What Type of Online Ads Are Best for Podiatrists?

You're listening to Podiatry Marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald.

Hi. I'm Tyson Franklin, and welcome back to this week's episode of Podiatry Marketing Podcast. With me as usual is Big Jim Mack. How you doing today, Jim?

Doing fantastic, Tyson. Excited to, chat with you today as always.

I had someone I was talking to 2 weeks ago and they said to me, so when's the Big Jim Mack and Tyson shirts come out? So we have to work on that.

Well, I've had multiple people a couple of conferences this past fall where they, being called Jim Big Jim or Big Jim Mac at the conferences is definitely something I've heard on this podcast about over a 150 times. But, to hear it in the real world was definitely something different. So

Yeah. I picture it as a yeah. The t shirt and I picture it as like a more of a caricature of you and I together Sure. As big Jim Mac and Tyson.

Well, maybe someday we can make that happen.

Yeah. I think it'd be funny. I just gotta probably probably go to AI. You can just say, hey, can you do this and you tell them what it's all about and just put a photo of us photo of you and I up there. And, yeah.

So it's worth

No. I'm I I should try that out on chat GPT and their kind of photo editor or their photo, generator once we, get off the show today.

Yeah. I went into the the photo generator once before. And I said, do if, I want an image of a person standing up in front of a crowd, you know, a room full of men and women. And I said, and the person has a bald head.

Okay.

So we're supposed to pick me up there talking.

Sure.

Also, everybody in the room is bald. Like it was a bold convention. Even the women even the women were bald. And I swear, my god, that looks horrible. I looked pretty good at the front, though.

There you go. Yeah. That made me look tough. Must have thought, oh, if you're bald, everyone's tough and bald.

Yeah. I, I haven't tried it in a little while, but it was still giving every podiatrist a stethoscope the last time I tried to, make some podiatrist specific images. So, I'm not sure if it's still giving podiatrist stethoscopes. But even if I tell it not to give a podiatrist a stethoscope, it still kept on doing it. So, hopefully, they got that all figured out for us.

Yeah. And you tell it, oh, we only have 5 toes. You always end up with 6.

They were kinda freaky there for a little while.

So what are you talking about today?

Yeah. So today, we're gonna jump into a topic that a question I get asked a lot. You know, when people are just getting into developing, you know, after they developed a website for their practice and they've got their Google Business profile all tuned up, a lot of the questions I ask, kind of revolve around what's the most effective form of advertising for podiatrists. So, you know, what type of online ads, are really the best type. And, you know, for a long time, you know, it's it's there's definitely, the the the area where I start off with the most people is that, the Google search ads.

And there's kinda like 5 main reasons why I say that that's kind of like It's almost different than any other form of advertising because it is, there's just some specific differences we'll get into here, that make it a lot different than the kind of more interruptive, generic, advertising when, you know, kind of the the normal kind of traditional media type of advertising. We think about when we think about advertising, or ad ads we see, as consumers ourself, or as we see with other types of either dental practices or medical practices kind of in in magazines or newspapers. Not to say that those things can't work, but there is some benefit of utilizing, these Google search ads that kind of go above and beyond. And I'll kind of we'll kinda jump into some of those details in a little bit here.

Yeah. Well, let's just dive straight into it. What what are the five reasons?

I'd say the first reason is that you're gonna get that immediate visibility on the first page of search results. Right? So when people are searching for podiatrist near me or podiatrist in the name of the location you're in, let's say you're in Sydney, Australia, you know, when people are searching for those things, that ad is gonna show up above the organic search results. It's gonna be even above the map. So, it can sometimes be the first result in the map as long along with the the top of the page.

So, you know, it's really invaluable, real estate on a web page to be in Google's results. And when you do Google search ads, that's kind of the immediate way to get traction. You know, if you're competing for, you know, terms against other clinics in your local area, it's something that, you know, helps you rank higher in those search in the search engines.

Is it normally 3? Is it 3 they still put at the front, the top?

