Advertising of any kind within the healthcare industry can be challenging, especially with all the rules and regulations surrounding it. Healthcare PPC adds another level of complexity.

While it can be tempting to ignore PPC because of its innate challenges, that could be detrimental to the health of your business. Instead, you need to learn the right way to manage your advertising beyond simple word-of-mouth recommendations.

Digital marketing is the way forward for the healthcare industry. According to a 2019 report, Google gets about 70,000 health-related queries every minute. An effective PPC strategy can help capture some of those searches and lead them to your business.

The right digital marketing strategy can lead to long-term growth and increased revenue for your practice.

What Is Healthcare PPC

PPC stands for “pay per click.” These are typically the ads someone sees at the top of their Google search results. A business only pays for the ad space when someone clicks on the ad.

You get to choose which keywords you want to focus on to trigger your ad. For example, if you are part of a pediatric practice in Houston, you could run a PPC ad campaign targeting people who search for “pediatricians in Houston.” If someone Googles that phrase, your PPC ad would be near the top of the page.

Tracking and measuring the results of PPC campaigns is also relatively simple. This means you can quickly gauge how effective your strategy is and make changes if you don’t get the results you want.

6 Best Practices to Maximize Healthcare PPC

If you are looking for ways to maximize your marketing dollars, PPC is a great place to start. However, there are a few strategies and best practices you should keep in mind.

1. Understand Healthcare Paid Search Rules 

Healthcare is a highly regulated industry. There are specific rules and regulations you must follow, or you run the risk of incurring fines and other more serious consequences.

Google has specific paid search policies for healthcare ads. These policies apply to ads related to:

  • Clinical trial recruitment
  • Restricted drug terms 
  • Experimental medical treatments
  • Addiction services
  • Unapproved substances

There are also specific rules surrounding “health in personalized advertising.” This means you cannot target users based on their personal health information, including the following:

  • Chronic health conditions
  • Disabilities
  • Physical or mental health conditions
  • Sexual health

2. Know Your Audience 

One of the benefits of medical PPC and healthcare marketing is that the target audience is generally highly segmented already. Most practices know exactly who their target demographic is. This information can help you target new customers.

To do this, you will need to:

  • Create patient personas: Look through the historical demographic data of your patients and create detailed patient personas. Include information such as profession, healthcare concerns, income, etc. The marketing team can use these personas to create ad campaigns that target your ideal patients.
  • Create relatable messaging: Your ads and overall messaging need to reflect what your potential patients are looking for. Ads for a dental practice should be very different than those for an oncologist.
  • Track your ad performance: One of the best things about PPC advertising is that it is very easy to track. You can do A/B testing to see which ad copy or CTA works the best for your clients and delivers the most conversions.

3. Create Customized Landing Pages 

When someone sees your ad based on specific keywords and then clicks on your ad, they should immediately see relevant information on your website. The best way to do this is to create custom landing pages unique to each set of PPC criteria. Do not send people to your homepage. They will feel lost and not know where to click.

The landing page should have the same or similar wording to the triggering keyword or phrase. For example, if your PPC ad promises free dental x-rays for new patients, users should see the same offer on the landing page.

It should also feature a clean, minimal design with a straightforward CTA that lets users know exactly what they are supposed to do, like schedule an appointment. Be sure to thoroughly test your landing pages from the customer’s perspective. Are there any confusing steps or obstacles? Try to make the journey as smooth and seamless as possible.

4. Use Geotargeting 

While healthcare has shifted more into the digital world the past couple of years, it is still very much a local operation. Using geotargeting in your PPC campaigns is necessary to reach the right audience in the right place.

If someone searches for “urgent care near me” and they are in San Francisco, California, they will get results for urgent care centers near them. If you run an urgent care office near San Francisco, you can create a PPC campaign that delivers your ads to users within your geographic area.

5. Add Ad Extensions 

Ad extensions on the search engine results page (SERP) amplify your content and give users more information. Some of the most common extensions include:

  • Callouts: This is a short 25-character description that supports the main ad copy. You can highlight what your healthcare business has to offer.
  • Structured snippets: Use this area to highlight more of your services.
  • Sitelinks: Along with the main headline link, you can add additional sitelinks near the bottom of your ad. These links lead to specific landing pages, such as “About Us,” “Schedule an Appointment,” etc.
  • Location: Providing your address in your PPC ad is an easy way to let users know if your healthcare business is convenient for them. 
  • Call: With a phone number extension, users can click or tap the number to call you directly. 

