What Nobody Ever Tells You About Google Adwords. The 7 Most Important Things Acupuncturist Need to Know Before Spending a Dime on Pay Per Click Advertising. By Frank Prieto Marketing Strategist If you were faced with the grim decision of having to close your practice in the next 30 to 60 days, or turn it around by creating a steady flow of new patients coming in the door next week, how would you do it? You might think of running an ad in your local newspaper, or maybe even setting up a booth at a large community event in your area. There are certainly many ways to attract new patients, but the fastest and most cost effective way is by putting yourself in front of them when they are looking for an acupuncturist in your area. The keyword here is when they re looking for. When you run a newspaper ad or participate in a local event, you re putting yourself in front of many people who are not Frank Prieto and FrankPrieto.com is not affiliated with Google. 1
looking for a acupuncturist. Yes, there s a chance you might attract someone who might need your services, but you re paying to get your message to hundreds of people who don t. When you only put yourself in front of someone who is specifically searching for a acupuncturist in your area, you are only paying to get your message to that one person and nobody else. Do you see how powerful and cost effective this is? So how do you do this? I m going to tell you exactly how to do it, but first I want to ask you something Do you know why businesses depended on quality leads from the Yellow Pages for over 115 years? The reason is because consumers used the Yellow Pages when they were looking for a local service provider in their area. The keyword here again is looking for - or as we say today searching for. The name and concept of "yellow pages" came about in 1883, when a printer in Cheyenne, Wyoming, working on a regular telephone directory ran out of white paper and used yellow paper instead. These Yellow Page leads were valuable to businesses because they were local consumers calling on the phone looking for someone to solve their problem. The only other lead I know that beats this kind of lead is a referral. Other than that, it doesn t get any better than this. Today the Yellow Pages are obsolete, but the good news is that this form of attracting new patients on a weekly basis is alive and kicking. Today you have Google Adwords which is the Yellow Pages on Steroids. There is no better way to generate qualified, highly targeted new patient leads from the Internet than with Google Adwords. So if this is true, why are so many acupuncturists afraid to advertise on Adwords? The top 3 reasons I hear most are: I m afraid of telemarketers or competitors clicking on my ads costing me money, I tried it once and I didn t get anything out of it, except a bill from Google, and Frank Prieto and FrankPrieto.com is not affiliated with Google. 2
I rather invest in SEO (search engine optimization) so that once my site makes to the top of Google, I can enjoy free traffic without having to pay for clicks. Let s take a close look at these objections. While there is no way to stop a competitor from clicking on your ad out of curiosity, Google has had safeguards in place for years now to prevent fraudulent clicks. Keep in mind that 97% of Google s revenue comes form Adwords. That s $32.2 billion (July 2013.) Back when Google Adwords launched in 2000, it only had 350 customers, and by 2007 that number had increased to 1 Million advertisers using the platform. So Google takes click fraud seriously because it cannot afford to jeopardize it s business. The system recognizes illegitimate or unintentional clicks, and classifies them in your account as invalid clicks which you are not charged for. Advertising spend for local search in 2008 was $3 Billion and has grown at a staggering rate, reaching 83.6 Billion in 2014. If you ve tried generating leads from Adwords without success, I can understand that because you really need to know what you re doing inside the Adwords cockpit. But not using Adwords to grow your practice for fear of click fraud is baseless. Before I get into what you need to know to run a successful Adwords campaign, let me first address reason # 3 and get that out of the way now. The #3 reason I hear most about from acupuncturists who don t use Adwords, is that they rather invest in SEO so that once the site makes it to the top of Google, they can get free traffic without having to pay for clicks. The problem with this approach is that you should be doing SEO regardless, not in place of. Think about this for a minute SEO is a long term strategy because it takes months to rank a website on the first page of Google. But PPC (pay-per-click or Adwords) is a short term strategy because you can have your ad on the top of Google in a matter of just days. The other advantage of having a two-legged Google strategy by doing both SEO and PPC, is that you ll have two listings on the first page of Google instead of one. I don t know about you, but when I go fishing I like to have two or three lines in the water. Another advantage of pay per click advertising is that there may be keywords you re not ranking for organically (SEO-wise), but you can rank for overnight by creating an Adwords ad to target those keyword terms. Frank Prieto and FrankPrieto.com is not affiliated with Google. 3
So far I ve addressed two of the three reasons some acupuncturists give for avoiding running an Adwords campaign. I don t believe these are well-grounded reasons, but nevertheless that s what I hear. So my hope is to give you a better understanding of PPC advertising, by sharing with you the 7 most important things a new PPC advertiser needs to know before starting an Adwords campaign. Now we re going to get into the real nitty gritty because the final reason: I tried it once and I didn t get anything out of it, except a bill from Google, is in fact a legitimate complain, and the reason many small business owners say PPC advertising doesn t work. Saying Google pay per click advertising doesn t work, is like saying airplanes can t fly because you tried flying one yourself and it never took off the ground. Adwords is a powerful lead generation machine, with sophisticated technology to help you attract a steady flow of new patients every week. But there s a number of important things you need to know before launching your first PPC campaign, so let s get started! 1. Never use the Broad match type on your keywords. In Adwords, you have the option to use 5 different match types for a keyword. They are: Broad match, Exact match, Phrase match, Broad match modifier and Negative match. When you first start out using Adwords, stay away from Broad match because Broad match will attract a lot of clicks that are not relevant enough, resulting in useless traffic and wasted money. Only use Exact match and Phrase match. Don t forget that! 2. In addition to Exact match and Phrase match, it is very important to also use Negative match to prevent your ads from getting traffic you don t want. Let me give you an example Let s say you re a acupuncturist in San Diego, CA and you re bidding on the phrase match keyword san diego acupuncturist. This tells Google you want your ads to show when someone in the San Diego area searches using the keyword term san diego acupuncturist in a phrase. Your ad would display when someone searches for: san diego acupuncturist near me, looking for san diego acupuncturist doctor, best san diego acupuncturist clinic, san diego acupuncturist for neck pain, etc. However, your ad will also show for san diego acupuncturist school, san diego acupuncturist jobs, Frank Prieto and FrankPrieto.com is not affiliated with Google. 4
