PPC – What’s Hot and What’s Not
I’m going to keep things pretty simple in this blog, because so often we take over PPC accounts which have been handled less than perfectly. I’m also not going to bad mouth anyone – as often there are valid reasons why some techniques have been used. So without further ado find below the latest ‘hot’ and ‘not hot’ guide for dental practice PPC management in the UK.
I’ll start with the negative because I believe in the statement:
“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day”, Mark Twain.
NOT HOT
Ego-based bidding – getting caught in a bidding war for a top keyword can quickly eat up any online advertising budget. Ranking for ‘dentist location’ can create a huge number of clicks, but not necessarily the expected conversions. If you are using all your ad spend on this keyword, but getting minimal conversions, then it really isn’t doing its job. Often, when this happens, taking the pressure and focus off this keyword, reviewing the keywords used and being clever about targeting other less competitive keywords can provide a more successful campaign.
Ignoring testing – PPC is an instant, non-scalable online advertising tool. As such, constant monitoring and testing is required. What’s not hot is either employing the ‘point and go’ technique, never changing a thing, or the alternative of constantly changing the account settings, keywords, negative keywords and targeting every two days.
Testing must take place, but also be given a chance to prove its worth.
HOT
Mobile PPC – missing out on mobile conversions is such a shame to see in any online advertising account – especially for a business such as a dental practice. To resurrect an old statistic – there are more people on the planet that own a mobile device than a toothbrush (how very apt).
Using your website statistics you can view how many users are looking at your website via a mobile. Our observations show that for dental practices it’s creeping closer and closer to 50% of visits coming from a mobile device. On average about 45%. Comparing this in Google analytics will give you more insight, but also ask yourself the questions:
- Are my dental services something people would typically research on-the-go? (The answer is yes!)
- Does my practice receive a large number of phone calls? (again – yes – most people want to talk to practices they are considering joining)
- If I was looking for a dental practice or dental services would I pull my iPhone out of my pocket to do so? (Yep!)
Using mobile bid adjustments is a hot topic for mobile PPC campaigns. It adjusts your bid by a percentage to make sure that when someone types in your keywords on a mobile device it pushes up your bid, meaning you definitely will be visible above the fold of the mobile (typically this is the top three ads)
Creating mobile specific ads is a great way to optimise your campaign with more urgent call to actions – ‘Call Us Today!’ or ‘At Your Fingertips!’ as well as having call extensions – All these techinques makes your advert stand out amongst the very crowded mobile space.
This type of ad management can no longer be ignored.
Cleansed Keywords – Accounts with endless keywords are not ideal. This ties in with the not-so-hot ‘point and go’ mind-set. By constantly monitoring and then amending your keyword list, tweaking your keywords that are not performing month on month is best practice. Ensuring you remain on target with keywords and account set-up will result in a PPC campaign that is easier to monitor and measure, and one that gives you more return on investment. Your quality score is hindered by maintaining low quality keywords – so at times you’ve just got to take the plunge and purge, purge, purge.
Call Tracking – Getting that edge to your marketing activity often comes from the realisation of what’s working and what’s’ not. What is most definitely hot right now is call tracking your online advertising to help you do just that. Most call tracking companies will offer recording facilities (which is great for staff training) , and reporting with a customer number added to each call for you to track the conversion from the advert. Knowing that the investment in your very expensive dental implant campaign is working and providing a profit will mean you can accurately award the budget required to take advantage of your PPC campaign.
To talk through these trends in more details, Call us on 01202 677277 and ask to speak to one of our Google Adwords Qualified team members about your PPC account.
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