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Google Ads for Dentists: How You Can Start Creating One

Digital Advertising

When it comes to health and medical information, people are very particular with who they trust their lives with. This is why you must work on your online reputation so you can establish your credibility and convince potential patients to visit your clinic. 

If you're just starting out and don't have many patients yet, we know how difficult it is to spread the word and market your practice in front of the right people. So, you're probably casting your nets wide to try and get as many patients as you can.

But this isn't the way to do it.

If you want to stand out, you need to figure out what makes you unique from other dental clinics. Then, you need to identify who your ideal patients are. Once you figure this out, make yourself known to the world through Google Ads!

In this blog post, our Florida SEO marketing experts will explain what Google Ad Words is, how it works, and how you can start promoting your dental practice using this tool.

What is Google Ad Words?

Google Ad Words loading

Google Ad Words is the world's largest digital advertising network, supporting businesses in contacting customers all over the globe and developing their businesses.

Advertisers pay Google to target customers based on keyword searches, location, and device type. Then Google distributes their adverts to people interested in their goods or services through this pay-per-click network.

How Does Google Ad Words work?

Google Ads promo

Let's say that you own a dental clinic in Miami, Florida. Because it's a major city, we should expect intense competition.

If you want to run an ad, you should first consider the kind of new patients you want to target:

  • Do you want to target people dissatisfied with their existing dental care?
  • People who have just moved to the area and need the services of a new dentist?
  • Or what about families with children, people in need of braces, and so on?

To identify your ideal patients, you want to go back to your branding. Who are you as a dental clinic? What services do you specialize in?

For example, if you're a high-end dental clinic, then your target market are most likely celebrities, A-listers, and high-profile individuals in your community. On the other hand, if you specialize in family dentistry, then your target patients are families. 

Once you've already figured out who your target patients are, it's time to think about the keywords these people will most likely use in their Google searches.

Someone dissatisfied with their existing treatment is more likely to Google "highly rated dentists near me." But, someone with children is more likely to Google "family-friendly dentists in Miami."

Remember, you must use long-tail keywords if you want your clinic to appear on the results page for specific search queries.

6 Steps for Creating a Google Ads Campaign

If you're a dentist who's just getting acquainted with PPC advertising, you'll most likely need help to develop and keep your Google Ads account.

Getting your dental practice up and going may seem to be a complicated process. And, in a way, it is.

But don't worry! You'll get the gist with the help of these step-by-step instructions.

Step 1: Make Your Own Account

The first thing you should do is create a Google Ads account. To do so, go to the Google Ad Words homepage select the "Start now" button. This will take you to a webpage where you can sign in using an existing Google Account or create a new one.

After you've signed in, you'll be sent to a page that asks for your primary advertising goal. If you're not sure what your advertising goals are, don't worry because our Florida SEO marketing experts can help you out. 

You'll see a small link that says "Switch to Expert Mode" at the bottom of this screen. After you click that, you can start creating your first campaign.

Step 2: Select Your Campaign Type

Now that you've selected Expert Mode, you can begin configuring your campaign with a range of goal-based settings. You have the following options:

It's essential to have a clear goal in mind before starting your Google Ads campaign. Objectives help direct your next steps and decisions. 

If you approach a campaign without knowing what you want the outcome to be, it's easy to get lost and confused. But when you know what you want to do, you can align every element of your campaign with your goals.

Using Google eases your decision-making when you create a campaign in Google Ads by guiding you to the specific features designed to help your campaign succeed.   

Step 3: Settings

There are three sections in the campaign settings. But, don't worry. We'll go through each part, emphasize your alternatives, and point you on the correct path when it comes to making decisions.

General Settings

In this section, you will first need to give your campaign a name. Then, you have to decide which network you want your adverts to appear on. You have two options: Search and Display.

Since we are just interested in creating a Search campaign, for the time being, we will leave the Search box selected while deselecting the Display box.

It's worth noting that there's a "show more settings" link just below the Networks section. For the time being, you may disregard these alternatives.

Targeting and Audiences

We'll now focus on fine-tuning your targeting settings so that the right people can see your ads.

Locations

First, you will choose the geographic areas where your adverts appear. Your target audience might be as big as the whole globe or as narrow as a single zip code.

By default, you have the following options:

  • All nations and territories;
  • United States and Canada;
  • United States; and
  • Enter another place.

Select "Enter another place" and click Advanced Search to target areas at the city, state, zip code, or radius level. You will then be able to choose your precise target locations.

After selecting your destinations, there's one more critical setting to activate in this area. When you click on the Location choices link, you will be given the option to target:

  • People that live in or are interested in your chosen area
  • People that live in or visit your specified location regularly
  • People that are looking for your specific area

We strongly recommend that you pick the second option: People that live in or visit your specified location regularly. By choosing this option, you ensure that your adverts are only shown to those physically present in the places you are targeting.

Languages

This one should go without saying. Choose the language or languages spoken by your patients. Google will only display your advertisements to those who speak the languages you've specified. Just make sure your ad wording matches the languages you've selected here, and you're good to go.