6. Optimize Your Ads for Mobile 

According to Pew Research, 85% of Americans use a smartphone. Most of those people use their phones to research information online, including information about their health. Your website and all its landing pages must be optimized for mobile use. This means text, images, and CTAs should display appropriately without users needing to scroll around to find what they need.

Luckily, Google offers responsive search ads which automatically adapt based on the user’s device. You simply need to create multiple headlines and descriptions and the system will choose the best combination for each user.

Expand Your Healthcare PPC Potential with Behind the Work

If healthcare marketing feels overwhelming, don’t worry. Behind the Work is here to help. Just as we would never try to diagnose our own health conditions, we wouldn’t expect medical professionals to do their own marketing.

Our team of marketing experts is here to help your healthcare business with whatever digital marketing needs you have, whether that is SEO optimization, PPC ad campaigns, or anything else. We want to help your potential patients find you and get the expert medical help they need.

Ready to explore the world of healthcare marketing? Contact us today to start improving your online performance.

Free trials often lead to higher conversion rates. One study showed that two out of three buyers who used a free trial ended up purchasing the product or service afterward. However, encouraging B2B buyers to sign up for the trial in the first place isn’t always straightforward. Thankfully, PPC for SaaS companies can improve your trial signup rate.

Learn how pay-per-click for SaaS works and how you can use it to increase your trial signups.

Does PPC Work for B2B Marketing?

PPC advertising is effective for both B2C and B2B marketing for a SaaS company.

Reaching primary decision-makers can be difficult as you don’t have as many options as B2C marketing. However, when you use PPC strategies, you have a greater chance of your marketing content with your trial signup appearing in front of the right people, which will boost your B2B marketing strategy.

PPC ads can appear in searches, social media, and third-party websites.

What Are the 8 Types of PPC Ads?

Explore the eight primary PPC examples:

Paid Search Advertising

Search ads are content you sponsor to guarantee it appears at the top of relevant Google searches. This is the most popular type of PPC ad. When they appear at the top of search engine results, they have an “Ad” marker before the URL.

To create Google ads for SaaS businesses, you choose the content you want to sponsor and bid on keywords that you want that content to rank for in the tech niche. When your target B2B audience searches those terms, your content with the trial signup will be one of the top results.

Display Advertising

Display ads are like digital billboards. They appear in advertising widgets on sidebars of third-party websites. They are often images with messages that take the reader to a designated landing page.

Instead of targeting keywords, you target specific people. For example, Google can track users and display your trail signup ad to visitors who had previously visited your site.

Social Media Advertising

Over half the world’s population is on social media, making it an ideal place to advertise your trial. Even B2B companies see a positive return for social ads, with 60% of B2B marketers confirming they received an ROI from paid ads on social media.

Some of the most popular platforms for social media advertising include:

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the most effective social media channel for B2B marketing as 80% of the members are business decision-makers.

Because social media users enter an extensive amount of personal information, you can target your audience on social media easier. Use filters like location, demographics, interests, and behaviors to find your audience. Your paid content will appear on their feeds with a “Sponsored” tag under your profile.

Retargeting Ads

Not everyone who visits your website will purchase immediately. The average decision-maker will interact with 13 different pieces of content before choosing a vendor.

Remarketing is the strategy you use to bring your website traffic back to your site after they initially left. While there are several ways you can remarket, retargeting tracks the visitor and then displays PPC ads with your content on third-party sites. These reminders of your products and services offer visitors a chance to reconsider their decision and encourage them to return to your site.

About 33% of B2B marketers say they plan on investing in remarketing as part of their PPC strategy.

Instream Advertising

If you have a video ad, you can display it at the start, middle, or end of a YouTube video as a PPC instream ad.

YouTube is one of the top-visited sites globally, just below Google and Facebook, making it another prime spot to post your ads and reach your target audience. Since 70% of B2B buyers say they watch videos in their buyer’s journey, video ads should play a significant role in your PPC campaigns.