Yeah. Generally, it's 2 or 3. It's kinda Google's always kinda changing it, but, but currently, it's 3. And, it it's, like I said, this is the first thing that people see. And I would say that Google can be a little bit tricky.

Right? It used to be very obvious, and it used to be almost like a different color as far as almost like a badge that it said ad, and it was very visually striking. But now Google, you know, it doesn't show up as clearly as an ad, So some people are more likely to probably click on it. But Google Ads, you know, like, talked about being kind of the top of the search results is really important for newer and smaller clinics. Right?

It's gonna take some time to develop, kind of what they call, basically, kind of your Google rank or your kind of, your your ability, kind of your your kind of ranking score with Google is gonna kinda grow over time as you're spending more money on ads. But, it's something that, you know, there's been some show as well that if you have ads, your organic results generally benefit as well. You know, that you know, it it there's it's kind of a a bowing a booing effect of your organic results just kinda start raising to the top along with your ads. So in order to kinda level that playing field and be seen above more established competitors, that that's one of the benefits of these Google search ads.

Would that be because Google goes, oh, well, you're spending money with us, and you've got your page here. We're gonna, yeah, we're we're gonna look after our own.

But I think it also has to deal with the fact that, you know, we all have Google Analytics installed on our website. So even if someone comes through with you on an ad, if if someone's spending a good amount of time on your website, even through an ad, it's a sign that you have a well built website that relates to the people that are searching for those things. So if they search for it and click on it and they stay for a while through an ad, I have to think that there's some kind of internal mechanisms as well. If they like it through an ad, they're probably gonna like it in organic, and it's we know that there's you know, if we measure this web your website versus these others, now maybe it's people are spending a minute more, a minute and a half more. So why wouldn't they bolster the organic aspect, the ranking of your website as well?

That makes sense. So what's next? What's what's the second second reason?

The second thing is I would say is that, and it's getting a little bit more difficult as time goes on, but you can measure results and get some data insights by, by utilizing Google search ads. Sometimes that can be helpful, as far as how you build, the web pages, on your website itself. Meaning that, like, you know, Google offers these kind of in-depth reporting and kind of tracks kinda key performance metrics. Things like your keywords, the search terms people are clicking on. This allows you to kinda optimize your ad campaigns in real time to make sure you're kinda getting the most out of your marketing spend.

And if you see that, you know, it's gonna when you have Google Ads with these reports, you can look at it. And like I said, these are kinda search term results. And you wanna make sure that, you know, if, if if you're you wanna make sure there's kind of a a kind of a pattern match between what people are putting into Google, what's on your website, and then kinda how people are taking action on it. If you're you know so it kinda helps inform you a little bit. Obviously, you have to pay for this information, but you know that people are searching for things in a certain way.

It's kind of a patient specific language, then you're able to also kind of build out your pages with that patient specific language in a way.

Okay. So if you're running ads, you'll have a certain budget. If you don't use it all the budget, does it carry over to the next month?

Yeah. We'll get in that a second here. I'd say what's really important though that before we jump to the budget that we're like,

Diving ahead of myself. Ronnie, I'm going ahead of myself here.

It's it's kinda related in a way though. Right? Like, there is kind of a carryover between the analytics and the the metrics and making sure that you're getting kind of the max out of your spend. Right? Because if you're, you know, you're you're you can you can tell what people are clicking on and what's leading to, like, to a conversion.

Like I talked about earlier, it's getting a little trickier with browsers having kind of, like, ad blocking or they won't always kind of relay that information back to Google, but it does help you kinda make these data, specific you know, data driven decisions that, you know, if people are clicking on a term like plantar fasciitis, but not making appointments and you're spending 4 or $500 a month on those clicks.

Yeah.

Maybe it's time to focus on a campaign or a way of advertising that's a little bit different. Like, maybe you're doing something a little bit more local, like, you know, podiatrist Richmond, Virginia or something as opposed to just generic keyword terms that are you're spending a lot but not getting return on investment. Like you talked about, you know, having some flexibility in the budget is also something you can kind of crank up and crank down when it comes to Google. Generally, I recommend people are kind of in the budget of, you know, somewhere between 500 to $1,000 a month when you start it out as you're kinda, like, building things up. You know, it's something that you can kind of have a monthly cap, trying to ensure that you don't overspend and making sure that, like I talked about, you are spending money on keywords or on clicks that are leading to patient appointments.

