First of all, if you’ve managed to find keywords for your healthcare business, create your ad campaigns and publish your Google ads, congrats!
You’ve done the hard part. But now comes the critical part – how to optimise your clinic’s Google Ads. Once you’ve created your ad campaign, if you don’t monitor it closely and make appropriate changes, your cost-per-click (CPC) will likely increase, leading to a lower return on your investment (ROI).
What is Google Ads optimisation?
It is essentially looking at your campaign data and adjusting the different elements accordingly to create a more effective ad. You won’t want to change things daily as you need Google to catch up and let the algorithm kick in, but weekly changes will allow you to see what’s working and what isn’t.
Optimising ads can even be challenging for the most experienced Google Ads users, as there are numerous components to focus on, including KPIs, metrics, bidding, and keywords.
You’ll need to be prepared to monitor your campaign thoroughly for the first few weeks and then less frequently but consistently. Some elements that perform well one month may not function as well another due to other competition or Google’s forever-changing algorithms.
You have to keep on top of it. But don’t worry, we’ve got your back. In this blog, we will talk you through all the main points you need to know to optimise your campaign and increase your ROI.
Where to begin with Google Ads optimisation?
What’s your goal for your ad campaign? Are you looking for more website visitors, clicks, or bookings on your landing page?
Maybe your ad is performing great, and you’re happy with the return on ad spend (ROAS). But if this isn’t the case, go through the following points to get your ad to the top of Google and improve your ROAS.
Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that will help you assess how to optimise your campaigns
Is your ad generating the revenue you hoped for? First, you will want to look at some key metrics to decipher whether your ad is performing well. Then you can get into the nitty-gritty of optimising your ad.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
The ROAS is the return on our ads. For example, if you spend £100 on ads and get £250 in revenue, the ROAS is 2.5. You can use the ROAS to see how your ad improves over time.
Clicks
Monitoring the number of clicks will give you an understanding of how many you purchase at any given time. Clicks are the essence of Google Ads, and from this number, we can calculate the cost-per-click (CPC), which we ideally try to keep low.
Click-through rate (CTR)
This is the clicks divided by impressions (the number of times your ad was seen). If you have a low click-through rate, it could be because your ad is not relevant to what potential patients are searching for – they are seeing your ad but aren’t interested in it, and you need to change it. More on how to fix this later!
Cost-per-click (CPC)
This is how much you pay per click on your ad. The aim of the game is to get your CPC down. You will need to consider numerous factors when doing this, which we will discuss later on.
Recommendations from Google on how to optimise your clinic’s Google Ads
Google is great at giving recommendations. Follow these to get your ad strength up as much as possible. Experienced users may not follow all of Google’s recommendations as it depends on the niche they are working in and whether the recommendations will benefit them.
If you aren’t experienced, it is beneficial to follow their recommendations, as it should help decrease your CPC and increase your ROAS!
The recommendations vary depending on your ad copy, but it could be from including more headlines to adding more varied descriptions or introducing different keywords.
Quality Score
Quality Score is used for businesses to compare their ads with those of other advertisers. You can use it to help you to identify where you can improve your ads, landing pages or keyword selection for your clinic. Your aim should be to have a quality score of 8-10 in order to reduce your CPC.
How to get a good quality score?
User intent plays a key role here. Your ad should match the intent behind a user’s search. You’ll need to ensure that the keywords you use match those of your prospective patients.
You’ll also need to ensure the keywords are consistent throughout your ad and, most importantly, that they match the keywords on your landing page. It is all about relevance. This will increase your CTR and, in turn, your Quality Score.
Location
In the location setting, you’ll be able to remove the lower-performing areas and focus on targeting the areas that produce a lower CPC and more conversions. This setting might not be as relevant to you if you only target those within a couple of miles of your clinic.
Dayparting
If you notice website visitors are only converting at a particular time of day, such as after work between 6 pm and 9 pm, limit the time your ad is shown.
If you’re using smart bidding, where Google will help you optimise your campaigns (this is recommended), Google will already be spending more money at the times of day when you are getting more conversions or clicks. Dayparting just helps them not waste any money by avoiding showing your ads at the times of day when potential patients are least likely to convert.
While changing these settings, you’ll also need to be aware of what your goal is. Do you want prospective patients to call when they get to your landing page or book an appointment?
If you have a form that they fill out which allows your reception staff the details they need to call the lead, you might want to consider your working hours when choosing when to display your ad.
