The Ultimate Guide to Physical Therapy Google Advertising

What if your practice could get found by thousands more people online?

Google pay-per-click ads, or PPC ads, are a shockingly cost-effective way to skyrocket your practice to the top of Google…and to the top of peoples’ minds! Here are a few quick stats…

• 76% of the search engine market belongs to Google (Source)
• 46% of clicks go to the top three paid ads in search results (Source)
• If someone clicks on a paid ad, they are 50% more likely to purchase a service! (Wordlead)

In this blog, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about how to set up physical therapy google ads.

PART I: Why Should Physical Therapy Clinics Use Google Ads?

Why Should I Use Google Ads?

Google Ads can bring immediate results to your practice–making it one of the most effective kinds of advertising for physical therapy. Ads can bring you new patients and make it easy for them to contact you immediately. When you use other types of advertising such as on social media or the radio, that advertising isn’t targeted to your exact audience. Because Google PPC ads target specific keywords, it targets people who are searching for what you do. 

In fact, one clinic in Canada used Google Ads and saw its new patient appointments grow by 67% for a $28K profit.

With Google Ads, your ads can appear several times on the first page of the results. This can make your practice look like the experts and as an important practice that is prominent in the area. Because these ads are on the first page of results, people are more likely to click on them. And when someone clicks on one of these ads, there is a 50% higher chance that they will purchase the services advertised.

Google Ads are highly cost-effective. Using PPC advertising for physiotherapy is a way to get your appointments up quickly, and it doesn’t cost much to use. A reasonable cost for a click on one of your ads is about $2 to $5. That’s a small price to pay for a highly targeted lead who is now interested in your practice.

Google Ads are also specific to your location, so people outside your area won’t be seeing the ad and clicking on it. You can make the ads show up only in specific zip codes to make this happen. It’s also easy to keep track of the results of your PPC ads. Your investment in these ads not only buys the ads but data about how well they are working for your practice. You can easily see how many clicks and impressions your ads have gotten.

We know that PPC ads are good for conversions, but what does that mean for physical therapy practices? In physical therapy, a conversion is when someone actually calls the number in the ad or when they book an appointment through a form on your site.

What Kinds of PT Practices Should Use Google Ads?

Just about any clinic can increase patients even with a budget of $1K or less. Here are some specific use cases:

Clinics who are struggling to reach patients outside their immediate town & want to service surrounding communities can use detailed targeting by zip code or radius to deliver ads farther than organic local Google results will reach (since “local” results are limited to whatever radius Google decides around your address).

If you have multi-location clinics and one location is struggling, these physical therapy ads can be effective for boosting that location. You can target the ads for the new location to bring more customers to it. If you have a single-location clinic, you can use the ads to dominate the first page of Google Results. For example, our client Preferred Physical Therapy used PPC ads for their practice, and it appeared four times on the front page of Google results.

 If you have a mobile therapy clinic, PPC ads can also be helpful for your practice. These ads will make sure your practice’s name shows up in searches taking place in the zipcodes you care about–even though you don’t have a physical location. 

Here is an example of a Google Ad for one of our clients showing up on Google Maps:

Mobile Rehab Clinics are having great success with Google Ads!

If you need to hire, you can run PPC ads to hire PTs. While this can be done, it isn’t the best use of your advertising budget. Most people are on sites like Indeed to find employment, and Indeed filters a number of factors for you so that you get qualified applicants. When it comes to hiring, Google Ads are of lower quality for hiring.

Both American and Canadian clinics are perfect for physical therapy Google advertising. Canadian clinics need to make sure that they stay compliant and only say things in their ads that they can prove. They can’t say they’re the “best,” for example. If they have won an award, they can mention that in their ads. They also need to differentiate between physio and PT services. If you have a rural clinic, you may need a larger advertising budget because the people in your area are more spread out. You’re spending to get better reach with these ads.

If you are a PT clinic located in the city, you will get a lot of hits from physical therapy Google ads, but you will also have more competition. This translates into needing to spend more on each keyword bid, meaning that your ads will cost more. If you have a multidisciplinary practice such as having speech therapy, you will also have a lot of competition. You will also need to do a lot of keyword research for keywords outside of PT. To do this, use Keyword Planner. You simply put in the term speech therapy, and it will give you the highest-traffic keywords. If you have keywords that aren’t high-traffic, they don’t have a good search volume and should be avoided.