But that's a good point you made that the budget is something that can be kind of ratcheted up ratcheted down depending on how well you're doing and maybe you're doing some different types of experimentation. You know, if you're just, you know, a solo practitioner in a small town, you know, maybe 500 to $700 is is enough for you, and you can kinda keep it there. But if you find success, with certain keywords, or you wanna expand your business into a new, location or a new community, there's some good ways to kind of, you know, branch out and, increase that budget where it makes sense.

Yeah. Because that's where I was go. I think that was a question I was more looking at that if if you're running ads and you're choosing the wrong words and it's not working for you, will Google reach out to you and say, you're using the wrong words, this is what you should be doing, or this is why you need to work with somebody? What does Google's get? I don't care.

It's giving you money.

Well, Google's gonna give you kind of the dummy interface version where it's basically just give us money and we'll try to, like, get you stuff. Like, it's not, so you're really trying to work with someone who knows kind of the Google black box and how to get the best out of, this system because it is something that's rapidly changing. It can be really confusing if you get into kind of the pro dashboard of Google Ads, but that's the most effective way to get the best kind of bang for your buck and make sure that you're spending your budget wisely.

Okay. So which then we move on to budgeting.

Yeah. Yeah. So like we talked about the budget there, there's there's lots of things why why it's important. Right? Like I talked about that, whether it be the size of your practice, maybe it's a way to experiment.

But like I said, generally, people will start off in that 500 to a $1,000 range, but it is nice because you can kinda dial it up and dial it down. One of the tricky things though with Google is that it doesn't necessarily allow you to say, I only wanna spend, you know, $1,000, you know, over this month. You have to be able to kinda set the budgets and to kinda know which levers to crank and to kinda turn on and turn off to kinda spend that much money because it's gonna every $500 is gonna charge your credit card. So if you're, you know, in a big city, and you're not careful the way you're utilizing your ads, it can be, you could put some some budget limits, but, you can't always kinda drill it down to the exact dollar amount. You can say $30 a day, but know that Google has some, stipulations where they're allowed to spend, I think, it's somewhere between 20 30% over budget, and that's just normal for Google.

Right? So like Oh, okay. So they're allowed

to do that. That's in the that's in the contract.

It's in the terms and conditions of of Google. Right? So even though they say, I only wanna spend this much per day, there's some flexibility there. And you have to know what that flexibility is, especially, like I said, for a big urban area, kinda you you wanna work with someone that that knows that that's there so you don't just get blown out in that 1st month. Obviously, the more money you put in, the more data you'll get, the better, if you're you know, the better data you'll have to make these decisions.

But just know that you have to be a little bit careful those first few months.

So if you put if you said my budget's a 1,000 for the month, it could be 12 or 1300.

It could be. It could be. So you gotta be careful.

So would it ever be 2 1,000, 3,000? But they'd ever get they'd go nuts, though.

I mean, as long as you're putting in those daily, or, you know, if you're putting in some limits there, it can't go beyond a certain amount, but there is that kind of built in buffer that Google has.

Okay. Anything else on budgeting we need to be aware of?

No. I think that's kind of the the the benefits or the kind of the things to be aware of when you're utilizing Google search ads.

Okay. What's next?

I'd say one of the benefits as well, and I touched on it briefly on another topic, is that you can, utilize location. Right? So whether it be kind of a a radius around a certain location or if you're targeting specific ZIP codes or maybe you have your best patients, Google Ads allows you to kinda be very precise with this geographic targeting. Like I said, you don't have to, you know, even if there's there's maybe some place right next to where your clinics at, you don't actually wanna show these ads there. You don't have to.

