Google’s Local services ads are a great way for dentists and orthodontists to stand out from the crowd and attract new patients. They help showcase your practice by putting you at the top of search results for keywords and terms. The expert team at Nexunom explains how you can leverage local services ads for your practice.
What are local services ads?
The dental and orthodontic marketing field is more competitive than ever, and it’s important that your practice utilizes all the tools to ensure you can be found. Local services ads (LSAs) are an excellent way to accomplish that.
LSAs are local ads that are designed specifically for service-oriented businesses, such as orthodontists and other dental practices. They allow you to appear on Google at the very top of search results. LSAs put you even higher than regular Google ads and organic listings, making your practice the first thing potential patients see when they are browsing.
And the best part about LSAs is that you only pay when a potential patient contacts you through your ad. This allows you to leverage your marketing dollars to ensure they are working the best for you. Other advertising is pay-per-click, meaning you are paying even if the ad doesn’t generate a follow-through action. With LSAs, you pay only when a new patient contacts you through your ad.
Make your marketing dollars work harder
We know that it can be difficult for dentists and orthodontists, especially smaller practices, to commit to large marketing budgets where it seems like you’re throwing things against a wall to see what sticks. That’s not the case with LSAs. We leverage your marketing dollars directly into leads for your practice. Let’s take a closer look at some of the advantages of LSAs for your orthodontic or dental practice.
Advantages of LSAs:
Give you top-of-page priority. When a potential patient searches using your targeted keyword, your LSA will show up before anything else does. This gives you the best opportunity to be featured as prominently as possible in Google search results.
Connect you directly with potential patients. The people who see your ad will be potential patients searching for dental or orthodontic services, so they are most likely to generate into leads.
Pay only when someone contacts your practice through the ad. Other ads are pay-per-click, meaning anytime someone clicks on the ad your marketing budget is charged. However, with LSAs you only get charged if a potential patient calls or emails you from your ad. This means you are leveraging those marketing dollars and only paying when your practice is actually contacted.
Google guaranteed ads help you create trust with online users. This badge shows searchers that you have gone through an extensive background and license check so potential patients can trust your reputation. Likewise, you can earn a licensed verified badge that helps patients understand your qualifications and licensing.
How can you set up your practice with LSAs?
To begin using local services ads, you’ll need to set up and verify your profile. You’ll need to provide your practice details, licensing information, proof of insurance, and in some cases, background checks. You’ll select the category that best fits your practice – dentistry/orthodontics is one of the categories of services available for LSAs.
You’ll optimize your ad to contain the pertinent information to help potential patients see you. You’ll want to be very specific about the services you provide and list the cities and zip codes you service to be sure your reach is maximized.
Through your local services ads account, you’ll be able to:
Receive and manage leads
Communicate directly with patients
Track leads
Track your ad’s performance
Pause your ad when needed
Adjust the budget
Track bookings and lead credits
Ask for reviews
Creating your LSA
Your ad will tell potential patients what they need to know to schedule an appointment or consultation with your practice. Your ad should contain the following:
Business hours – You’ll choose what hours your practice is open and can choose when you want your ad to be scheduled. Be sure you schedule your ad to run at times you’ll be able to answer leads. You can choose a temporarily closed status to turn off leads.
Select the cities and zip codes your practice services.
Select your services. Be specific about the services your practice offers so that your leads will be the most effective.
Enhance your ad by using photos of your practice. This can include your office, employees, and before and after photos.
Set your budget.
Create a biography for your practice. You can select up to 6 standard highlights, which includes things like “locally owned,” “emergency services available,” etc. You can also select Covid-19 highlights. These include things like contactless payment, online consultations, etc. Google will look for additional highlights to add, such as being accredited by the Better Business Bureau.
Input any accepted insurances. This helps patients know right away whether you accept their insurance, and if you do, may encourage them to schedule an appointment.
You can control whether patients can contact you by message or even schedule appointments directly through the ad.
Link your Google Business Profile to your LSA account.
What will my ad look like?
Your ad will contain the necessary information to help a potential patient reach out to your practice. This will include:
Practice name, phone number, and location. This could be your address, city, or the cities you service.
Reviews and number of reviews. This includes reviews to your Google Business Profile, as well as reviews that are collected from LSAs. All ads will show an average star rating, so make sure you ask your current patients to leave reviews. The more reviews potential patients see and the higher your star rating, the more trusted you’ll be seen as. The number of reviews you’ve received may be displayed with your LSA, so be sure you are capturing all patient reviews.
