To be a successful healthcare professional today, it’s important to not only have exceptional skills but also the ability to generate business online. This is because the vast majority of patients nowadays search for the care they need online, and it’s incumbent upon those working in healthcare to make themselves visible and accessible. One of the best ways to do that is to tap into the practice of lead generation. In the healthcare industry, lead generation is a process designed to attract the interest and eventual business of new patients.
An experienced medical marketing agency in Los Angeles that is knowledgeable about the needs of healthcare clients can certainly help providers get started with lead generation. However, it’s also helpful for providers to understand the general process and how Google is involved. After all, it’s through the correct implementation of Google Ads, SEO optimization, and Google Analytics that the search engine effectively determines the success of any lead generation effort.
Let’s examine how your lead generation efforts can be maximized through Google.
Understanding Google’s Marketing Platform
Did you know that one of Google’s primary services relating to lead generation is the Google Ads program? This program enables businesses to organize a variety of campaigns designed to attract customers and convert “clicks” and “visits” into leads. While these campaigns can vary, they are ultimately designed to advertise a business to users who are searching for keywords and information relating to that business.
Google Ads, however, isn’t the only way a knowledgeable medical marketing agency in Los Angeles can help you reach potential patients. For instance, Google also provides analytical insights that, when used correctly, can really help you hone in on the digital strategies that are ultimately best for you. And there’s even more…
Keep reading to learn about the highlights of Google’s marketing platform.
Step 1: Campaign Selection
One of the first Google features a medical marketing agency in Los Angeles will take advantage of to assist clients with lead generation is called “Google Business Profile.” Every business listed on Google has a Business Profile, which is essentially how the business appears on the search engine. By creating a Google Business Profile account, your healthcare business gains the ability to optimize your business profile to attract and engage with visitors.
The following are some of the steps a savvy Los Angeles medical marketing agency will recommend for optimizing a Google Business Profile listing for a local healthcare practice:
- Business Name: Ensure the correct name for the practice is being used.
- Location: Ensure the practice’s location is accurately listed.
- Photos: Provide photos of the practice. This makes the business appear both more welcoming and more legitimate.
- Reviews: Display past patients’ thoughts on the practice.
Step 2: Effective Keyword Strategy
A local healthcare provider in Los Angeles can generate leads on Google by also focusing heavily on keyword strategy. This will involve the following considerations:
- Role of Keywords: Keywords are simply terms or phrases that users use in their Google searches. Identifying and implementing keywords relevant to your medical practice will make it more likely that patient searches lead them to your practice.
- Short-tail vs. Long-tail Keywords: A short-tail keyword is a common, generic term such as “healthcare” or “medical practice.” A long-tail keyword is more specific and targeted, such as “medical practice in Los Angeles.”
- Evaluating Keyword Performance: Keywords should be analyzed so that their effectiveness in attracting traffic and generating leads can be determined.
- Choosing Effective Keywords: Research and strategy should always be used to identify effective keywords. Keyword-related tools can help determine which terms or long-tail keywords are being searched regularly. From there, effective keywords that align with your business content can be chosen for emphasis.
Step 3: Google Ads
As previously mentioned, Google Ads is a program through which businesses can use a variety of strategies to place advertisements in front of prospective customers or, in the case of healthcare providers, patients.
The following are some common best practices that make Google Ads effective in generating leads for your healthcare practice:
- Identify Target Audience: This step is about determining where Google Ad placement will be most effective for a given healthcare provider.
- Implementing Keywords: Remember those keywords? Keyword research should come into play here. The content in your Google Ad will help to determine its relevance to those searching.
- Landing Page Optimization: Ideally, the page that a Google Ad ultimately takes the visitor to should be optimized and ready to further increase curiosity, facilitate conversion where appropriate, and answer questions about your offerings.
- Conversion Tracking: Google Ads can best be optimized when a business tracks performance to see what is and what is not leading to conversions.
Step 4: Bid Optimization
While keyword and SEO optimization play crucial roles in Google Ads campaigns, there is also a financial component to be aware of. Google Ads costs money, and the amount a healthcare provider is willing to pay per click helps determine how visible the ad will be.