Audiences

You will be able to add audiences to your campaign. Audiences may be introduced at two levels: observation and targeting. This is a complex feature that you should not explore just yet, particularly if you're just building up your first Search campaign. So, we'll leave that portion alone for the time being and move on.

Budget and Bidding

This section of the campaign settings deals with how much you want to spend for your ad and what you want to include in your campaign strategy.

Budget

The budgeting process is quite simple. This section will specify how much money you want to spend on your campaign each day. Figure out how much you want to spend in your campaign every month as a solid beginning point for calculating your daily budget.

Bidding

The Bidding section is where you define your campaign's bidding strategy. Google will try to aid you in selecting a bidding strategy by asking you what sort of result you want to achieve. The following are the default suggested options:

You could be thinking... "I want to concentrate on conversions!"

And it should be your primary emphasis. Selecting one of these default alternatives, on the other hand, will result in Google giving you an automatic bid strategy.

Google can set your bids for you using automated bid techniques. And although computerized techniques have their advantages in certain situations, it's still up to you whether you want to use them or not.

Instead of letting Google suggest your bid strategy, we propose choosing it yourself. By doing so, you are actually tailoring your bid strategy according to your dental practice's needs.

To do so, go to the "choose a bid strategy directly" link.

You will now see a menu from which you may choose from a broad number of bidding techniques. Google's several automatic bid tactics are at the top of the list, and they include:

  • CPA target (Cost-Per-Acquisition)
  • ROAS as a goal (Return-On-Ad-Spend)
  • Increase your clicks
  • Increase conversions
  • Increase conversion value
  • Share of target impression

Under all of those alternatives, manual CPC is at the bottom of the list. This is the option you want to go with since it allows you complete control over how much you pay per click for each term in your campaign.

Google disapproves of this and will display a warning that a Manual CPC approach may result in worse performance. Don't worry, you've made the proper decision.

After you've decided on your bid strategy, click the display more settings link to the right of the bidding area. This will show a few other parameters that you need to adjust before continuing.

You may overlook conversions for the time being, but you should absolutely set them up before running your advertising.

Ad Schedule

Your ad schedule is where you will specify the days and hours when you want your adverts to be eligible to appear. This varies according to the budget, items & services supplied, and your dental clinic's working hours.

Once you've established your ad schedule, you may leave ad rotation at its default setting and go to the following phase.

Ad Extensions

Ad Extensions is the last component of the campaign settings page. You should absolutely set up all three of the central extension kinds shown below:

  • Sitelink Extensions: With Sitelinks, you may display up to four more links alongside your advertisements. These links may be used to direct users to various pages on your website to educate them about your clinic and its services.
  • Callout Extensions: Use Callout Extensions to emphasize competitive advantages, discounts, and promotions.
  • Call Extensions: A call extension is a must if your dental clinic produces leads or sales over the phone. This allows your phone number to appear alongside your adverts and enables mobile consumers to contact you immediately from the ad without going to your website.

Step 4: Structure Ad Groups and Keywords

The next step in getting your Google Ads campaign up and running is to build ad groups. Ad groups are collections of linked keywords that share one or more advertisements. When deciding on keywords, start with your main product or service.

We propose starting with simply one ad group and expanding your campaign using Google's Keyword Planner tool. The Keyword Planner makes researching keywords and organizing them into ad groups simpler and quicker.

Step 5: Design Your Ads

After you've created your first ad group, you'll need to create an ad copy for it. Let's go through each component of an ad and some recommended practices to get you started:

  • Final URL: The Final URL is the page on your website to which your ad will connect. The content of this page should correspond to the product or service that your ad is advertising.
  • Headlines: Google enables you to display up to three headlines with your ad. You want to take advantage of all three, and you'll need to be creative because each headline has a character restriction of 30 characters. At the absolute least, your headlines should reference the product or service you're marketing and have a call to action.
  • Display Path: The display path is a part of the URL shown with your ad. This route does not have to match the Final URL. Use this box to show users what page they will be sent to if they click on your ad. Using your keyword here is a good idea.
  • Descriptions: You may supply up to two 90-character descriptions. You may go into further details about your dental clinic.

Step 6: Setup Billing

The final step in creating your new account and the first campaign is to supply your billing information. This is a straightforward procedure. Google allows you to pay for ads using a credit or debit card, as well as a bank account. If you have a Google promotion code, submit it here as well!

Congratulations on successfully launching your first Google Ads campaign! You have laid a solid basis to create the rest of your campaign by following these steps.

Now, go out and start growing your dental practice using the world's most powerful advertising tool!  

Ready to Start Your First Google Ads Campaign?

Now that you know how to launch a Google Ads campaign, you can start experimenting and see what this tool can do for your dental clinic!

If you need help setting up a campaign for your dental clinic, don't hesitate to contact Digital Resource, the top Florida SEO marketing specialist.

Contact us today for a free consultation.

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