Gmail-Sponsored Ads

You can send your marketing content directly to your audience through Gmail-sponsored ads. These ads appear in the recipient’s inbox alongside their other mail but have an “ad” tag to distinguish them. However, since most businesses don’t use Gmail, these PPC ads are primarily for B2C marketing.

Google Shopping Ads

Google shopping ads are paid ads for your products or services. This ad format works best for physical items from ecommerce stores rather than SaaS companies.

Local Service Ads

This PPC ad is for local businesses offering services to help them appear in local search results. SaaS businesses do not qualify for local service ads.

“LinkedIn is the most effective social media channel for B2B marketing as 80% of the members are business decision-makers.”

How Do I Create a SaaS Marketing Plan to Increase Trial Signups?

Paying for an ad only improves your reach but doesn’t guarantee the right audience will click on the ad. So, what are the proven PPC tactics for more effective SaaS marketing?

Use these eight strategies to build a SaaS marketing plan to increase your trial signup rate.

1. Use Comprehensive Analytics

Tracking the buyer’s journey will tell you where your clients came from before they signed up for your trial. Those previous touchpoints will be key channels for displaying your PPC ads to increase the number of buyers ready to sign up.

However, the attribution model you use for tracking your buyers and their touchpoints will impact how you view your channels. An attribution model is how you distribute value from a sale among each contributing channel.

If you use a last-click attribution model, you only attribute the trial signup to the last channel the buyer visited. This model doesn’t consider other stops they made leading up to the trial signup. For example, that same buyer might have spent significant time on social media earlier in their sales journey, making that channel another valuable location for ads.

Seeing the entire journey in your attribution model is the most effective way to choose the best channels for your PPC ads.

Seeing the entire journey in your attribution model is the most effective way to choose the best channels for your PPC ads.”

2. Optimize Your Landing Page

Each PPC ad should have its customized landing page. A landing page is a static page that your traffic arrives at from your PPC ads. If your ads send your visitors to your website, they don’t have any specific direction to go and are more likely to get distracted on your site or lose interest.

However, a landing page removes all distractions like the navigation bar. When visitors arrive, there is only one action to complete, like signing up for your trial.

It can also customize the visitor’s message according to the campaign they come from. For example, if your ad was a PPC ad on LinkedIn that targeted financial decision-makers, your landing page might focus on the financial benefits of your software.

To optimize your landing page fully, you will need to perform A/B testing to see which formats and page setups connect best with your audience. For instance, you can run several ads that lead to a copy of the same landing page. However, each landing page might use a different color trial signup button. You can watch to see which color received the most trial signups.

3. Use a Variety of Ads

The average person sees between 6,000 and 10,000 ads each day. In addition, many of those ads are the same across different platforms. If your buyers see a copy and paste of your ad several times a day for several days, they will quickly develop ad fatigue. Instead of reaching them with your invitation to your trial, you will create a negative response.

To avoid ad fatigue, continually switch up your ads, message, images, and format to keep your ads fresh. Each interaction will feel like a new experience and give you another opportunity to highlight the benefits of your trial and products.

“The average person sees between 6,000 and 10,000 ads each day.”

4. Use Lookalike Audiences

When you use Facebook, take advantage of their lookalike audience feature for PPC ads. It will help you reach more of your target audience with your trial signup.

Lookalike is a feature that analyzes your current social media audience. It then searches Facebook for groups with similar characteristics and shares your ads with that audience.

You can create a custom list of a segment of your audience for Facebook to analyze. Then you can make up to 500 lookalike audiences for each group.

5. Create Multiple Personalized PPC Ads

Roughly 80% of marketers say they saw more sales when they used personalization in their strategies. Personalized PPC ads and landing page content change for each target audience to ensure it has the most relevant message for each decision-maker.

“Roughly 80% of marketers say they saw more sales when they used personalization in their strategies.”

For example, what motivates the head of marketing to sign up for your trial will be different than what motivates the CEO of the same company. Therefore, adjusting your ad to those titles allows you to reach your audience more effectively for a higher conversion rate.

6. Use Negative Keywords

You may already know about keywords, which are search phrases you target in your content to improve your ranking in Google searches. However, you can also use negative keywords in your PPC ads.