san diego acupuncturist for dogs just to name a few. The clicks from these other keywords will cost you wasted money because obviously that s not the traffic you want. So in this example, you would include the following negative keywords in your campaign so your ad doesn t show when the search term includes: -job, -jobs, -dog, - Frank Prieto and FrankPrieto.com is not affiliated with Google. 5
table, -canine -school, -schools, -feline, -cat, -horse, - chair, -books, -college, -supplies, -free, -employment, - internships, etc. Negative keywords are very important, and especially important if you re using Broad match. But remember, stay away from Broad match for now, but do use Negative keywords from the get go. 3. When you are setting up your Adwords campaign, make sure you only run your ads in the Google Search network - not the Display Network or both networks. Select the Google Search network exclusively. This ad utilizes the headline to attract attention that the acupuncturist is in the area, and makes good use of the limited space by focusing on the benefits of booking an appointment with this acupuncturist. This is a good ad. Using the name of the clinic in the headline of the ad is ineffective because new patients don t know you yet. Stating that a acupuncturist is on staff in the text of the ad is a complete waste of prime space. This is a poor ad. 4. Don t set a daily budget limit that is too low. This is one of the biggest mistakes new advertisers make when they launch their first Adwords campaign. If you set a daily budget that is too low, your ads stop showing as soon as your daily budget is depleted. When your ads aren t showing you re not getting clicks, when you re not getting clicks you re not getting traffic, and when you re not getting traffic nothing happens. Let s say you set your daily budget limit at $5 and you re paying $1.50 per click. After your ad gets clicked on 3 times it will stop showing. If those 3 clicks occur before noon time, your ad won t show again until the following day. This is not good because you may not be getting enough traffic to get conversions. For example, if on average it takes 7 clicks per day to get someone who sees your ad to pick up the phone and call you (a conversion,) and you re only getting 3 clicks per day, your chances of getting conversions are now below average. On the other hand, if your daily budget limit is higher, you increase your chances of getting more conversion because your traffic to conversion ratio is more realistic. Don t think about traffic per se, think about conversions - and don t be afraid to give Google money as long as you re getting a return on your investment. 5. When you write your ads, take the time to write engaging ads because boring ads get fewer clicks. You have limited space to get your message across, but so does everyone else. So use the available space wisely and focus on communicating the benefits of what you do - not what you do. For example, here s a line from an actual ad that could be better: We offer Acupuncture for Migraines and Headaches. Why not say instead: We Treat Headache Pain Effectively with Acupuncture. The second line is Frank Prieto and FrankPrieto.com is not affiliated with Google. 6
likely to get more clicks, and more clicks are a good thing if you ve built your campaign properly. 6. Do not send traffic from your PPC ads to your Home page, because unless your Home page is optimized to convert - and I ll bet you my last #10 window envelope it isn t - you re not going to get nearly as good of results as when you send the traffic to a landing page. What is a landing page? A landing page is a web page designed to convert. What is a conversion? A conversion is whatever action you want a visitor to take when they visit your landing page. It could be downloading a Free Report, requesting a Free Consultation, calling your office, or whatever it is you want them to do. A landing page has no distractions, like links to your social media profiles or links to other areas of your website. It s only purpose is to get the visitor to take a desired action. It s fine to have organic traffic going to your Home page, but paid traffic should always go to a landing page. 7. Do not send traffic to a landing page that has no offer. An offer can be a Free Consultation or a Free TCM Pulse Diagnosis, etc. The important thing here is to give the visitor a risk-free offer, meaning you re giving her an opportunity to come in and meet with you with no strings attached to see if acupuncture is right for her. There s a lot more to Google Adwords, but you can use these 7 tips as a quick start guide to getting started on the right track. Just don t try to pack too many keywords into your campaign in the beginning. When you re starting out, the fewer keywords you have the better, that way you can focus on tweaking and fine tuning your campaign to make those keywords as profitable as possible. Opportunities multiply as they are seized. ~ Sun Tzu Frank Prieto and FrankPrieto.com is not affiliated with Google. 7
About Frank Prieto Frank Prieto Marketing Strategist FrankPrieto.com 10604 SW 71 Ln Miami, FL 33173 (305) 273-9240 I help acupuncturists grow their practice using proven direct marketing principles. Most people think that marketing is all about producing cute or funny ads with play on words or expensive graphics. This type of marketing is known as "branding" or "image advertising." While branding may work for huge national advertisers, it won't work for your acupuncture practice, or any of the other 45 million small businesses around the country. What works for most small businesses is direct marketing, also known as response-based marketing. This type of advertising can be tracked, tested and measured so you know if it's working or not. It's really a scientific approach to advertising based on psychology and human behavior. Did you know that 37% of the money spent on traditional advertising goes to waste without any effect on sales? As an acupuncturist you probably cringe at the S word. The S word is "selling." You probably hate selling and might even think of it as sleazy or unethical. But if you don't sell yourself you won't grow your practice and you won't be able to treat the growing number of people who need your help. So what do you do? You let the marketing do the selling for you. That s where effective marketing fits into all this. Good marketing is supposed to do the selling for you, so you can focus on doing the things you enjoy most - which I m guessing is helping a larger number of people improve their quality of life, aka growing your practice. iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Click on coupon or go to FrankPrieto.com/ppc Frank Prieto and FrankPrieto.com is not affiliated with Google. 8