PPC for Doctors – Boost Your Patient Acquisition

A few months ago, the main partner of a 30-employee doctor’s office contacted us for help. While discussing roadblocks that hold back business growth, we narrowed it down to three key problems: 

1. Strict healthcare regulations that limit marketing options. 
2. Over-reliance on referrals, which makes it hard to attract new patients on a regular basis. 
3. Never knowing when or where the next patient will come from. 

To fix this, they needed a reliable way to attract valuable leads. 

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is one of the best solutions for this problem. 

Why? Well, because it will:

1. Get you in front of potential patients when they need a medical specialist. 
2. Generates a predictable flow of new patients.
3. Ensures affordability if you use the right strategies (read below). 

How are we so sure of this? We’ve created PPC strategies for 200+ businesses, helping them attract thousands of new clients. We can help your medical practice as well. If you want to find out how to bring more patients into your office read along or talk to a PPC expert today if you feel you’re ready to start.

How Much Profit Can PPC Bring to Your Practice?

Every business has competitors. Even when you’re in the business of helping others. The global private healthcare market is estimated to be worth nearly $7 trillion^[1] and is projected to surpass $11 trillion by the end of the decade. 

The gist is – you have competitors. A lot of them. 

If you’ve noticed that your competitors are starting to grow and expand, there’s a solid chance it’s because of a good PPC strategy. But no two practices are the same. Your business has its own unique positioning, brand awareness, services, and costs – so you need a PPC strategy tailored to your specific needs.

Before diving into our strategy, use our interactive calculator to see if PPC is a profitable way to attract new patients for your practice. But first, here are three key definitions to help you understand how the calculator works.

PTCB Practice Test: A Valuable Resource for Healthcare Professionals 

When doctors invest in PPC campaigns to boost patient acquisition, ensuring they have the right credentials is essential for building trust and credibility with patients. One important certification for healthcare professionals is the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB), which is crucial for those involved in pharmaceutical care. A PTCB practice test serves as a vital tool for professionals looking to prepare for the certification exam. By offering a simulated test environment, the practice test helps candidates familiarize themselves with the format, assess their knowledge, and identify areas for improvement. Having certified staff can also enhance the reputation of a medical practice, attracting more patients who value expertise and professionalism. For those looking to streamline the certification process, platforms like Medical Hero offer valuable resources to help professionals succeed.

How PPC Works

When you run a PPC campaign, you pay to appear on a search engine whenever a potential patient searches for a specific keyword (which we’ll define later). Each time someone clicks on your ad, you’re charged a fee by the ad platform. This is known as Cost Per Click (CPC). In the medical industry, CPCs typically range from $1 to $10.

Cost Per Click (CPC) Cost per click is the amount of money you pay to an advertising platform, like Google, to have a user click on your ad.

Of the people who click on your ad, some will convert into becoming a patient. This is your Conversion Rate (CVR). For the medical industry, CVR typically range from 1.5% and 3.5%.

Conversion Rate (CVR) Conversion rate is the percentage of users that convert into becoming a customer after clicking your ad.

We can use this to determine the cost of acquiring a single patient. Typically, this is called the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). For the medical industry, CACs typically range from $0.28 and $6.66.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) This is the cost of acquiring a single customer or client.  Customer Acquisition Cost = Cost Per Click / Conversion Rate CAC = CPC / CVR

Interactive PPC Profit Calculator 

Use this interactive calculator to work out how much profit you will receive from each patient acquired through PPC.

We’ve built this calculator using typical CPC and CVR across the medical industry. All you need to do is enter the amount of revenue a single client generates for you. The calculator then subtracts the marketing costs from the revenue to give you a profit per customer. Hence, by using this calculator, you can develop an understanding of the potential profits PPC could generate for your business. 

It is important to note that PPC is not 100% predictable, so we have created three unique cases that represent how well your PPC campaign could perform. 

Overview of Our PPC Strategy

There are three steps to running a profitable PPC strategy.

1. Set up PPC campaigns correctly to target the right audience and keywords.
2. Design high-converting landing pages. These are the pages that your potential clients will visit. 
3. Optimize your ads and landing pages to get the maximum profit. 