You can kind of you can target them and, you know, like I said, with a radius or with ZIP codes or postal codes, as we say in Canada. But it definitely gives podiatrists, you know, podiatry clinics are generally local businesses. Maybe you'll have someone that travels a few 100 miles to see it, and that's great. But, you know, I would say 90 to 95% of people's practice, if not more, are these local patients. And by, you know, realizing that it can be very powerful, from a local marketing perspective, you can really go after kind of your ideal patients locally and be very relevant to them.

That's one of the things about interruptive advertising or just kinda generic advertising you see in a magazine or on TV. Maybe it speaks to you, but, you know, when you if you live in Boston, Massachusetts and you type Boston Podiatrist and you get, you know, a link that says, you know, a podiatrist, in a specific, you know, neighborhood in Boston, you know, open to see new patients, and you click on a a link and you go to the website, it seems like your local area. It seems like a reputable, person that has reviews, and testimonials for people kinda like you. It's gonna be much more relatable as opposed to kind of a a generic, more kind of broad marketing message that we see in a lot of more mainstream media outlets.

Yeah. And I've seen some people where they get this totally wrong. And I'll be googling something and might be for local area here in Cairns. And next thing, it'll the sponsored ad will be someone in Perth. The other side of the country and I've got and that happens a lot.

And I've seen a lot of podiatrists do this as well where I've gone and they're searching for something and I'm searching for it in this area in Queensland and next thing I'm getting something for the other side of the country and I've gone, you obviously didn't tick the right box.

No. Exactly. I think that's a great example of kind of the why the geo targeting is super important. It's not only important just to, like, to be relevant to people, but it's also for example, if you own a podiatry clinic in Manhattan, Kansas, and you don't and you're targeting the entire US, and you're wondering why, you know, 99% of your your clicks are coming from Manhattan, New York, but but no conversions or no people are making appointments.

Yeah.

You know, I've seen that before where someone has left it, the targeting, the geo targeting wide open, and they're getting all this irrelevant clicks and irrelevant traffic because they just the people running the ads. You know, it could be in, you know, London, the UK, and someone from London, Ontario's advertising. Right? So you'll you'll be surprised sometimes you'll see very nonrelevant, not nonlocal ads sometimes show up for some of these things in Google search ads if you if you take a closer look at it.

Yeah. So I suppose if you get the targeting right, then you're not gonna be wasting money by going to the wrong places.

Exactly. And you're gonna get more of those patients coming your way instead of them. It's some frustrated New Yorkers, that are upset that you're trying to make them go all the way to Kansas to get, foot and ankle care.

Yeah. I'll be honest. Whenever I see an ad that's in the wrong spot, I click on it.

Just to punish them?

Just to punish them. Yeah. If I see it and I say, nope. You should not be advertising here. This is the wrong spot or from where I was yeah.

From where I am. Click. I'm gonna have a look, and I'll come out and I'm like, click. Might have a second look. Okay.

There you go. Get it right. So what's what's the 5th thing?

Last but not least is that these are, like, really high intent potential patients and leads that are clicking on Google search ads. If you've constructed these, campaigns in the correct fashion we've talked about, they're they're local patients They're, you know, highly likely to to make an appointment with you because, you know, they're typing these things into Google. Right? They're looking for answers to a specific problem that they have. You know?

And if you're, you know, if you're just, you know, advertising on terms like plantar fasciitis or podiatry, these are very general nonspecific terms that, you know, you might even be bidding. If you do plantar fasciitis, you might be bidding against, you know, Bunyan Surgical Instrumentation Companies. Maybe it's doctor Scholes who probably has 100 of 1,000 of dollars of budget. So you're just not really gonna be showing up for these things. But if you have high relevant ads that are localized when people type in things like podiatrist near me or foot doctor near me, you you know, there's all there's not an unlimited amount of volume for these types of terms.

But you know when people are searching for those things, they're highly likely to come see you, if they like what they see. So when you're, when people are likely to book, these are the kind of kind of low funnel or patients kinda hot to book an appointment. So, you you know, it's just not something that you have in kind of the normal old school marketing or kind of old school. I mean, you know, people have to, you know, flip open the the yellow page or something and see maybe a pedagogy or something. But it's much more relevant and easier to make an appointment when it is something like Google, and they're searching for something and you've you look like a very relevant, person for, for for them to come see, you're essentially kinda capturing these potential patients in a moment when they need your services the most.