How Do Google Ads Work With Organic Search?

Your physiotherapy Google ads work alongside organic search to make sure that you’re well-represented. When you use these PPC ads, your organic search results are boosted so that you appear more times in Google search results. The SEO on your website drives organic traffic to your site through the results, and your PPC ads are also there. That adds up to better visibility in those results so that you are prominently featured.

How Do I Develop a Google Ads Strategy and Budget?

Your Google Ads should be a part of your overall advertising strategy. They are an important part of the sales funnel that goes from awareness of your clinic to a purchase of your services. When developing your Google Ads strategy, start by setting your goals. Then, come up with the campaigns that you will use to reach those goals (DisruptiveAdvertising). It’s likely that you will use text ads for your physical therapy advertising, and these ads have to be created so that they are clean, simple, and easy for people to choose. You also have to make sure that your website is well-optimized for the customers who click through and want to find information on your site (Practicepromotions).

When you’re setting your Google Ads budget, a good rule of thumb is to spend between $500 and $1,000 per month for these ads. This amount is good for getting your ads out there and attracting clicks that get you customers. 

PART II: What Type of Google Ads Are Best for Physical Therapy Clinics?

9 Types of Google Ads & Pros + Cons for Physical Therapy Practices

There are nine basic Google ad types, and some are better for physical therapy clinics than others. We recommend starting with Types 1-4. Here’s our breakdown:

1. Text Ads. Text ads are great advertising for physical therapy, giving viewers the basic information about who you are and how to contact you. These carry little in the way of a marketing message, but it’s enough to be highly useful for getting customers quickly.
2. Call-Only Ads. Call-only ads feature a call extension and just carry your phone number and business name. 

3. Ads with Extensions. Ads with extensions are like text ads + call ads put together! They may include a call extension that allows customers to call right from the ad. They may also have location extensions that can link to your business page, contact info, and a map that shows where you are located. They may also have message extensions that allow customers to text you from the ad. 
4. Responsive Search Ads. Responsive ads are a type that is responsive to the design, formatting, and layout of the surrounding page so that they look like the rest of the information there. Many people don’t realize that this is an ad and click on it to learn more. You can also add call extensions to responsive search ads. For example, check out this result from Preferred Physical Therapy. If you didn’t see “Ad” in the corner, you’d probably think this was a normal webpage:

5. Shopping Ads. Shopping ads are found in Google’s Shopping tab on the main search page. These are great for e-commerce stores, but they aren’t as good for PT clinics because there are no purchases to be made online.
6. Image Ads. Image ads feature an image in them, and they are displayed across the Display Network. These can be helpful for grabbing the eye of viewers!

7. Rich Media Ads. Rich media ads are a step beyond image ads. They have animations and interactive aspects or may feature simple games, etc. These can be highly engaging, but it can be hard to tie these ads to physical therapy marketing.
8. Video Ads. Video ads are a type that run on YouTube videos and are short videos themselves. These can be good for PT advertising in some cases, but they are much more involved to create. 
9. App Promotions Ads. App promotion ads have a deep link in them that will bring the viewer right to the app store where the app appears. As most PT clinics don’t have an app, this wouldn’t be useful for many practices (Jon Roc).

Why Do We Recommend Responsive Search Ads Instead of Other Kinds of Ads?

Responsive Ads are basically text ads + call ads + ads with extensions. They are the best of every kind of ad–combined!

These ads allow you to use multiple headlines, and Google chooses the best one to use based on the search that the reader conducts. The description is also responsive to the viewer. You can have as many as four different descriptions, and the one that is used is based on the keyword that triggered the ad. These ads also allow for site link extensions so that things are easy for the potential customer. You can also have call extensions on these ads as well as show a diagram if desired.

What’s Better for Physical Therapy Practices, Google Ads Pay-Per-Click or Pay-Per-Impression?