Without experience, a lot can go wrong. Doing even one of the steps incorrectly can result in losing money for every single patient you acquire. 

That’s because choosing the wrong keywords can result in you paying a massive $200 per click, not a mere $20. It can result in your page converting at a lowly 2%, not an optimized 20%. It’s the difference between you paying $100 for every new patient or an unprofitable $10,000. 

To not lose money and grow your business profitably, it is important to get each step right. The rest of the article will shed light on how to achieve a profitable PPC campaign.

Should You Run Ads on Paid Search or Paid Social?

When advertising your medical practice online, you have two main options:

• Paid Search (Google Ads, Bing Ads)
• Paid Social (Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat)

What’s exactly the difference between these two?

Paid Search is when your ad appears on a search engine, like Google, after someone has searched for a specific term. It’s super effective because you can target exactly what potential patients are searching for. You decide which keywords your practice shows up for—it’s like being front and center when someone is actively looking for your service.

Take Icy Bear, a dental company in the UK specializing in teeth-whitening products. Founded by celebrity dentist Hannah Kinsella, they used a mix of Paid Search and Paid Social to reach new customers. By focusing on the right keywords, Icy Bear generated £165K in sales from just £12K of Google Ads spend—a 13X return! That’s the power of targeting the right people at the right time. Medical practices can use similar strategies, but competition can drive up costs, so it’s important to optimize your PPC campaigns to avoid overspending.

On the flip side, Paid Social ads, like those on Facebook or Instagram, show up while people are casually scrolling through their feeds. They may not be actively looking for healthcare services, but with the right targeting, you can still grab their attention. It’s less precise than Paid Search but usually cheaper.

For Icy Bear, Paid Social also worked well. With the help of NUOPTIMA, Icy Bear managed to:

• Create lookalike audiences based on their current customers
• Retarget visitors who didn’t purchase the first time around
• End up with over £20K in sales from Facebook ads and a 9X return

This mix of strategies can work for healthcare too. You might target people searching for doctors with Paid Search, while Paid Social helps build awareness with a broader audience who may not be actively searching but could become future patients.

If you want to know more about PPC in detail, you can check out the rest of our PPC case studies, but this gives you a taste of how these approaches can be applied in a healthcare setting. Whether it’s teeth whitening or medical services, both Paid Search and Paid Social can deliver strong results if tailored correctly.

If you’re ready to explore how these strategies can work for your practice, feel free to book a call with us.

Running PPC Paid Search Ads 

The most common type of paid search ads is keyword-based. When someone searches for a keyword, your ad can appear right at the top of Google. 

For example, if someone searches “Doctor NYC,” PPC ads will show up first, followed by organic search results. By paying for a PPC ad, you can rank above SEO results, which typically take longer to achieve. But, like any strategy, there are pros and cons.

Pros of PPC

1. You can get in front of your potential patients quickly.
2. You can win valuable clients.
3. You can test which keywords bring in qualified leads.

Cons of PPC 

1. It can be expensive if you don’t set it up the right way.
2. Most people scroll straight past your ads. They prefer to look at SEO/organic results (however, we can help you counter this by running a hybrid strategy so you appear for both).

Up till now, you’ve learned and understood:  

• How PPC works
• If PPC will generate profitable clients
• What paid search is
• The pros and cons of a PPC strategy

However, we mentioned that PPC could sometimes be expensive if you go for the wrong keyword. How do you know which keywords will make you money? Let’s explore this further. 

Which PPC Keywords Should You Target to Get New Patients?

One of the biggest mistakes inexperienced PPC managers make is choosing the wrong keywords. This single error can be the difference between gaining 10 new patients or losing thousands of dollars.

What do the wrong keywords look like?

First, the wrong keywords are often too broad and based only on the service you offer. While it may seem like a good idea to target keywords like “doctor’s surgery,” this can backfire. There are usually a lot of competitors bidding on the exact same keyword, which drives up the cost per click (CPC) to a point where it’s no longer profitable.

Another mistake is targeting keywords with low intent. For example, “What is a dermatologist?” might get clicks, but those users aren’t ready to book a consultation – they’re just gathering information. These low-intent keywords typically have a lower CPC, but they don’t convert into paying clients.

