Investing in marketing is a lot like buying a house, unless you’re a marketer, or real estate agent, you might not understand what goes into the pricing. For real estate, it’s pretty simple. The home value is based on square footage, neighborhood, specific features, and other property values in the neighborhood. On the flip side, the cost of PPC depends specifically on which keywords you’re targeting. Some keywords have a higher cost than others due to higher demand. So how much money should you allocate towards PPC advertising every month? It depends.
How Does Pay-Per-Click Work?
Before you start a PPC campaign, it’s important to outline the goal of your ad. Are you trying to get a new patient for a specific procedure? Do you want patients to take advantage of a special? Are you bringing brand awareness? Or are you trying to get new patients in general? More likely than not, you want new patients.
Next, whoever is setting up your PPC ad will use a keyword planner to research which keywords drive the most traffic and how much each click costs. From there, they will set up your campaign and have it lead to a page on your website. We suggest having a designated landing page designed to convert clicks into patients.
After your campaign is live, your PPC manager will continue to tweak your campaign until it delivers the best results possible. Once you receive your first lead, or new patient, we can determine your cost per lead. This number is based on how many clicks it took to get a lead. As we continue to tweak your campaign to drive better results, it’s likely your cost per lead amount will drop.
Every time someone clicks on your PPC ad, you’re charged the cost of your keywords. However, if someone sees your ad and doesn’t click on it, you’re not charged. If anything, you’re just bringing brand awareness. If you’re doing PPC for many different keywords, you’re increasing your brand exposure even more. Someone might see your dental office pop up numerous times in their search. If you’re a believer in the rule of 20 like we are, this person will eventually become a new patient.
How Much Should I Spend?
The amount you spend is completely up to you. Since you’re only charged per click, you should really base your cap on the cost per lead, not the cost per click. For example, if every new patient brought you $500 per business, you must determine how much you can spend per patient to make a profit off their business. If each lead costs you $50, your practice will make $450 per lead.
If you’re guaranteed a lead every time you spend $50, does it really make sense to cap your PPC budget? No. Unless you’re running out of appointment slots, funnel as much money as you can into your campaign. PPC has a guaranteed return on investment.
Is it Possible to Waste Money on PPC?
Yes, it’s entirely possible to waste money on PPC. A few factors can affect your campaign’s success. For starters, if your landing page doesn’t have any calls to action, isn’t user friendly, or presents confusing information, someone who clicked on your ad will likely close your website and continue their search. The PPC ad is your bait, and your landing page is the hook. You can attract leads all day with your ad but if you don’t have the right hook, you’re not going to catch them.
Consistency also plays a role in the success of your PPC campaign. If you only give your campaign a week or two before you pull the plug, you’re not giving your campaign the time it needs to best optimize itself.
Your keyword selection, ad copy, and demographics can also impact your campaign. If you choose the wrong keywords or inaccurate demographics, your campaign might be targeting the wrong people. Writing poor copy can also prevent people from clicking on your ad.
Investing in PPC management can help you avoid wasting money and making these different mistakes.
How PPC Management For Dentists Can Help
When you hire Pro Impressions Marketing to handle your PPC campaigns, we don’t just take your money and wait for results to come in. We continuously monitor your campaign and adjust it to help you get the best cost per lead. We also ensure your ad goes to a landing page built to deliver results.
It’s important to remember that PPC isn’t just about the cost per lead or the cost per click. It’s also about bringing brand awareness and increasing your online visibility. Maybe a patient doesn’t want to invest in cosmetic dentistry right now but when they’re ready, they will remember seeing your practice’s name on their search results and then give you a call.
So to answer the question, “How much should dentists spend on PPC?”, the answer is actually a question 一 “How many new patients do you want?” Once we create your PPC campaign, we can tell you how much your cost per lead is and from there you can determine how much you want to spend per month.
If you’re ready to invest in pay-per-click that actually brings you new patients, especially during a COVID-19 resurgence, please call (970) 672-1212 to book a consultation with Pro Impressions Marketing today.
