in profit in return.
That’s not to say that paid local online advertising is inherently better than your organic SEO efforts. It’s just that the former comes with a number of clear benefits in a shorter timeframe before you see that ROI. It’s difficult and sometimes time-consuming to rank high enough on a search engine like Google for it to have an immediate impact. Organic SEO efforts play out over time.
With paid advertising and online ads, it may be more expensive (in a manner of speaking), but it also helps expand your visibility far faster. It’s estimated that about 90% of Internet users will see a Google advertisement, for example.
Likewise, the type of traffic that comes from paid advertising tends to convert 50% better than organic advertising. This, taken alongside the fact that paid online ads tend to generate about twice the number of website visitors as organic SEO, creates a perfect storm in the best possible way.
To better understand why this is the case, think about the cyclical nature of SEO in general. One of the major factors that an engine like Google looks at to determine rankings is authority and traffic. The theory is that if large numbers of people are visiting your physical therapy practice’s website, it must have high-quality, relevant information.
Then, add in the fact that online ads can be purchased on a wide range of platforms. Not just Google, but also social media sites like Facebook, on YouTube, via directory listings like Yelp, and others. Another study indicated that the paid advertising channels with the highest reported ROI were Facebook Ads and Google Ads.
So from that perspective, the process is simple:
- Investing in localized online ad optimization for physical therapists gives your practice greater visibility right away, creating traffic from a number of varied sources across the Internet.
- That leads to more traffic to your website, which increases SEO.
- The process also generates higher quality leads than organic SEO alone.
- This directly translates into more customers, which leads to higher revenue as well.
Of course, you still need to understand which are the best platforms to utilize and how. Google Ads are great because when it comes to SEO, you’d be hard-pressed to find an equivalent to the company’s 83.49% global search market share as of 2023.
Facebook Ads are effective because they allow you to use the social networking site’s targeting features to your advantage. Do you want to be able to get ads in front of someone who lives in a specific area, who went to a certain college, who makes a certain amount of money, etc.? Facebook makes it easy to do it.
Instagram and similar sites are highly visual by their nature, which is perfect for ads that use pictures to show off what your physical therapy practice can do.
Of course, nobody is saying that the only way you’ll be able to succeed is to create ads on all platforms at the same time. Think about the audience you’re trying to reach and find out where they spend the majority of their time online. Then, prioritize those platforms for your online ads.
Most small businesses in particular allocate between 11% and 50% of their budget to paid online ads, so keep this in mind when putting together your own effective local advertising campaign.
Create Targeted Local Ad Campaigns
As you work to create targeted local ad campaigns, begin by defining specific geographic parameters. Think about how far someone would be willing to drive to try out your physical therapy practice. Then, target your ads to people who live within that range.
Work to craft organic, relevant ad copy and visuals that are tailored to those local audiences. Utilize local lingo and landmarks to your advantage.
You’ll also want to utilize the types of location extensions that are built into various platforms like Google Ads, along with related features, for increased local relevance.
Optimize for Local SEO in Online Ads
In terms of optimizing for local SEO within the context of your online ads, don’t forget to incorporate location-based keywords in the ad copy and visuals. If you’re targeting people looking for a physical therapist living in Cleveland, you should be using keywords like “Cleveland” or “Lake Erie” and things of that nature.
Regardless of how many platforms you use, always work to maintain consistency in terms of ad content, business information, and even any landing pages that you’ve also launched. You want everything you put on the Internet to feel like it’s part of the same, cohesive whole. You always want to avoid the risk of creating confusion in the marketplace.
Again, you’ll want to utilize ad extensions to showcase as many local details as possible. This includes your exact location, your physical therapy practice’s contact information, any local recognition that you’ve received, and more.
Collaborate With Local Partners
Small businesses have to stick together – end of story. That’s why you should explore partnerships and collaborations with other local businesses if possible. A natural fit for your physical therapy practice would be a local gym or fitness center, as you’re both organizations dedicated to improving someone’s body. However, think outside the box to see what you can come up with.
This type of collaboration creates a great chance for cross-promotion in ads, among other advantages.
Monitor and Adjust Ad Campaigns
Finally, you need to be ready to monitor and adjust your localized online ad optimization for physical therapists moving forward. You can’t improve that which you’re not measuring and you should always be working to improve the results you’re seeing. Therefore, you must always be measuring (and experimenting).
Set up tracking and analytics to get a real, objective look into how your ads are performing. Don’t worry – most platforms like Google Ads allow you to do this by default. This will let you analyze that data to make informed adjustments to campaigns based on what your weaknesses are and what you’re actually trying to accomplish.
Along the same lines, always A/B test different ad variations for optimal results. Try out unique versions of ads to smaller audiences to see which one is more effective before you roll it out to everyone who you are targeting.
You should also pick a tool and/or service that is designed to help you streamline all these steps as much as possible. The more straightforward it is to execute your advertising campaign, the higher your performance will be. Surefire Local is just one example of this type of platform, but there are many others out there.
Surefire Local: Your Partner in Online Ads Success
When you’re operating a service-based business like a physical therapy practice, you need to do everything you can to stand out in a crowd. Localizing your online presence is a big part of how you do it, and online ads go a long way toward accomplishing precisely that.
From creating targeted local ad campaigns to optimizing local SEO in those same ads, your campaign suddenly becomes the best type of brand advocate. It’s the one that never has to sleep, eat, or take time off, and is available to spread the word about your business 24/7/365.
At Surefire Local, we understand how important it is for physical therapists to prioritize and actively manage their online ads. That’s exactly what we want to help with by creating local signals across multiple platforms and profiles. All this work is in service of the most important goal of all: making it easier for the types of people who are looking for a practice like yours to find you.
We designed Surefire Local to be the all-in-one marketing platform that local businesses can depend on. Concerning local online advertising, it includes tools that let you design ads to attract only the attention of customers within your service area. Stop spending money on trying to target the largest possible audience and go after the right one instead.
Doing so means that you get more customers from every platform. It means that you can turn more of those website visitors into paying, satisfied customers. It also allows you to track results and optimize your performance, which allows you to make continuous improvement a foregone conclusion.
Surefire Local also has a number of other essential features, including ones like:
- Educational resources. Physical therapists like yourself can leverage webinars, blogs, and other helpful materials to learn and master all things online marketing.
- Analytics and reporting. Bring a whole new level of transparency to your campaign’s performance by seeing precisely how much revenue your marketing dollars are generating. Plus, you can take advantage of AI-powered recommendations to see specific advice on what actions you should take to see the improvements that you’re after.
If this all sounds like a perfect way to take localized online ad optimization for physical therapists to the next level, terrific – that’s a sentiment we agree with. To find out more information about just how powerful online ads can be when executed properly, or to speak to someone about your practice’s own objectives in a bit more detail, please contact us today. You can also click here to attend a Surefire Local demo to see exactly what our powerful platform can do in the right hands.