So, what do the right keywords look like?

The right keywords are those with high intent—people actively looking to book services or get a quote. These can include branded keywords, specific service keywords, or even pain point keywords.

Also, the right keywords have reasonable CPCs that align with the services you offer. Use our interactive calculator to help figure out which keywords offer the best balance of cost and potential profit.

Type of keyword	Examples of keyword	Pros	Cons
Branded	American Medical Association Doctors NHS Practitioners	Cost-effective strategy to win new clients when your competitors may not be the best servicer.	The competition usually bids on their own branded keyword to protect against it.
Service	Family Doctor Skin Care Clinic  Cosmetic Doctor Medical House Call	High intent keywords for purchase or solving pain point and can be very profitable.	Service-level keywords are usually competitive, and services need bespoke landing pages.
Location	Doctor near me Skin Doctor in NYC Best Physicians in Los Angeles	High intent and very cost-effective.  The big competitors usually avoid these keywords.	You’ll be competing with local providers.  You’ll need to be locally present or have easy ‘contact us’ information.
Pain point	How to find a good family doctor? How to get rid of acne fast? How to find a woman’s health clinic?	It is possible to capture this lead before they go to competitors.  You’ll be able to close this client without competition.	Slightly lower buying intent as the user is in education mode.  Will need a well-designed landing page.

Want to know which keywords will drive the most patients to your practice? Talk to a PPC expert today, and we’ll help you find the right keywords to boost your business.

Excellent PPC Ad Creative and Copywriting Examples 

Once you start investing in PPC, your ads will naturally appear next to your competitors’ ads. That means, if you want potential patients to click on your ads, you must differentiate yourself somehow. 

To help our clients stand out and find the right keywords to bid on, we first analyze the competitive landscape. Here are some examples of medical PPC ads and our analysis of them. 

Ad 1: Sloane Street Surgery for ‘Private Doctor London’

Keyword: ‘Private Doctor London’

Verdict: 4/5

Good areas: Great and relevant headline. The offer of ‘24-Hour Care’ is enticing, and the CTA in the extension links works well.

Bad areas: They could’ve added social proof, like press mentions or credentials, to back up their claim of being ‘leading Specialists.’

Ad 2: Linia Cosmetic Surgery for ‘Cosmetic Surgery UK’

Keyword: ‘Cosmetic Surgery UK’

Verdict: 4/5

Good areas: The headline is relevant to the search, and the description highlights strong benefits like ‘Free Lifetime Aftercare’ and ‘24/7 Contact.’

Bad areas: The CTA could be more direct, like saying, ‘Book a free consultation,’ making it clear what to do next.

Ad 3: Tufts Medical Center for ‘Skin Doctor in Boston’

Keyword: ‘Skin Doctor in Boston’

Verdict: 3/5

Good areas: The ad is relevant to the search and engages the audience with the ‘Board-Certified’ specialists mentioned.

Bad areas: A clearer next step would help, like booking a callback or consultation. Including the location (Boston) would’ve made it stronger.

Ad 4: Just Answer for ‘Pediatrician Online Consultation’

Keyword: ‘Pediatrician Online Consultation’

Verdict: 5/5

Good areas: The ad creates urgency with the CTA right in the headline. Great social proof, showing the number of questions answered and quick response time.

Bad areas: Adding the ‘Ask a Dermatologist’ link is a bit off, as it doesn’t align with someone looking for a pediatrician—they may leave the site after seeing it.

Want to create ads that stand out and get noticed? Let’s talk! Contact us, and we’ll show you how to optimize your PPC campaigns for maximum reach and conversion rates.

How to Create a High-Converting Landing Page for Doctor PPC?

A high-converting landing page is one of the biggest factors in PPC success. Without it, you’ll be paying for traffic that doesn’t convert into patients, and that’s just a huge waste of cash! 

We highly recommend having a conversion rate expert handle the design and setup of your landing page. Our winning landing page framework is something we reserve for clients, but we’ll share the most important sections you’ll need.

Hero Block

This is the first section of your landing page, and it’s the most critical. You should be able to see the entire section as soon as you open the webpage. 

