While Google AdWords is a very effective marketing tool for dentists, it is easy to waste money if you are not experienced in setting up this type of campaign. The most common mistakes are using broad match keywords and targeting keywords like teeth whitening.
Broad match keywords are the default suggestion from Google; however, they give Google permission to show your ad to anything that is related to the keyword. So for example advertising for dentist might result in your ad showing for something like “how much does a dentist make,” which will likely not result in a good use of your budget.
The issue with teeth whitening is that there are a wide variety of over the counter whitening options, as well as a lot of questions about whitening. The key to a successful AdWords campaign is to pay only for the clicks that are looking for a dental practice. If half of your audience is searching for a piece of information, or an over the counter product, then you will overpay for leads.
Use the guide below to set up an efficient AdWords campaign for general dentists.
Download the AdWords Guide for Dentists
Ongoing Maintenance
In the early stages, it is wise to review your campaign once a week. Once you have it performing well, you can scale back your management reviews to once a month. Each time you review the campaign, be sure to view your search terms. Note this is not the same as keywords; these are the terms you actually paid for. Look for terms that you did not want to pay for. For example if your practice is in Denver, you might see your keyword +dentist +denver register for “Johnson Dentistry Denver CO.” In this case you would want to add a negative keyword for the word +Johnson. Paying for clicks that are looking for your competitors is generally not a good use of your budget.
It is also important to pause poorly performing ads and create new ones based on ad copy that has done well.
Need Help?
Learning AdWords is not easy. While they have a user-friendly interface, it is very easy to waste your budget. When inheriting campaigns from AdWords amateurs, we rarely see a successful campaign. If you are a dental practice looking for more new patients, consider contacting Peak Dental Services® to talk about how we can help accomplish your practice goals.