PPC ads, as mentioned, are pay-per-click ads. These display the ad when triggered by a keyword search, and you pay for each click that the ad attracts. PPM ads are pay-per-impression. With these ads, you pay for the number of times that your ad is displayed instead of for clicks.

PPC ads are generally best for physical therapy ads. When you get PPM ads, you need a very high amount of traffic to see them. With PPC ads, you get quick results and get a narrower target audience. This type is best for dominating a keyword such as the words physical therapy and your city and state. PPM ads can get much more expensive.

If you were to use PPM ads, you would blow through your advertising budget quickly. We want you to get more than 3,000 impressions, and to do that, PPC ads are much more cost-effective. We also want people to click through because they’re actually interested in what you provide and are looking for a solution to their problem. Professionals manage these ads the best, and trying to DIY with these ads can spell disaster. It’s a delicate balance that PPC ads have to have in order to attract, advertise, etc. Professionals are well-versed in creating ads that make customers follow through (Brimar).

PART III: How Do I Set Up Google Ads PPC?

How to Set Up Google Ads PPC

First, you set up a Google Ads account where your ads will be managed. This is fairly straightforward through the Google Ads system. Then, you set up your budget. As mentioned, this will likely be anywhere from $600 to $1,000 per month. 

Then, if you’re a Practice Promotions, you give us access to the account. Our PPC Specialists will take care of many of the aspects of your PPC ads. We start building your ad campaign that will bring in your new customers. We create ad groups and the pieces that are inside each group. These are often for general PT, back pain, shoulder pain, and knee pain. Then, the keywords are found to target these specific services. The ads are then created with the most effective headlines and descriptions as well as links to your landing page and any site link extensions that you want to use.

How to Track Results

Using WhatConverts for call tracking can let you see the exact number of calls that you got from the ad vs through organic search results. You can also look at your Google dashboard to see all of the data you need. This will show you your cost per click, number of clicks, etc. You also get detailed information about the caller such as their name and phone number so that you accommodate them. If you’re a Practice Promotions customer, your quarterly Google Ads performance report can also give you a performance report to let you know how your ads are doing through video reporting.

We see most clients using their call tracking data and comparing the caller number with their internal systems. You can verify patient status with your records, and see where new, returning, current, or prospective patients found your number to call.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Setting Up Google Ads

You need to understand your bid strategy when setting up Google Ads. There are several different strategies to choose from, and it’s important to optimize the strategy to get the best number of conversions possible, including clicks and calls through ads. It’s a mistake to only focus on clicks.

It’s also possible to set up the campaign based on the wrong overall goals. The setup should be in line with the right goals for the best results. For example, if branding is a goal, then call ads wouldn’t be a part of the campaign. Choosing the wrong goal from the beginning can mean never seeing the options that are available for effective ads. If you make these mistakes and then have no results, you may not understand where you went wrong. It’s best to have a professional do your Google Ads so that they are done with all of these considerations and more.

Lastly, it’s important for your clinic to remember that while many businesses use a “retargeting” strategy to deliver ads to people who have visited their website, this is NOT allowed for healthcare businesses. Make sure whoever is managing your ads has a strategy that does not rely on retargeting to get results.

4 Google Ads Metrics You Should Check

1. Conversions. The number of conversions–patient calls and appointments–that you get from your Google Ads is a major metric that you should keep track of. Having a target number in mind can help to guide your advertising budget. If you’re spending $1000 on Google ads, you should expect 15 conversions, which on average turns into 9 new patients. But check it out! This client got 39 conversions on a $1000 budget!

   

2. Click-Through-Rate (CTR). This is the number of times that the ad is shown vs. the number of times that someone actually clicks on it. This should be at least 3.5%. Again, this client is getting nearly double that – someone clicks on the ad 7.42% of the time!

3. Average Cost-Per-Click (CPC). Your average cost per click is the third metric to watch. It’s how much each individual click costs you on average. Keeping it under $5 is the best range to stay in. 

4. Cost-Per-Conversion. The cost per conversion is another important figure. It’s the average cost that you’re paying for a single conversion. The average is about $75 for each time you get a patient, with lower costs than average being ideal.

