The Objective
This was a unique and fun case. This multi-location cardiology practice in northern Virginia was given about $4,100 in "free" advertising budget by the medical group to which they belong, which was to be spent on Google Ads over the course of 60 days.
It isn't often that the end date we're given is set just two months after launch, but we like a challenge!
This meant we had a very limited (some might say nonexistent) learning period, and therefore had to launch with as much campaign optimization completed beforehand as possible, based solely on our past experience with healthcare PPC campaigns. Fortunately, having worked in healthcare for ten years, we've picked up a thing or two.
The primary objective was to reach new patients and increase scheduled appointments - both online and over the phone - across their five cardiology offices. In our experience, the best bang for the buck for this purpose is through search campaigns in Google Ads.
The Tactics
Campaign setup began as it always does: with an in-depth discussion with the physicians. Since we already knew our budget, timeframe, and primary goals, we wanted to hear about their preferences regarding messaging and targeting.
We had previously set up Google Analytics tracking for this practice which included custom events through Google Tag Manager, such as clicks to schedule an appointment, as that process was completed on a third-party website. This gave use our primary conversion goal, which we also configured within Google Ads.
To maintain flexibility in location targeting and budgeting between office locations, we set up five individual paid search campaigns. Within the campaigns, we built out individual ad groups based around tight-knit keyword lists, as well as highly relevant responsive ads, sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets.
We knew, based on experience, that what we call "condition-focused" keywords do not convert well. For example, someone searching for "irregular heartbeat" might be doing research, looking for basic information, searching out of curiosity, or any number of reasons, which may not include needing an appointment.
Better converting, but still not great, are what we call "service-focused" keywords. This would include something like "echocardiogram." These are typically people who have done some preliminary research and are more likely to need an appointment. However, many are still in the information retrieval phase.
Finally, we get to the "provider-focused" keywords. Keywords such as "cardiologist" or "internist." These are users who are most typically ready and looking to schedule an appointment, because they are looking for physicians, not information.
Being limited on time and with a goal on scheduled appointments, we focused our ad groups on these "low funnel" keywords.
Lastly, also based on years of running similar campaigns, we have compiled a long negative keyword list. These are modifier words that we want to make sure do not trigger our ads. For example, in the past we've seen ads triggered for medical students, so we are sure to exclude words like degree, course, university, classes, jobs, and careers. We loaded our full list and launched.
The Results
As soon as impressions and clicks started coming in, we started analyzing; reviewing search terms and adding to our negative keyword list and eventually, adjusting ad copy, keyword lists, and bid strategies.
At the conclusion of our 60 day engagement, we had drawn nearly 2,800 clicks at just $1.47 per click, which is less than half the industry average of $3.97, and a cost per conversion that was 24% less than the industry average. We also generated over 100 appointment clicks, and 43 calls directly from ads.
Days
Clicks
Ad Impressions
Clickthrough Rate (%)
Avg. Cost Per Click ($)
Appointment Queries
Phone Calls from Ads
Cost Per Conversion ($)
A common and incorrect assumption in any digital marketing initiative is that conversions typically happen in a straightforward manner: A patient sees an ad, clicks on an ad, and converts. However, it is likely that the appointment or phone call occurred after multiple visits from multiple channels.
In this case, we found that 109 conversions occurred solely after one or more visits from paid search, but another 43 occurred in combination with visits from direct traffic and/or organic search (differences in attribution between Google Ads and Google Analytics mean this doesn't perfectly match the total 146 conversions recorded in Google Ads).
Of their total conversions from all traffic channels, paid search played a part somewhere along the way in 20% of them. This shows the importance of staying in front of your potential patients with a multi-faceted approach to digital marketing.