So that's a huge opportunity.

Yeah. And it's funny that you just mentioned yellow pages that because when you actually think of yellow pages and how yellow pages used to work, Google is pretty much tell everyone sort of think the same way. Like, if you were looking for a podiatrist in Cairns, I'm not gonna grab the Townsville directory. Right? You just wouldn't do it.

Then if someone's looking for a podiatrist, if they are, you know, a high intent lead, they're they're looking for a podiatrist, which is why they went to the yellow pages back in the day. Then whoever spent the most had the bigger ad and went to the top. So it's pretty much the same concept of what you're doing with Google. So if people are a bit more old school, just try and think of how it used to work there and it sort of applies the same way in the digital world.

No. Absolutely. That's a good point. I think you're right there. You know, when you when you saw that full color ad for somebody kinda in that podiatry section or maybe you're looking for a landscape or something, right, and they have this amazing color ad there, You're not gonna look at that little fine print there.

It's not like for the name, like, you know, if there's such there's a testimonials, oh, this is, you know, 5 star, those kinds of things, it's gonna stand out to people. So, you know, these Google search ads are still very relevant. I would say, you know, they're relevant, you know, they leverage these benefits, you know, of these ads for podiatry clinics. It helps you ensure that your efforts are efficient and effective. You're gonna attract local patients who are ready to book appointments now.

So I think it's really, really important that it is distinguished from other forms of advertising. And those are the the top five reasons why you should consider Google search ads if you haven't already.

Oh, yeah. I have a a last question for you before you wrap up.

Sure.

If somebody had $1,000 Yep. And they go, Jim, I got $1,000 here, but I'm thinking of putting it on Facebook. What would you say to them?

I mean, if you're putting it on Facebook, maybe you're going after swift war patients or maybe you're trying to let people know about, you know, services that that people aren't searching for. But I would say that that's it's much more of a long, you know, closing window to get those people.

Yeah.

Facebook and other types of advertising that is more just kind of, you know, keeping you top of mind, let you know you exist, and you're not gonna get a very high return on investment. So It's

more of a disruption too, I I expect.

Yeah. Exactly. People aren't looking for those things. Right? It's it's nice that maybe that they're top of mind with them.

But if you're really looking to add new patients, to your practice with a kind of the highest like I said, the highest ROI opportunity is still Google search ads these days. Because like I talked about, you're very relevant, you're local, and people are basically putting their hands up to say, I have this problem now, Like, please help me, if you're if you're kinda running the right campaigns.

Yeah. No. It makes sense be be no different. I don't think it would matter. I think most people, if they think about what was the last thing they searched for on Google, and did that thing that you were searching for actually ever pop up while you were searching on Facebook?

And sometimes it does. Yeah. But I've seen ads that'll be on Facebook and they'll interrupt me and I go, oh, that's interesting. And I might click on it, but then I'll then go to Google and search for more detail. So I do think Google Ads, like you said, you've got people that have got a a high intent of what they want, which is why they're searching and which is why you need to be there.

Absolutely. It's just a total, game changer. It's still, you know, really tough tough to deal with for other forms of advertising.

Okay. Big Jim, you got anything else before we wrap up on this episode?

No. I think we're good for today, Tyson.

That's good. Now you've convinced me Google Ads worth it.

I think you're already sold. So

I was already sold. Yeah. No. That's why I just sort of throw that Facebook thing at the end. Because I've I know a few people that I put more into Facebook than they have in Google.

And I'm like, yeah, I'd probably go the other way.

I agree.

Okay, Jim. I look forward to talking to you next week.

Sounds great, Tyson.

Okay. See you.

Bye now. Thanks for listening to Podiatry Marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDaniel. Subscribe and learn more at Podiatry Marketing. That's the website address, podiatry. Marketing.