Many of us already heard about Pay-Per-Click or PPC, though some people still might not know what exactly that is and how it works. In simple words, PPC is an online marketing model that allows advertisers to place an ad online paying a commission only when the ad is clicked. Essentially, PPC is a way to buy visits to your site, rather than trying to earn visits organically.
Pay-Per-Click is a very popular digital marketing tool actively used by businesses from different industries, and the medical sector is not an exception. For instance, some Internet users might be actively searching for keywords related to healthcare professionals when they want to book an appointment or when they are looking for some medical services. And if you use PPC ads, you may miss a lot of prospective patients. While in contrast, if you use it, you will have more patients and higher sales.
Why should a healthcare professional use PPC? What are the benefits?
1. You only need to pay for an action – when an Internet user clicks on your ad. Taking into consideration that the average cost per click in Google Ads is between $1 and $2, PPC advertising may considerably reduce your overall marketing costs.
2. PPC is a very handy tool that allows you to track click-through rate, ad position, and the number of leads and measure your return on investment right away. That way you can plan your marketing expenses ahead, optimize costs per click and make ad-hoc adjustments to the digital marketing campaigns.
3.You can tailor your PPC ads to a targeted segment of customers, for example, patients in a certain age group or patients within a specific geographical area, or patients who are looking for specific services. Hence, you can ensure that you focus on the right patients’ niche driving relevant traffic to your medical practice’s website.
4. The better and more specific your digital ad is, the better your ad rank is. Google AdWords always rewards the good performance of the ads, their relevance, and high click rate by charging less fee per click. Therefore, it is very beneficial to create a highly curated ad, as it will help not only to lower costs but also to increase your brand’s online visibility and attract more targeted patients to your website.
5. PPC can significantly increase your profits. According to Google’s economic impact, for every $1 spent on Google ads, a business will get $8 in profit, which means that your ROI is 700%. Of course, to make profits from PPC ads you need to do deep research and select relevant keywords that will drive traffic to your ad, otherwise, you may even end up losing money.
How does the sales funnel work with PPC for healthcare professionals?
First, an Internet user (potential patient) searches for keywords. E.g. medical practice in El Paso, the best healthcare professional in Texas, high-quality medical services, etc. Then Search Engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, etc.) display a search results page with paid adverts placed at the top of the page (The most relevant ads will appear first). After that prospective patients usually click on the ad and/or check reviews about the doctor resulting in booking an appointment with the professional´s clinic. As you can see, tailored PPC ad noticeably fosters the sales process.
It’s also important to take into consideration that there are different Pay-Per-Click advertising strategies for doctors. These are the most popular ones:
- Google AdWords for healthcare professionals Websites. This platform is one of the best digital marketing tools for businesses that allows placing PPC ads in Google search. It helps the medical practice to grow an online presence, increase visibility and build an online reputation.
- Display advertising for healthcare professionals. Display Advertising includes all the ads that you see online. It’s a useful tool that allows you to get your message out to customers across different Internet platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.), engage with them, deliver relevance and impact your bottom line.
- Bing Ads for hospitals. Bing Ads are search ads on the Microsoft Advertising PPC platform. It is similar to Google Ads with some different features and lower costs. Bing is a less popular search engine with lower traffic, however, there’re still a lot of untapped opportunities to increase the number of patients by using Bing Ads.
- Yahoo Gemini Ads for healthcare professionals. Another inexpensive platform for PPC ads with an 11% share of mobile search traffics. Even though it has much less traffic than Google, Yahoo Gemini has some appealing features – it allows a wide scope of geotargeting not only based on geographical location, gender, or age but also based on the interests of the target audience.
So, don’t think what is better – Google Ads, Bing Ads, or Yahoo, instead use all of them to increase reach out to potential patients across different platforms.
It is very challenging to create and optimize Pay-Per-Click campaigns that will generate fast tangible results for your medical practice. And if you want to have a successful PPC campaign, you need to hire a digital marketing professional with strong expertise bringing you real value and return on investment.
In this new era of technology, how businesses target their audiences has changed exponentially. The digital world has provided countless channels where you can expose your business to potential costumers. Regardless of what your business does or sells, exposure is everything. Actually, the more eyes you have on your business the more possibility of it expanding and succeeding on a larger scale. With this in mind, Facebook ads might just be the missing piece for your marketing plan.
How Social Media Changed Business Marketing
Nowadays, the majority of people can be reached through digital media. 81% of the US population to be exact. Let’s say that out of that 81%, the average person spends 1.72 hours online on the different social networks. Out of those 1.72 hours, 50 minutes are spent only on Facebook. Imagine having 50 minutes in which you can reach your customer and convince them to engage with your business. Whether this means buying your product/service or simply liking your Facebook page, every engagement counts.
Facebook began as a social networking site where you could find your friends and interact with them online. It opened a world of possibilities. Suddenly you could reach out to family members living far away, or reconnect with old high school friends with just the click of a button. In the same manner, the possibilities of using this platform to market to large audiences became a new prospect for businesses. Consequently, with time, Facebook evolved into one of the most reliable forms of social media and a highly trackable tool for marketers. Through Facebook ads, Facebook has been able to create partnerships with the big data brokers like Epsilon and Datalogix; allowing Facebook to offer a more commercial approach for marketers.
Benefits of Facebooks Ads
If you considering investing in Facebook Ads for your business here are some main benefits for you to consider
Targeting:
Facebook is first and foremost a socializing network with its main purpose being connectivity. This connectivity allows marketers to reach a wider audience. How? Through likes, comments, and shares. For example, you like a Facebook Ad that appeared on your timeline. By liking it, your friends can see that you liked it, and that might drive them to click the ad as well. The same applies to comments and shares of Facebook Ads. They all cause a ripple effect causing your Facebook ad to spread further than just your targeted audience.
However, it is really important to know who your audience is. Mostly because you need to know exactly for whom you’re writing the ad. You have to make them care enough about it to make them engage with it. The first step to define your target audience is to specify: who they are, where they are located, what they like, and how they behave online.
Measurability:
Marketing is highly defined by the numbers. It is crucial for marketers and business owners to be able to see the results of their marketing efforts. Technologic advances now allow for a much easier way of measurement when it comes to marketing online. Facebook Ads have an incredibly easy system that can test ads with great ease. Facebook Ads give you a very detailed review of how your ad is performing across your selected audience. You can easily see how many people liked, commented, or shared your ad. Additionally, you can see how many people it reached organically or through budget allocated to it. From all the data you gather, you can then assess how to better target your future ads.
Affordability:
Now, more than ever before, marketing to millions at a time is not only possible but incredibly affordable. The cost per Facebook ad depends on a variety of factors. Targeting range, quality of the ad, and even the time of the year your ad is published are factors that influence the cost of your ad. Digital marketing is no longer a foreign concept for marketers, in fact, it has become the norm. This means that is your business does not try to reach its audience online, then it is losing an essential percentage of their potential audience. With the low prices set for Facebook ad campaigns, there is really no logical reason why not to take advantage of all the benefits it provides your business.
Decide To Benefit From Experience
The benefits of using Facebook ads to market your business really are countless. However, at the end of the day it all comes down to you and what your main business goal is. Therefore, when you do decide that Facebook ads are the next step for the marketing efforts you have to be informed. It takes much more than simply sponsoring a post, it takes time and dedication, researching the analytics and understanding the metrics. For this particular reason, a professional agency can be instrumental in reaching the right people at the right time. Phidev can help you understand who your audience is and how to reach them on the different social networks. Contact us today and begin expanding your business.