How much does paid search cost for medical practices? This is a straightforward question that, unfortunately, lacks a simple answer. But medical practice managers minding the budget need to know what they can expect to spend before they move forward with investing in digital advertising. While benchmarking provides a rough idea of what Google Ads costs, many factors are in flux, so remaining adaptable is key in planning around these expenses. This blog takes a simple and practical approach in explaining pay-per-click (PPC) advertising cost.
Is Google Paid Search Cost-Prohibitive for Medical Practices?
PPC has a reputation for being one of the more expensive forms of digital advertising. A small business can spend – on average – between $9,000 – $10,000 per month on PPC ads. But before you rule out paid search marketing as an option, consider speaking with a digital marketing agency like iHealthSpot. Consulting with digital marketing experts can look into how to create a path for optimizing your budget, so that you don’t miss out on what PPC has to offer.
Key Factors Influencing Google Paid Search Cost: Competition and Traffic Needs
One of the reasons that estimating pay-per-click advertising costs isn’t clear-cut is because there are several variables that impact how much is spent. This section breaks down those factors.
Keyword Competition and Cost Implications
One of the biggest cost determinants in any PPC campaign is keyword competition. The popularity and competitiveness of your chosen keywords can significantly impact your cost per click, and therefore your overall campaign expenses. For example, running ads in New York will cost more than small towns because the market is more competitive in big cities. Also, the more demand there is for a keyword, the higher the bid will need to be to acquire placement for it.
Quality Score: A Critical Factor
Google’s Quality Score measures the relevance of your ads to the keywords you bid on and the quality of your landing pages. This incentivizes advertisers to enhance the user experience by optimizing ads and landing pages. A higher Quality Score can result in lower costs and better ad placements, while a lower score may increase costs and reduce ad visibility.
Importance of PPC Budget Management for Your Medical Practice
Managing your pay-per-click advertising costs is similar to managing your medical practice. Both call for controlling costs to keep the books balanced. By setting daily budgets, prioritizing campaigns based on performance, and using a mix of automated and manual bidding strategies, costs can be controlled efficiently.
Strategies for Improving and Optimizing Costs
What does managing the costs of pay-per-click advertising look like? Digital marketers are always on the hunt for ways to optimize campaigns so that you can get more return on investment (ROI) for your budget. These next sections explain a few often-used cost control strategies.
Leveraging Long-tail Keywords
One way to make paid search more cost-effective is to look for keyword opportunities that are low competition, but also have the potential to reach your target audience. Healthcare PPC experts can help you scavenge for such keywords.
Enhancing Account Management Efficiency
With the right PPC management framework in place, healthcare advertisers can not only diagnose performance problems, but also find opportunities to get more benefit from campaigns through comprehensive tracking. Regular account audits lead to more efficiency for PPC campaigns, and improved ROI. The core key performance indicators (KPIs) for PPC performance are:
- Click-Through Rate (CTR) — The percentage of querents who click on the ad. A higher CTR often indicates a more engaging and relevant ad.
- Conversion rate — The percentage of clicks that result in a desired action, such as filling out a new patient appointment request form.
- Cost Per Click (CPC) — The average cost incurred each time a user clicks on your ad.
- Quality Score — An assessment of the relevance and quality of your ads, keywords, and landing pages. A higher Quality Score can earn lower costs and better ad placements.
- Impressions — The number of times your ad is shown to users in searches. Monitoring impressions provides insight into your ad’s visibility.
- Ad Position — The average placement of your ad on the search engine results page. Higher positions may lead to increased visibility and clicks.
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) — Revenue gained compared to dollars spent. ROAS is a critical metric for measuring the profitability of your PPC campaigns.
- Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) — The average cost to acquire a new customer through PPC. Keeping CPA in check ensures efficient use of advertising budget.
- Ad Copy Performance — Analyzing the effectiveness of your ad copy in terms of engagement and conversion rates.
- Bounce Rate — The percentage of users who leave the site after briefly viewing only one page. A high bounce rate may indicate issues with landing page or ad relevance.
- Keyword Performance — Evaluating the success of individual keywords in driving clicks, conversions, and overall campaign success.
- Lifetime Value (LTV) — Assessing the long-term value of customers acquired through PPC advertising, helping to justify acquisition costs.
Summary: What Does Pay-Per-click Advertising Cost for Medical Practices?
Asking for an estimate for how much running ads on Google costs isn’t as straightforward as calling around to get the best price for medical equipment. It all depends, as there are several factors at play.
One main contributor to pay-per-click advertising cost is keyword competition. There are certain healthcare paid search terms that many are wanting to target, and the higher the number of practices that bid on that specific keyword, the more it drives up the cost-per-click for that search term. However, one workaround to consider is researching long-tail keyword opportunities that are “low competition,” but are still likely to be searched by your target audience.
While budget is a primary consideration for medical practice paid search, what is equally important is the capacity to monitor performance and make adjustments along the way, as the healthcare PPC landscape shifts over time. Creating a structure for tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) helps you identify what could be impacting your return on investment (ROI) but also can uncover valuable improvement opportunities.
Get Solid Healthcare PPC Advice from Seasoned Experts
Wondering if paid search is worth it?
If Google paid search costs are either intimidating, a mystery, or both, you are not alone. Medical practices who understand the need for a stronger presence online often have many questions about affordability and effectiveness with Google Ads.
The team of healthcare digital marketing experts at iHealthSpot are prepared to help you determine if PPC ads on Google are the right investment for your medical practice. We do our best to work with your budget so you can gain a competitive edge in your specific healthcare market through the power of PPC. Contact us today with your questions about PPC costs.