PART IV: Frequently Asked Questions

1. How can you tell when a conversion comes through via a PPC ad vs. any other method?

If you’re a Practice Promotions client, we have tracking programs that track exactly how you are getting your conversions, so you know exactly which ones come from your PPC campaigns.

2. How should I choose my exact advertising budget?

There is no one answer for how much you should spend. It often depends on the amount of competition you have in your area and the number of clinics you have that you are advertising. Where you’re located is another indicator. A suburb or rural town will generally cost less than a large city.

3. Is it worth the ad costs to get customers?

Yes, PPC ads are highly effective at driving conversions, and the low cost per lead is far lower than the amount made from treating each patient.

4. If my practice is already on the first page of Google results for favorable keywords, do I need PPC ads?

Yes. The more touch points you have on that first page, the more likely you are to get conversions. Using these ads will make your practice far more prominent and allow it to be seen on multiple areas of the page.

When you use PPC Google Ads to advertise your business, it’s an effective way to get quick conversions and to boost your business immediately. And because it allows you to see so much data, you always know exactly how it’s working and how many conversions you are getting from it. It’s always best to have professionals handle these campaigns, as they are complicated to create and implement. With our help, you can run great advertising for physiotherapy that brings you patients and boosts your bottom line.

5. What results should I expect if I trust an agency to run my PPC Google Ads for me?

As a PPC client with Practice Promotions, we estimate 15 conversions per month per $1000 ad spend and 9 new patients. We also like to inform our clients that this can differ depending on location, population, competition, and normal business fluctuations. A conversion is currently measured as a call made from either seeing an ad or clicking on an ad and calling from the website. There are a few restrictions to conversion tracking that may result in a conversion not reporting to your ads, but the vast majority are able to be captured through tracking.

6. How is my Google Ads budget spent by Google?

Google Ads are selected and run through a bidding process. This process decides which ads will appear and in which order, however, the highest monetary bidder doesn’t always win. Google looks at a myriad of factors to determine eligibility and rank.

There are multiple different types of bidding options available. The bidding process we use looks at the behavior of searchers and knows to bid higher on people who are more likely to not only visit your website but also contact your practice. 

7. How does the bidding process work?

• A user makes a search on Google for physical therapy
• Google determines if the ad is eligible to show. Eligibility can depend on location, ad approval status, and ad quality. 
• This is where things get competitive – we are trying to outbid and outrank competitors. These competitors are typically your business competitors who are also running Google Ads. Eligible ads go through a bidding process, where they are all compared by bid amount, ad quality, landing page quality, the content of the search, and the expected outcome of the search. The ads are then ranked. Ads appear to the viewer in order based on rank.
• Repeat. Each keyword goes through a new bidding process for each search – this is why we look at an average cost per click. Some clicks may cost us only $0.05 because there is low competition in the bidding process, others may cost $20.00 but Google’s analysis of the search has told our account the person is likely to get in contact with your practice and a higher bid should be submitted.
• This is why we describe your budget as a cap – some months may require the entire budget, and others may be able to achieve great results due to optimization. 

8. Will my full Google Ads budget be spent every month? 

Google aims to spread your budget out over the month. Sometimes this can make your budget not reach its full spend if the search volume is different throughout the month. When we assess your stats throughout the month, if we notice the full ad spend is not being utilized we can perform a keyword analysis/audit. However, if your other stats are all performing appropriately, it likely means you are running a highly optimized campaign. 

If you have an ad schedule running, please keep in mind that the daily budget for those days will not be spent or reached, so when we are thinking budget – it is best to think 

9. If I work with an agency, do they pay for my Google Ad spend, or do I?

Google charges the account spend directly to you. You are responsible for updating payment methods and all billing associated with Google Ads – but we will always try and help if you get stuck! 

10. Why are my Google Ad “conversions” vs the number of calls I actually get different?

Sometimes, people may write the number down and call later – these would be recorded by the tracking number as a call from Google CPC, but since no action was taken on the ad itself, it may not be counted as a conversion. 

Ready to get started with your physical therapy Google Ads campaign? Schedule a demo of the Google Ads + Ultimate Practice Marketing System today!