Negative keywords are the opposite of keywords you want to rank for. They tell the search algorithm what searches you don’t want your ad to appear in because they aren’t relevant to your products or services. By using negative keywords, you reduce the number of clicks on your ad from visitors who aren’t going to sign up for your trial because the service isn’t designed for their needs.

For example, if you are promoting a cookie tracking software trial, you might include “cookie recipe” as a negative keyword, so the search algorithm doesn’t pull your software up in baking-related queries.

Keyword vs Negative Keyword PPC

7. Track Micro Conversions

Before your buyers sign up for your trial, several micro conversions take place. The first micro conversion is clicking on your ad. Next, you can track how long they stay on your page or whether they scroll through the landing page to read your content.

By tracking these micro conversions, you can identify what parts of your PPC ad are effective and where you are most likely to lose your traffic.

For example, you might see many micro conversions leading up to filling out the form. However, most of your visitors might abandon the trial signup form before completing it. Therefore, you can identify the form as a roadblock to trial signups and work on improving that specific area of your landing page.

8. Create a Lead Qualification Process

Once your target audience signs up for a trial, your job isn’t done. When the trial ends, there is a chance they won’t purchase your product.

Part of your PPC ad campaign should include how to convert trial signups to retainers.

For example, once a buyer fills out the trial signup form, this action might trigger an automated email drip campaign. Through the emails, you nurture the lead and address any remaining roadblocks they may have.

You might also set up a support system where you can quickly resolve any issues and answer questions during the trial experience to ensure it’s as positive as possible.

Making a seamless transition from trial to retainer is also key to converting trial users because if the process is too complicated, they are less likely to complete it.

Optimize Your Trial Signups Using PPC for SaaS

Behind the Work can help you design ad copy and landing pages with a high conversion rate. Work with our B2B marketing experts to create customized content that will help you reach more of your marketing goals.

Contact us to learn more about our SaaS PPC Management service.

Search engine optimization and pay-per-click ads are two of the top strategies for getting your content in front of the right audience. They aren’t competing strategies but complementary solutions depending on your marketing goals and needs.

SEO is a long-term and cost-efficient strategy for overall growth, whereas PPC offers quick, short-term solutions for messages you want to spread immediately or strategically.

Explore these two strategies in more detail and how long you can expect before you see results to help you decide which solution is best for reaching your audience on your schedule.

SEO Timeline: Long-Term and Cost Efficient

SEO is the best source of high-quality leads, according to 60% of marketers. It’s an organic process of finding readers by ranking in search queries. Since 68% of online experiences start with a search engine, platforms like Google and Bing are powerful tools for reaching your audience.

Unfortunately, SEO isn’t a simple solution that yields immediate results. Instead, it takes careful planning and patience, but the long-term results are worth the wait.

How Long Does SEO Optimization Take?

On average, you can expect results from SEO after four to six months. After that, you will continue to see your traffic grow for months and years to come.

SEO is more cost-efficient than most other strategies. You will initially invest money to hire content creators and the tools for researching and publishing content. Then after you post the content, you have very few additional costs except for refreshing the piece to keep it relevant and well-ranking and the cost of new content creation.

SEO Timeline Template

Here is an average six-month SEO timeline:

Month 1

Planning Your SEO

  • Research high-traffic, low-competition keywords for your industry
  • Brainstorm content ideas
  • Review content that is currently ranking well in your industry
  • Examine the content on your website for pages and pieces you might optimize

Month 2

Prepare Your Website

  • Create a content calendar of your keywords and topics
  • Begin optimizing your website to help it rank well and be recognized as an authority

Month 3

Create Content

  • Start creating content for your website
  • Continue keyword research for future content
  • Gather data as you see results

Month 4

Start Seeing Results

  • Optimize your website and content from the reports you collect
  • Continue creating new content
  • Link to your past content and website pages to improve your ranking

Month 5

Expand Your SEO

  • Start expanding your SEO strategy to other channels like forums, social media, and industry websites.
  • Continue creating new content and using internal linking

Month 6

Analyze Your Results

  • Take time to analyze your results and adjust your strategy if necessary
  • Continue researching and creating new content

Year 1

Refresh Your Content

  • Analyze your SEO results and readjust if necessary
  • Update and refresh old content to keep it ranking high

How to Speed Up the Process

There are several factors influencing your timeline that can either speed it up or make it take longer, including:

  • How much content you already have online
  • What other channels you are using (social media, guest posting)
  • How much traffic and competition your keywords have
  • How high is the quality of your internal and external links are
  • The quality of your content

For example, if you create quality content for a keyword with high traffic but very little competition, you might immediately see a boost in traffic. However, if you are in a highly competitive industry, you would wait several months to build your online authority and grow your ranking before seeing a return from your strategy.

