Paid search ads can be a really important part of your marketing mix, but there is a learning curve and you need to be prepared to test and compare ads to optimize them.
In this article, we’re going to look at what paid search ads are, paid search best practices for chiropractors, and why you should look at using them for your chiropractic clinic.
What is Paid Search Advertising?
With paid search advertising, you can run paid search ads on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines to attract potential customers and bring in new leads. You might also know it as Pay Per Click (PPC) ads.
If you look at Google search, for example, you can see the paid ad placements at the top of the search listings, above the organic results. Naturally, this can bring your chiropractic business attention and visibility, even if your search engine optimization efforts aren’t paying off yet.
Using paid ads is a very quick way to get listed at the top of the search engines and get targeted attention from good leads.
To set up an ad, you need to research your keywords carefully and then set the maximum amount to spend per click and the maximum you want to spend on your whole campaign.
Create your ad and connect it to a specific, relevant landing page rather than any existing page on your site. You need this page to be fully focused on converting leads and convincing them to take action on your offer and there should be nothing else on your landing page but information on why and how to do that. The reason for this is that if your landing page is full of other distractions, such as links to blog posts, lists of other services, and other information, there will be too much clutter and it will be harder for leads to concentrate and follow your call to action.
The other reason for keeping your landing page highly focused and relevant to your ad is that the relevance of this page forms part of the Quality Score that the search engines use to decide where your ad appears. The more tightly relevant your keywords, your ad, and your landing page are, the higher the chance you have of appearing at the top of the results.
You might choose to use paid advertising to bring in new business or to build brand awareness. Paid ads can be particularly helpful if you want to introduce a new service or a new branch of your business, because you don’t have to wait for your search engine optimization to bring your new pages into a good position in the SERPS. You can set up an ad today and immediately gain visibility and start generating leads and income.
What elements make up a paid search ad?
Paid ads are digital ads shown at the top, and sometimes at the bottom, of the search engines. The positioning of your ad and how often it is shown will depend on your Quality Score, as we mentioned earlier, but also on how much you have bid per click.
These ads consist of three parts: your headline, your description, and your display URL. That’s all you’ve got to get the attention of potential leads and persuade them to click your ad, so your ad has to be eye-catching, clear, and to the point.
You can also include ad extensions to provide more information.
1. Headline
Your headline is the first thing people will see because it uses the largest text. As searchers skim the results of their search, it’s a great headline that can stop them in their tracks and make them focus on what you have to offer.
You must use at least one relevant keyword in your headline, and it can also work to include a call to action. Though as we said earlier, you will need to keep testing your best headlines, copy, and other ad elements to optimize your ad and ensure it is converting as well as possible.
When writing headlines, it’s worth noting that you can have two headlines on the three main search engines of up to 30 characters each, although on Yahoo, you can opt for only one headline and use up to 50 characters.
A second headline gives you the opportunity to include more keywords and add more information about what you offer.
2. Display URL
Your display URL can have up to 35 characters, and it is shown right under the headline in green text. This is made up of your final URL and any further information, such as the subdomain, to show your leads what page they will land on if they click.
This can be very reassuring for potential customers as they can see the name of the exact page they’ll land on, rather than worrying that they are being sent elsewhere.
For you as an advertiser, your final URL can also include tracking information to help you see where your leads are coming from.
3. Description text
Your description text allows you to provide as much information as you can to potential leads, with persuasive copy that guides them to click on your ad. Bear in mind that you need to include your keywords here too, and that you only have 80 characters to get your message across with Bing and Google Ads, though you do have a more generous 150 characters with Yahoo.
Take your time writing this or hire a professional writer with paid ad experience. This is where you get to put your most important information and tell people why they should click.
4. Ad extensions
Ad extensions can add greatly to the look and the success of your paid ads. You can add extra sections for useful details, such as location, contact details, pricing information, maps, reviews, and more. You could even include a click to call button for customer convenience.
