Struggling with Google Ads? 4 Tips to Optimize Your PPC Campaign

If you're like most small business healthcare owners, you understand the importance of running ads online. After all, patients spend a lot of time searching for providers and services on the internet. And what better way to reach them than through Google, the world's largest search engine?

But what happens when your ads suddenly stop working? When the clicks and calls you're getting from your Google Ads campaign dwindle to nothing? It's a frustrating feeling, to say the least. But don't despair! I am a nurse and digital marketing specialist and have helped many healthcare business owners structure their Google Ads to optimize clicks and impressions and in the end quality leads. Here are a couple of tips to optimize your pay-per-click campaign.

One of the first things you should do when trying to troubleshoot your Google Ads campaign is to review your keywords. Are they too broad? Too narrow? No longer relevant to your practice or services?

If your keywords are too broad, you're likely wasting money on Google ads that aren't reaching your target audience. For example, let's say you're a family medicine practice that specializes in pediatrics. You might be tempted to use the keyword "family medicine" in your ads because it describes what you do. But if you use that keyword, your ad will show up whenever someone searches for "family medicine," even if they're not looking for a pediatrician. As a result, you'll end up paying for clicks from people who will never become patients.

On the other hand, if your keywords are too narrow, you might be missing out on potential patients who are searching for related terms. For example, let's say you use the keyword "pediatrician" in your ads. While that will certainly reach people who are specifically looking for a pediatrician, it will exclude people who are searching for related terms like "children's doctor" or "kids doctor." As a result, you could be missing out on potential patients.

Another key point is to be careful using medical conditions in your ad copy but you can place them as a keyword. By placing them in the ad copy can cause Google to flag them because of the medical content. But it is fine to use a medical condition as a key word.

In addition to reviewing your keywords, it's also important to take a close look at your ad copy. Is it accurate? Does it reflect what patients are actually searching for? Is it persuasive enough to make them want to click? 

If your ad copy is inaccurate or misleading in any way, patients will quickly lose interest and move on to another provider. For example, let's say you're running an ad for weight loss services but the copy only talks about how great it is to lose weight without mentioning anything specific about your program or how it can help patients achieve their goals. In that case, potential patients are likely to move on to another ad that does provide more information about the services being offered.

Finally, it's important to review your budget when troubleshooting your Google Ads campaign. Are you spending too much money on ads that aren't getting results? Not enough money on ads that are performing well? Once you've reviewed all of these elements of your campaign, you should have a good idea of what changes need to be made in order to get results. From there, it's simply a matter of making those changes and monitoring the results until you find a campaign that works for you and brings in new patients!

Following these four tips should help get your Google Ads campaign back on track and bring in new patients!