The healthcare sector definitely faced numerous challenges over the past year. The current public health situation has affected different aspects of day-to-day life. For the healthcare industry, the pandemic is expected to cause a slowdown in global spending, according to research and consultation firm Deloitte.
The good news is that there are several factors that can have a positive effect on healthcare spending. This includes an aging population, increasing demand for healthcare services, economic recovery, advancements in medicine and technology, labor cost, and the enhancement of healthcare systems.
Healthcare facility operators need to make sure that the spending picks up, as this can directly influence their revenues. Marketing the business and advertising its services can play a role in boosting its bottom line.
Doing so means employing different strategies, particularly the use of digital techniques because PricewaterHouse Coopers found that healthcare providers are now expected to use technologies that can enhance targeted marketing. Paid advertisements are one of the most vital parts of digital marketing. Here’s what you need to know about using this technique to gain more clients and increase revenues.
Marketing Challenges Faced by Healthcare Sector
Coming up with an effective marketing strategy means understanding challenges and overcoming them. Below are some of the most prominent hurdles you need to know and conquer in order to create a successful campaign.
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Comprehensive Restrictions from Google
The industry is facing a lot of restrictions from Google, which means that any digital marketing efforts by facilities should abide by these policies. An example of this is the prohibition of using restricted drug terms in ad texts, landing pages, source codes, and keywords. In the United States, companies can post ads using such terms, but with certification from Google.
Promotion of unapproved substances and prescription opioid painkillers is also not allowed except for certain circumstances. Advertisers should also refrain from promoting speculative and experimental treatments, as well as gene and cell therapies. Even health insurance is covered by Google’s Advertising Policies.
The best path of action for advertisers is to apply for certifications. Keep in mind that there are specific requirements per country, so make sure to take a look at those covering the United States.
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Misinformation is Rampant
Wrong information about the medical field, treatments, and general healthcare is rampant. Potential clients may refrain from getting any healthcare help because of misinformation. You need to make sure that you publish only factual, science-based, and from reliable sources in order to fight unreliable and downright deceptive sources.
Getting your website up in search rankings can minimize the likelihood of such sources appearing whenever users use the Internet to search for information.
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Stiff Competition
Lastly, competition can be tight in this sector. There are lots of facilities and service providers, and there are also lots of potential clients and patients. These users are bound to use the Internet to look for hospitals and clinics. If your website fails to appear during these searches, these potential clients are bound to go for other options.
What is Pay-Per-Click Advertising?
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a type of internet marketing model where advertisers or marketers are required to pay a corresponding fee to website publishers or hosts each time one of their respective ads has been clicked on or explored by users, hence the name.
In many ways, this internet marketing model can be treated as another way to effectively drive traffic to websites. Instead of organically trying to drive traffic in, this approach is a relatively aggressive way of bringing in more visits to your website. After all, the main goal behind this marketing tactic is to lead visitors who click on the said ads to the website or app of the particular advertiser, leading them to potentially purchase products or services being offered.
The PPC model is usually associated with the likes of the most popular search engines through the use of Amazon Advertising, Bing Ads, Google Ads, and the like. While ads have the tendency to appear on a search engine, their placements have to undergo a process called Ad Auction to determine which ones will remain relevant and appear on the search engine results page (SERP).
Keywords play an important role in the Ads Auction. These keywords are used by advertisers who want to put out ads as these keywords can be placed to match certain search queries.
Given the extent these pay-per-click ads can reach, especially coupled with the right keywords, it only makes sense for advertisers to want to know how much these cost. While there are no standard rates in the industry today, Hochman Consultants say that each click could cost around $1.03 back in 2019. Meanwhile, the cost per mille is valued at $18.71 and the cost for each successful conversion is $19.64.
However, this could rise depending on the category each keyword falls under and which search engine you are advertising with. For example Google ads with insurance-related keywords can go for $54.91 per click, while cord blood-related terms can be valued at $27.80.
4 Tips for Using Paid Ads to Your Advantage
There is no doubt that paid social advertising can change the game when it comes to handling your healthcare facility and the way your website and your business operate. For companies that have leveraged the paid advertising strategy, there is a way to make these ads work to your advantage, allowing you to reach more customers and improve conversions at the same time.
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Track Your PPC
Tracking pay-per-clicks ads is a great way to gauge and improve how these campaigns are being perceived by the target market. By monitoring and making sure these campaigns are working, businesses like yours ensure that money is not lost. This gives you the leverage to make informed and profitable advertising decisions.
Moreover, keeping tabs on your PPC also helps you determine what ads and terms are working for your business and those which are not contributing to your brand awareness. By tracking your pay-per-click campaigns, you can gain a deeper insight into which ads and keywords are driving more traffic and leading to conversions.
In the same way, this sheds light on what and where your campaigns need to focus on, and by extension, how you can improve and adjust accordingly. In tracking your PPC, you can see how your website is impacted by the performance of your advertisements and keywords, allowing you to make changes even before your company bleeds more money.
Keywords are just a huge part of pay-per-click advertising, so learning the complex art of keyword research definitely plays a role in tracking your PPC. As mentioned previously, these terms are usually attached to particular ads, so identifying what keywords bring in PPC traffic is essential.
Taking a clear stance when it comes to determining which keywords and search queries drive in more traffic and bring in more conversions, you can have a better grasp of where to focus your succeeding campaigns and healthcare advertising strategies.
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Update Your Website
Interactive, engaging, and informative websites remain at the very core of healthcare advertising. Those who steer clear from these paths often lose a big chunk of their visitors, with Healthcare Success saying that this number equates to around three-quarters of users or approximately 71% of people.
An updated website not only empowers people by giving them user-friendly access to information, but also leads them to take a more proactive role in discovering what your website and your business have to offer.
One of the ways you can efficiently update your website is by making it more responsive, particularly to those using it on devices other than a computer, such as a mobile phone or tablet. This approach not only takes into consideration user experience but also how the site performs on different devices as well.
A responsive web design also alerts search engines that your website is optimized for any use, and therefore, affects your SEO performance. With optimization being a key factor in ranking on search engines, it can drastically improve the visibility and relevance of your site.
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Update Your Google My Business Page
Creating your business profile is not the end to making your listing known to visitors. It needs to be updated from time to time to ensure you can still rank higher than other competitors in the healthcare sector.
When talking about optimization, know that it is not just for your company website. As a matter of fact, this also goes for your business listing. The more updated and active your page is on Google, the more chances you can advance and rank higher on the platform, allowing the search engine to see your website as trustworthy. Not only that, you can also increase your chances of being discovered and furthering your reach, driving more customers, and enjoying more conversions.
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Include Relevant Information
Pay-per-click advertising is not the end of your healthcare advertising journey. Think of this as the gateway that will only open up more opportunities in the long run. Combining PPC with SEO, however, can only increase exposure and visibility on search engine results pages.
In dominating the organic and paid search results pages, your business can expect to see more traffic coming in. At the same time, this can also establish your healthcare facility and website as a more established and trustworthy entity on the market.
By sharing keyword data, you can leverage the copies and campaigns that work well on PPCs and integrate these into organic SEO content strategy as well. With the joint effort of these two, you can move towards refining your SEO strategy and eventually stop pay-per-click ads to focus on more organic approaches.
The Takeaway
Paid advertising can be challenging to navigate, especially when it requires investing a large amount of money for your campaigns to work. By considering the aforementioned tips, you can still make effective strides in making your healthcare business thrive little by little.