Here are the three things you need:

• A great headline, like “Best Cosmetic Doctor in NYC.”
• Strong social proof, such as “5.8/5 stars, 2,000+ reviews.”
• A clear call to action, like “Book Free Consultation Today.”

Your hero block needs to clearly communicate what you offer, who it’s for, and why you’re a low-risk choice for patients.

Service Block

Next, near the top of the page – likely in the second or third block – you’ll need to explain the services or products you offer. This section should highlight both the features and benefits. For instance, if you offer online dermatology consultations, you could mention:

Features:

• Tailored consultation for your skin goals. 
• Professional advice at a time and place that suits you.
• Personalized skincare recommendations.

Benefits:

• Access professional advice at a lower cost.
• Remove the uncertainty and find out exactly how to make your skin thrive.

Call to Action Block

Every PPC landing page needs a compelling call-to-action (CTA) block. The sole purpose of this section is to get the user to either fill out a form or book a call. 

We highly suggest having multiple CTA blocks throughout the page—one at the top, another in the middle, and one at the end. By tracking PPC metrics, you’ll see how these elements boost conversion rates. You’d be surprised at how much this can reduce your customer acquisition costs!

We include 6+ additional high-converting blocks in our landing pages. Want to learn what they are and how to use them effectively? Reach out today, and we’ll guide you through the process.

Engage an Agency to Run Your PPC Ads

There are lots of aspects to running a profitable PPC campaign for your medical practice. You can attempt it yourself, or you can engage us, NUOPTIMA. We’ve worked with 200+ businesses and run thousands of PPC campaigns profitably. 

A Bit About Us

We’re an honest growth agency, and our goal is to drive profit for your business. 

We don’t work with everyone. In fact, we actively refuse 50% of all businesses that try to work with us. That’s purely based on if we think we can make your campaign a success. We only grow as an agency if we can get you results and you refer us to your friends and family. 

Before you choose a PPC agency, reach out to our team. We’ll objectively tell you what we think, and if it’s good, we’ll propose a fair price alongside a set of growth expectations and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Once you start to work with us, you’ll be in regular contact with our team. You’ll be provided with extensive data tracking and will communicate with us on monthly calls.

Our PPC Capabilities

• We can service budgets from $100+ ad spend per day.
• Management costs start from $1,000 per month, depending on ad spend, platform, and requirements.
• Work on all ad platforms: Google, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, and Reddit.
• We’ve worked with local service providers to public companies.
• We’ve worked across B2C and B2B, having driven brands to 7 figures in sales, and exceeded B2B SQL quotas.

Next Steps

• Firstly, you should visit our PPC services page here.
• Then, you should read through some case studies here.
• And when you’re ready, send us a message or book a call here.

Book Call

Start your growth journey today.

FAQ

What is PPC marketing in healthcare?

Pay-Per-Click, or short PPC, is an advertising method that allows healthcare businesses to appear at the top of Google. Instead of investing in SEO and climbing the search results slowly, bidding on certain keywords can allow your office to appear above the search results and show potential patients the services you offer.

Does PPC advertising really work?

Yes, of course, PPC advertising works. Google wouldn’t be making $224 billion from advertising if it didn’t. PPC can help your doctor’s office to get ahead of your competitors instantly. All you need are the right keywords, a good copy, and a well-optimized landing page to grow your medical practice.

Are doctors allowed to advertise products?

Yes, doctors are indeed allowed to advertise products and services. But unlike your average business owner, the doctor who owns the practice must follow strict rules and regulations to ensure the information they’re giving to their potential patients is accurate and, more importantly, safe.

What’s the difference between PPC and SEO for doctors?

Both PPC and SEO can give you similar results: get on top of the SERPs, increase traffic, and get more customers. SEO focuses on organic rankings and requires months of work to get you where you want to be. PPC, on the other hand, can get your ad at the top in minutes. To get the best results, however, it’s best to use both strategies.

How much should doctors spend on PPC?

Competition, location, and many other factors affect the price of PPC ads. You can spend anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars yearly on your ads. It’s important to calculate your ad spending in advance and work with a PPC expert to maximize your ROI.

References

1. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/global-private-healthcare-business-report-125600086.html^[1]