These extensions make your ad larger and more attractive and help it stand out. They also offer more helpful information to potential leads, and they are more likely to click, especially if they can go straight to the page they want, such as a booking page.
Benefits of Paid Search Ads
There are numerous benefits to running paid search ads. However, it is important to keep testing and tweaking your ads, including with A/B split testing. Ads aren’t a one-and-done type of marketing. You do need to keep checking on them, analyzing their performance, and testing and optimizing to see how much you can improve your results.
Obviously, there is a budget consideration too. Ads can be expensive and competition high for certain keywords. But with the right approach and some thorough research, paid ads can pay dividends.
1. More visibility in local search results
You can target your ads according to location, demographics, age range, and more, creating a custom audience that matches your buyer persona research and your experience of your current customers.
You can also use negative keywords to ensure you aren’t spending money on advertising where it isn’t doing you any good. For example, if you only serve Dallas, Texas, you don’t want your ads to be targeted to people in other cities, even in the same state if it’s outside of your service area. If you notice that your ads are attracting people from elsewhere, you can add any other cities as negative keywords in your ads so that your ads aren’t shown in those areas.
Between the targeting and use of negative keywords, it’s a lot easier to reach people in your specific local area who are actively looking for your services.
And with paid ads, you can get almost instant results. You don’t have to wait until your Dallas landing page starts to rank in the search engines. You can quickly set up an ad and direct people straight to that page for great visibility in your local area.
2. More traffic to your website
With ads, you can direct people to exactly where you want them to go, including any dedicated landing page or a particular page on your website, such as your booking page.
This really is an excellent way to send more traffic to your website because this isn’t just general traffic, it’s highly targeted leads who have actively been searching for what you offer in your local area.
And again, you get instant results with more traffic possible as soon as your ad goes live.
This is exactly what you want, whether you’re an existing company wanting to rank for different keywords, new services, or a new location or a new company wanting to gain visibility and awareness quickly.
3. Higher quality leads
The person who is going to click your ad is someone who is already actively searching for chiropractic services in your local area. You couldn’t get a better lead than that. They actively want to find a chiropractor and they’re looking for options, possibly even to book today. It’s as immediate as that with paid ads, not just because the ads are so highly targeted, but because if someone is looking for a chiropractor, they’re likely to be searching for a quick solution to aches and pains or treatment for a particular condition.
You can’t control who randomly finds your website or visits your pages on social media. You can target this to a certain extent with your content, keywords, and hashtags and make sure you’re giving the right people what they want, but you’ll still likely get random people who just happened to find your page.
There’s far less chance of paying for random visitors who aren’t really interested in your services with paid ads. You really do have much more control.
4. Detailed analytics
The main search engines all give you detailed real-time analytics and data to help you assess what’s working and what’s not.
You can see visitors’ location, the time they spend on your site, and what pages they visited. You can even see which device they used.
With so many details available, it’s possible to closely analyze your ads and adjust and tweak them to better optimize them. You can turn off ads that aren’t working and duplicate ads that are, taking your ads closer and closer to the point where you are maximizing your results.
Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform demo
We can’t tell you that paid ads are easy or set it and forget it, but we can tell you that if you stick with them and keep testing, you can increase your local leads and your bottom line.
With Surefire Local’s business intelligence marketing software, you can get a helping hand and manage your ads and the rest of your marketing all in one place.
You can set up and manage your paid ads with our software and analyze your data to refine your results.
You can also produce reports showing how paid ads fit in with the rest of your marketing and how their results compare to everything else you are doing to market your chiropractic clinic.
You can manage your email marketing, jot down ideas for content, write and schedule blog posts and social media posts, manage and reply to your reviews, and update over 80 business directories and your Google Business Profile with just a few clicks.
We offer an all-in-one marketing platform at a fraction of the cost of other tools or agencies, helping you manage your most important online marketing activities with just one login.
Why not book a demo and see how Surefire can help you manage your paid ads and the rest of your marketing too?