Google Ads are a great way for dentists to attract new patients.
It’s one of the 3 Steps I use in my system to get dentists more new patients.
There are a right way and a wrong way to run Google Ads (also called pay-per-click or PPC).
One of the WRONG WAYS to run Google Ads is by advertising on another dentist in your city’s name. As in the dentist’s name, not necessarily the name of their practice.
If you’re ppc ads are being shown when a searcher looks for another dentist by name, you are lighting 💲💲 on fire.
Here is an example of some dental practices sending money to money heaven💸.
Dr. Sabot does not work at either RTDental, O2 Dental Group, nor Beyond Dental.
Here’s why having your ads show up, when a searcher looks for another dentist by name is a terrible waste of money.
The person is clearly searching for one specific dentist in the city. This is called search intent, and in this case it’s really important.
The intent is laser focused to one specific dentist. The searcher is not looking for any other dentist, and doesn’t want to see search results for any other dentist.
This searcher only wants to see information for Dr. Sabot.
The problem is, some one enters the specific search in Google and simply clicks on the first thing they see, which is an advertisement for RTDental, O2 Dental Group, or Beyond Dental.
But, the searcher is not interested in and does not want to see RTDental, O2 Dental Group, or Beyond Dental. So when they click the ad and land on the website, that they do not want to land on, what do you think happens?
The instantly hit the “back” button.
But, Google wants that money.
The dental offices RTDental, O2 Dental Group, and Beyond Dental wanted Google to show their ads to searches that were looking for a dentist in Durham, NC, and Google showed the ads and the searcher clicked on the ad.
So Google charges the ad account.
For Durham, North Carolina searches that’s about $5 dollars (approximately) for the one click that just got wasted.
People click on the first result they see, weather it’s the correct result, the one they were looking for, or not.
It’s just human nature. There’s tons of data to back this up. It happens all the time.
How To Fix This Problem
Naturally, you want to know how to fix this problem. You have to put time into creating and maintaining your Negative Keywords list.
Basically, when you start your ad campaign, you go through and add all the names of dental offices in your city to your Negative Keywords list.
Then, as you start getting data back from your ads, you add to the Negative Keywords list.
This is where you’ll start to see a lot of the specific searches for dentists by name start to show up. It takes a month or two to really get that Negative Keywords list.
You don’t want your Ads to show when someone is searching for one specific dentist. You’re not going to change their mind, they already know who they want to see.
By creating and maintaining a good Negative Keywords list your ads will only be shown to the correct audience, your ads will be more effective, and you’ll get a better return on your marketing dollars.