Pro Impressions Marketing is a dental internet marketing firm seeking to help dentists gain more new ideal patients. We know that dentists struggle to get the online visibility they deserve and don’t necessarily have the time to perform their own marketing, so we work with dentists worldwide to help them gain the online visibility they need to find success. But even if you don’t work with our dental digital marketing company, you can still find advice through our newsletters, blog, and other online resources. If you’ve been scratching your head about some of Google’s recent changes or are just learning about them for the first time, read on to see how they could affect your dental practice’s ability to get more new patients. 

Google is making changes in response to new privacy policy trends. However, since Google makes money on advertisers, they try to keep us (you, me, and other businesses) happy too, and some of these changes will help you get more new patients. Google has announced some changes to pay-per-click campaigns that will affect your dental office. Here’s what they are and what they’ll mean for you.

Google Changes to Aid Your Search for New Patients

Your Office Name and Logo will Become Verified on Google

Sometimes, dental offices struggle to differentiate themselves. Scam and fraud businesses with almost identical names and logos make it even harder. To counteract this, Google is introducing verified businesses. If you’re a pay-per-click advertiser, you’ll get extra assets next to your name and logo, verifying that you’re a real business on your ads. Patients will see this, and it’ll increase the trust in your practice and make them more likely to schedule an appointment. 

Ad Image Extensions

Another great thing coming to pay-per-click advertisers is images on ads. Traditionally, search ads were text-only, but now Google added the availability of images on these ads. For you, this means you can show off beautiful smiles to help patients trust your services. 

Expanded Text Ads Transform into Responsive Search Ads

Shortly, Google’s expanded text ads will come to an end and be replaced with responsive search ads. With responsive search ads, you can input phrases and descriptions, and Google, based on algorithms and data, will decide which phrases will most likely convert people into patients. This negates the guessing game of “will this phrase resonate with patients?” and saves you tons of time in tweaking and rethinking what your campaigns say. 

Google’s Not-So-Good Changes to be Aware Of

Google Nixes “Similar Audiences”

For many years Google has been using “similar audiences” to help dental advertisers find the right type of patients. This targeting tool will come to a close due to privacy issues. However, Google says that even though they are sunsetting this tool, they’ll release a more robust one in the future.

We agree, this isn’t encouraging. But don’t despair too much. There are plenty of other targeting tools you can use to get your dental PPC ads in front of the right people. Try using negative keywords and other tools mentioned in our blog post, 6 Dental PPC Strategies for 2023.

Cost-Per-Lead Increases Across All Industries

Many industries have seen large increases in their cost-per-lead on search and display ads. According to a recent article by WordStream, some, such as Arts & Entertainment, have seen increases of 134%. Dentists have seen an increase in cost-per-lead too, but not nearly as much. After analyzing our member office lead data, we have found about a 20% increase in costs-per-lead. Data suggests that these increases are due to inflation and the general increase in advertising efforts from dentists nationwide. 

Be aware that this is not a sign to decrease your dental PPC efforts! Patients still need your life-changing services and are searching online for dentists. The reality is advertising is becoming more competitive. Read more about why dental PPC is important on our blog, Why Pay-Per-Click is Important for Dentists.

A Possible Change on the Horizon

Broad Match Beta Testing

Google has released some Beta-testing that may suggest a future with only broad match keywords in ad targeting. Right now, you have the option to set your keywords as broad match, phrase match, exact match, or negative match. A change like this could affect your ability to avoid certain types of searches. This is speculation, but it’s something to keep an eye on.

Do You Need Help from a Dental Marketing Company?

Pro Impressions Marketing is here to help. Schedule a free strategy call to find out how you can amp up your marketing today to get more new ideal patients tomorrow. Call (970) 672-1212 or schedule online.