Websites that already have online authority will also see results faster than new websites with little or no online content, traffic, and authority.

PPC Timeline: Short-term and Targeted

PPC ads require a higher investment, but you can see results almost immediately. Even though PPC costs more, many businesses see a $2 return for every dollar they spend on Google Ads. Two of the most popular platforms for PPC are Google and Facebook, accounting for over 60% of ad spend.

How Long Does PPC Take to Work?

To maximize your return, you should plan for a three-month timeline for your PPC content. Giving time for research before posting your ads will increase the effectiveness and return of your ads.

PPC Timeline Template

Consider the following three-month timeline for your PPC strategy:

Month 1

Research Your Audience

  • Gather data insights about your market and audience
  • If you don’t have data, consider running a broad campaign for data collection purposes
  • Create an ideal customer profile
  • Find the best channels for reaching your audience

Month 2

Prepare Your Ads

  • Research keywords with high impressions and low competition
  • Create optimized ads that target your audience based on the data you gathered
  • Start bidding on your platforms of choice based on cost-per-click and keywords

Month 3

Publish Your Ads

  • Start publishing your ads and seeing results
  • Begin with a broad audience, then optimize your future ads as you see results
  • Gather data for future ad campaigns

How to Improve Your PPC Results

If you want to maximize your PPC results, you must take the time to research and understand your audience. Just because you are paying for an ad doesn’t guarantee results or that you will reach the right audience.

Data collection from past PPC ads will speed up future PPC timelines. For example, some businesses running their first PPC campaigns didn’t see results until after six months because they had very little data to use when creating their ads. However, you can see results in three or fewer months with the proper research and data.

Running more complex campaigns can also increase your timeline. For instance, how long does Google ads take to review? On average, they approve ads within one business day, but larger campaigns will take longer to create and get approval for.

PPC and SEO Working Together

PPC and SEO differences help them work together better. Your SEO strategy is an ongoing process on your website to continue attracting visitors. The longer you use SEO, the greater results you will see. Over time, you might see results within just a few days of publishing new content if you already spent the time and effort on previous content that helped your website rank well.

PPC campaigns work well for short-term goals or when you have SEO downtime. For instance, around holidays or special promotions, you can use a PPC campaign to attract a new wave of visitors. This new traffic will in return help boost your SEO rankings.

How Long Should You Run a PPC Campaign?

You will want to run your PPC campaigns for three to twelve months. This schedule gives your ad time to generate traffic and yield enough data to improve future ad campaigns. It also provides time for you to generate enough impressions for Google, Facebook, and other ad providers to rank your ad quality higher, improving your ad auction performance.

Improve the Performance of Your SEO and PPC Campaigns

Are your SEO and PPC timelines not meeting your expectations?

Finding the right balance between SEO and PPC for your marketing strategies takes time as you test and analyze the results of past campaigns and adjust your processes. Getting the right tools is essential for staying on top of search trends and maximizing the return from your SEO and PPC campaigns.

Contact us to learn about our SEO and PPC solutions to improve the performance of your marketing campaigns.

Even if you aren’t trying to reach a global audience, your online presence is vital for generating leads and attracting new customers. However, a local digital advertising strategy will differ from other digital marketing strategies because you have a narrower audience and target specific channels.

Explore how local digital advertising can help your business and learn six local advertising ideas to get you started.

What Is Local Digital Advertising?

Local digital advertising is an online marketing strategy that targets local customers through paid content. It works well for small businesses or those with local services who don’t need to reach customers on the national or international level.

Paying for a general ad that will appear in someone’s search query on the other side of the country wastes time and resources. Instead, you can target those within your community through digital local advertising efforts that combine knowledge of local searches with popular channels in your community. This maximizes your returns by reaching quality leads most likely to purchase from you.