There are different ways to optimize Google Ads depending on what a given business or provider hopes to accomplish. Some strategies are meant to maximize impressions; some are aimed at clicks; others are meant to generate full conversions, turning visitors into customers or patients.
Where local healthcare providers are specifically concerned, conversions are typically the goal. A knowledgeable medical marketing agency in Los Angeles will use tools that optimize cost-per-click in such a way as to drive patient conversion.
Step 5: SEO Optimization
While a business can choose to spend a certain amount of its marketing budget to generate leads via Google Ads, it can also seek to generate organic leads at no cost. This is done through the process of SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
For a local healthcare provider, a Los Angeles medical marketing agency will recommend the following tips for SEO optimization:
- Keyword Generation: Keywords should be specific to a practice and its location.
- Review Generation: Patient reviews should be available via Google Business Profile.
- HTML Optimization: With minimal adjustments, a healthcare website’s content can be optimized such that important topics and headings are readily visible. Again, appropriate keywords can be emphasized.
- Authority: Landing pages should always convey a healthcare provider’s expertise and skill, which builds authentic authority.
- Navigation: A healthcare provider's website should be organized so that visitors can easily navigate.
Step 6: Utilizing Google Analytics
Google Analytics is an invaluable tool for marketers. It provides insight into what techniques and pages are generating leads and where improvements can be made.
Google Analytics will specifically display the conversion rates of different ads or pages, identify where engagement is coming from, and even reveal how people are reaching a website.
With these insights, a medical marketing agency in Los Angeles can ensure that local healthcare providers are targeting, reaching, and properly engaging the ideal audience.
Step 7: Creating Engaging Ads and Extensions
Much of the process of generating leads for a medical business from behind the scenes is rather technical. That said, it is also important to ensure that ads and web pages are engaging and useful to visitors at the end of the day. High-quality content that is built from the inside out helps to retain leads, improve credibility, and ultimately generate leads.
A Los Angeles medical marketing agency seeking to help a local provider stand out will employ the following strategies to create engaging and Google-friendly content:
- Headline Generation: Headlines should grab readers’ attention and hint at the value of the content.
- Optimized Readability: Written content should be kept concise and organized.
- Provide Value: Content can help a provider establish authority when it provides genuine value to the reader. It should not be generic, inaccurate, or irrelevant.
- Linking: High-value content can also include links, either to back up assertions, to help readers navigate to other points of the provider’s website, or both.
Step 8: Website UX Design and Optimization
As you can now see, much of the process of lead generation for a healthcare provider has to do with a thorough understanding of Google’s offerings, how they work, technical expertise, and smart marketing strategies that are continually well-executed. The right medical marketing agency in Los Angeles will help you prioritize these processes so you can find new patients. However, none of these digital marketing efforts can truly be maximized without a high-quality website that is designed with thoughtfulness in mind. Google also tends to recognize well-designed websites.
If a healthcare provider’s website is unprofessional, difficult to navigate, or plain inaccessible, Google, potential patients, or even repeat patients can be turned off. This is because a confusing website often signals unprofessionalism, even if you are an expert in your industry. It’s, therefore, important that your website conveys the messaging that you want everyone to retain when they think of your healthcare business.
To best convey an air of professionalism, openness, and authority, your website should present clear landing pages, optimal navigation, and engaging visuals. When built and executed by website professionals who understand the needs of your target audience, you’ll be much more likely to convert website visitors to actual patients, and you’ll rank higher with Google, too.
Conclusion
In today’s digital world, Google represents an invaluable tool for attracting business. Through Google Ads, SEO, Google Analytics, and more, businesses of all kinds can employ complex strategies to engage and ultimately convert new patients.
For a modern healthcare business, lead generation via Google is particularly essential. Providers now compete for patients online, and those who can navigate the complexities of lead generation will enjoy the most success. Fortunately, while the involved strategies can be overwhelming to a newcomer, medical marketing agencies in Los Angeles exist to help healthcare professionals with these exact processes.