Business hours
Google Guarantee badge, Google Screened badge, or License Verified by Google – these all show potential patients that you can be trusted.
Photos. This can include photos of your practice, before and after photos, and anything that highlights your services. Refrain from uploading any personally identifying photos, however.
Business bio. This includes important details of your practice, such as complimentary consultations, etc.
Google will adjust your LSA from time to time to help you generate more leads.
How do I choose the right settings?
Choosing the proper settings will be key to ensuring you reach potential patients. You’ll want to be sure you have selected the correct service areas and job types so you can reach the people searching for your services.
Job types. A list of potential services will be given based on your business category. Choose all of the job types related to your practice, then when people search for that or anything related to it, your ad can potentially appear. Your ad will also be eligible to show up when a potential patient uses a more generic search term, such as orthodontist.
Service areas. Choose the geographic areas where you want your ad to appear. This should include all areas your practice can service, including cities, counties, and zip codes. You can even select zip codes that should be excluded from your service area, so if you service a large city or county but don’t have many patients in particular zip codes in that area, you can exclude them from your ad.
What order will my ad appear?
Local Services Ads use an auction to determine the order profiles appear in for their search. This process considers your overall bid and profile quality. Factors include:
Verification status and Google badges of trust
Your bid
The quality of your profile. Higher quality profiles can both rank higher and pay lower costs per lead.
The likeliness of your ad generating a lead, which is determined by:
Your responsiveness. Missed calls can have a negative impact.
What a customer is searching for and how relevant your business is for that search.
If messages and bookings are enabled, this means there are more ways for customers to reach your practice so your likelihood of receiving a lead increases.
How do leads work in LSAs?
You’ll only pay for valid leads with your LSA. Here’s how Google does that:
You’ll set a weekly budget based on the number of leads you want in a week. It is possible to spend more than your weekly budget in a given week, however, you won’t ever go over your monthly maximum spend. You can edit your weekly budget at any time.
You decide how much you are willing to pay per lead, based on your bids. Your bid is the most you are willing to pay for a lead. Bidding can move your ad higher up, making it the most visible when potential patients are browsing for orthodontists or dentists. The higher your weekly budget is, the more leads you could potentially get.
Don’t pay for low quality leads. Google will automatically credit you for low quality leads, and allows you to report others as low quality, which could be credited back to your account. You’ll receive a feedback survey for your leads so you can let Google know if your leads are high quality.
You’ll be charged for each valid lead you receive. Once you’ve reached your monthly budget, your ad will be hidden for the remainder of the month.
How does Google determine what a valid lead is?
A lead would be considered to be valid when one of the following happens:
Your practice is contacted via email or text from the potential patient.
A potential patient leaves a voicemail.
You receive a phone call and speak with a potential patient.
You have a missed call from a potential patient (without a voicemail), and you return that via phone, text, or email.
You receive an appointment request from a potential patient.
While Google may credit you for leads that are not considered valid, there are several times Google will not consider crediting your practice for a lead. Some examples of that include:
If you only list general services, and a potential patient asks about a specific service that you do not provide.
A patient schedules an appointment but then has to cancel.
A potential patient does not return your call, email, or text.
A potential patient was researching services and/or pricing related to services you offer.
You service a specific area or provide a specific service but are temporarily unable to provide the service or cannot provide the service in the area.
How to be successful with your LSA approach
Your success with your LSA will depend on a few factors.
How realistic your budget is. We suggest starting on the smaller side and scaling as you begin to see return on your investment. But remember that it is an investment – you can’t reap the rewards if you don’t invest.
Make it easy for potential patients. We recommend utilizing the LSA booking feature to allow patients to book directly through your ad. This ensures lead follow-through.
Be sure your staff is trained and can respond efficiently. Don’t let leads go to waste because staff can’t respond in a timely manner.
The experts at Nexunom are here to help you leverage your marketing budget and turn leads into patients. We make put your marketing to work for you. Call us today at (844) 736-3699.
Online Marketing Expert, MIB Graduate From HEC Montréal and Serial Entrepreneur. Founder/Owner of Nexunom.com, ReviewTool.com, Allintitle.co and Tavata.com. Working in Digital Marketing Field Since 2008.