The Importance of Having a Local Online Presence

Your online presence is essential for providing information, attracting leads, and communicating with customers. About 85% of consumers perform online research before making a purchase. If your business doesn’t appear in those searches, you will miss out on potential new customers. You don’t need to have a broad audience group for digital advertising to be effective. Even small businesses or those with a niche audience can benefit from local digital ads.

Digital advertising is one way to spread brand awareness and guarantee you show up in more searches. It works best alongside other advertising methods. Direct mail is the most effective form of local advertising, making up 22.7% of ad revenue. Online local advertising comes in second at 17% of revenue but continues to grow in popularity.

6 Ways to Get Started with Local Digital Advertising

Use these six local advertising examples to start your business’s local area digital marketing efforts:

PPC Using Local Search Keywords

Over 76% of customers who search for a local business will visit that business within 24 hours. Tools like Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush will give local keyword that your potential customers often use. Google is on your side and will often prioritize local results in search queries but targeting your location through keywords will increase your rankings further.

Your location-specific keyword should include industry terms and synonyms, like your products or services. You can create a long-tail keyword with less competition by adding popular modifiers, like the terms “best,” “one-day delivery,” or a specific occasion. To make the search local, add a location to your keyword.

For example, a small bakery in Virginia could use the keyword “best cupcakes in Arlington” in their advertising to get their content in front of their community.

Once you find your keywords, you have several options for how you use these phrases. You can get free local advertising by using those keywords throughout your online content. Otherwise, you can invest in Google ads or other PPC options where you bid on keywords for your ads. When you set up your PPC ad on Google or other search engine, be sure to include location settings that focus on a specific zip code or region.

Google My Business Listing

About 46% of Google searches are looking for local results. Google pulls search results from online content and its own database called Google My Business. This is a collection of business listings that help consumers find information, including:

  • Hours of operation
  • Contact information
  • Reviews
  • Products
  • Special accommodations
  • Directions
  • Images

Your business profile is a way to update customers in real-time and connect with potential customers. You can also communicate directly with customers through your profile.

Local Directory Listings

While Google My Business is one of the most popular online business directories, it isn’t your only option. There are several other directory sites to consider for increasing your visibility. Nearly 88% of consumers shop locally once a week, and 90% of purchases occur within 15 miles from a consumer’s home or office.

The number of directories you are part of increases your chances of appearing in searches.

Improve your local advertising by claiming and promoting your listings on sites like:

  • Yelp
  • Apple Maps
  • LinkedIn Company Directory
  • Bing
  • HubSpot
  • Yellowbook
  • Moz
  • Angi
  • Foursquare
  • Yahoo
  • MapQuest
  • Better Business Bureau
  • Thumbtack
  • Nextdoor

Pay careful attention to all your business profile options and take advantage of every profile area. Anything you enter in your profile can be a local keyword search term and improves your rankings and relevance for users.

Local Influencer Advertising

The

Social Media Ads

Over 4.48 billion people use social media. That is over half of the world’s population. Facebook is the most popular social media platform, with over 2.9 million users, followed by YouTube with 2.5 million users.

About 62% of businesses use Facebook for their marketing, with some reporting conversion rates of 9.2%. One of the reasons it is so successful for advertising is that about 15% of consumers use the platform for finding and purchasing products. Additionally, Instagram is also a popular channel for advertising as 70% of shoppers use it to discover new products.

If you advertise through a social media platform, use settings to target a specific location. Since users often enter an address when creating their profile, you have greater control over who sees your ad because of more available consumer data for targeted ad placement

Local Advertising Sites

What other digital platforms and local advertising apps are available in your community? Explore what your neighbors watch, listen to, and read to discover new places where you can purchase an advertising spot.

For example, podcasts offer opportunities to reach new audiences with little competition. One news report showed that only 15% of advertisers use streaming audio ads. However, this low number isn’t because it isn’t effective, but because most don’t understand how to purchase spots on channels like local podcasts.

Local podcasts offer more control than other audio advertisements, which can help with targeting local audiences. Because of the low awareness about this channel, you also have less competition.

Create a Local Advertising Strategy That Converts

Knowing where you will advertise is only half of the process. The next step is to create content that resonates with your audience and leads to conversions.

Contact our content specialists to create effective local advertisements for your business.