Businesses are seven times more likely to qualify a lead if they contact them within the first hour.
If your clinic is receiving leads outside of office hours, it will be harder to get in touch and get them to commit when you do make that call trying to book them in for a consultation. This is something to remember when selecting the times of day you want your ad to appear.
Demographics
If you’ve had your clinic up and running for a while, realistically, you will know who your patients are. This includes their gender, age and maybe their income. This information is invaluable, and it means you can change the demographics yourself to avoid Google targeting those you know have little to no interest in the treatments you offer.
Once again, Google will suss out who your ad should be shown to, but your knowledge is priceless here, and you can save money by simply not allowing them the option to show your ad to specific demographics.
Keywords
To set up your campaign, you would have had to do keyword research to find the most suitable keywords for your offer. If you are not feeling confident in this, have a look at our blog, which details how you can choose the best keywords for your clinic.
So, you have your set keywords, but you want to improve them.
Expand your keyword list using Keyword Planner. Pause keywords that aren’t helping you or are too competitive, driving up your CPC. Focus on those keywords that will reduce your CPC.
What worked one month might not work another.
A keyword could give you lots of clicks, but once you look at search terms, you realise it is irrelevant to the treatment you offer. This means the new patient enquiries are likely to be less qualified and less likely to convert.
This is where negative keywords come in.
Negative keywords
Adding negative keywords will enable you to stop your ad from showing up in search results that are irrelevant to your ad. You are weeding out the bad, which will help reduce the number of low-quality leads and your CPC.
For example, if you offer private treatments at your clinic, you’ll want to include words such as ‘’NHS’’ in your negative keyword list. This will stop prospective patients from seeing and possibly clicking on your ad when they have no intention of paying for said treatment. You will pay for that click even though they are unlikely to follow through with treatment with your clinic.
View the search terms that are getting visitors to your ads and select the irrelevant ones as negative keywords. For example, if you are offering a facial aesthetics treatment, someone reaching your ad having searched ‘’facial aesthetic course’’ is not a prospective patient, so it is best to prevent them from seeing your ad at all.
Only go through the ones receiving the most clicks and add them to your negative keywords, or you’ll spend days going through them!
Bid adjustments
When you set up your campaigns, you’ll be able to choose between automated bidding and manual bidding. We recommend you switch to automated bidding if you didn’t start with it.
If you select automated bidding, Google will decide how much you will pay based on a few key metrics. You can decide whether you want to increase site visits, visibility, and conversions or if you want Google to meet a certain return on ad spend (ROAS). As a healthcare business trying to get more consultations booked, you will most likely be more interested in conversions.
FAQS
Will my campaign do well straight away?
Unlikely. It takes time to see which ads are working and which ones aren’t. You need to be on the ball and ready to update your ad but remember to give it time for Google to catch up with your changes. Google states that they need about a month for you to see the success of your ad in full swing.
Why can’t I find my own ads?
It may be that you don’t fall within the targeted audience, or Google doesn’t think it is worth showing it to you for whatever reason. Google uses its own algorithm to determine who will see the ads, and no, no one knows Google’s algorithm! You shouldn’t worry about this; you should just worry about the metrics and how your ad is performing.
What happens if I click on my own ads?
If you find your ads on Google and click on them, it will count as a click. You’ll be charged for this, so avoid it at all costs. It will also appear in the analytics of your ads!
How much time will I need to optimise my campaigns?
You’ll need to sit down a couple of times each week and go through each of the metrics before doing keyword research and making the necessary changes. Once you’ve got to grips with how to optimise your campaigns and they are running smoothly, an hour a week will suffice, but you will need to be confident in your campaign.
What could be the problem if am not getting enquiries but all my metrics look good?
If you have gone through all the steps to optimise your campaigns and have given Google enough time to go through the learning phase, but you are still not seeing an improvement in terms of new patient enquiries, you will need to have a look at your landing page. To find out what a good landing page for Google Ads should include, read our blog post on “How to build your landing page to improve Google Ads performance“.
If you would like help running and optimising your ads, get in touch! We work exclusively with healthcare businesses to get the patients they want.
Additional resources:
Google Ads 5 Top tips for effective keyword research for your clinic
Google Ads 5 easy steps to setting it up for your clinic
How to build your landing page to improve Google Ads performance and boost patient enquiries
How to Attract High-Quality Dental Implant Patients Through Google Ads
Top Google Ads And PPC Trends For 2022
Google Ads vs Facebook Ads – Which is better for your clinic in 2023?
