Latest / The Clinic Marketing Podcast | Local SEO & Healthcare Online Marketing Tips for Clinic Owners & Wellness Providers / Healthcare SEO vs. Google Ads: Where Should Your Clinic Invest First?

Transcript

Healthcare SEO vs. Google Ads: Where Should Your Clinic Invest First? · The Clinic Marketing Podcast | Local SEO & Healthcare Online Marketing Tips for Clinic Owners & Wellness Providers

• 0:29
  If your clinic has a limited marketing budget, where should you put it?
• 0:33
  Should you invest in SEO?
• 0:35
  Should you run Google Ads so you can immediately get in front of people searching for your services?
• 0:43
  What about Facebook or Instagram ads?
• 0:46
  There isn't one answer that's right for every clinic, and I'm certainly not going to tell you that ads don't work.
• 0:54
  They can.
• 0:55
  But if you're asking me where I'd invest first to build a strong foundation for a clinic's long-term visibility, I'm generally going to choose SEO.
• 1:08
  And that answer has actually become even clearer as the way people search has changed.
• 1:19
  Hello, and welcome to the Clinic Marketing Podcast.
• 1:22
  I'm your host, Darcy Sullivan from Propel Marketing and Design.
• 1:27
  Today, let's look at SEO, Google Ads, and Meta ads, what they're actually getting when you invest in each one, and how to decide where to put your marketing dollars first.
• 1:44
  Let's start with the biggest difference.
• 1:47
  Imagine someone searches Google for physical therapist for knee pain near me, dental implants in Nashville, acupuncture for migraines, chiropractor for sciatica.
• 2:02
  With Google Ads, you can pay for the opportunity to appear in front of that person, and there's a big advantage to that.
• 2:12
  That person is actively looking for something you offer.
• 2:16
  You don't necessarily have to wait for your organic rankings to improve before you start getting visibility, but you're paying for that visibility.
• 2:28
  As long as that campaign is running and you have a budget, your ads have the opportunity to appear.
• 2:37
  Turn the ads off, and that paid visibility goes away.
• 2:41
  Use the wrong keywords, you're investing the wrong way.
• 2:47
  Focus on y- just your branded words, and you're paying money for patients that would've found you organically Now, SEO works differently.
• 3:00
  You're investing in assets you own and a digital presence you're building, your website, your services, your conditions or the concerns that you treat, your Google business profile, your content, your reviews, your local authority, your overall online presence.
• 3:24
  And while SEO usually takes longer, th- that work can continue helping people discover your clinic long after you initially invest in it.
• 3:36
  That's the first reason I tend to prioritize SEO, but it's no longer the only reason.
• 3:44
  Your patients aren't only searching on Google.
• 3:48
  This is where SEO versus ads conversation has gotten more interesting lately.
• 3:54
  People aren't only typing searches into Google anymore.
• 3:58
  They're asking ChatGPT, they're asking Grok, they're asking Perplexity, and other AI tools.
• 4:06
  They're interacting with AI-generated results directly within Google, and they're asking much more conversational questions or more specific questions.
• 4:20
  Instead of simply searching physical therapist near me, someone might ask,"Who's a good physical therapist near me who works with runners and offers one-on-one appointments?" Or instead of dentist near me, they might be asking,"What dentist in my area specializes in dental implants and has good reviews from patients who are nervous about the procedure?" Completely different way of searching.
• 4:47
  Or they might be asking what type of clinic, a specific clinic near me takes my specific insurance.
• 4:58
  These are very different search experiences.
• 5:02
  And here's something I think clinic owners need to understand when they're deciding where to put their marketing dollars.
• 5:10
  You can't simply buy a Google ad and expect that to make your clinic the new answer ChatGPT recommends.
• 5:20
  Paying Google for clicks doesn't automatically make your clinic more visible organically in AI search.
• 5:30
  Paying for Google Ads is not going to guarantee if somebody uses DuckDuckGo to search that you will show up.
• 5:38
  SEO is different because much of the work we're doing is helping search engines and AI systems better understand your clinic, and beyond that, your future and potential patients understand your clinic.
• 5:56
  What do you offer?
• 5:57
  Who do you help?
• 5:58
  Where are you located?
• 6:00
  What problems do you treat?
• 6:01
  Who are your providers?
• 6:03
  What expertise do you have?
• 6:05
  What do patients say about you?
• 6:09
  Is the information about your clinic consistent across the web?
• 6:13
  Can these platforms confidently understand what you do and when you might be relevant to recommend?
• 6:24
  That's why I don't think we can look at SEO anymore as simply trying to get your website to rank number one on Google.
• 6:35
  We're building your clinic's overall digital footprint, and you're not paying every time someone finds you.
• 6:46
  That's an important distinction.
• 6:48
  If someone clicks on your Google ad, you're paying for the click.
• 6:52
  If someone sees your clinic organically in Google and clicks through to your website, you don't pay Google for the click.
• 7:00
  If someone discovers your clinic through Google Maps organically, you're not paying for that click.
• 7:07
  If someone discovers your clinic through ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI, or another AI search experience, you're not paying for that click.
• 7:20
  Now, I want to be clear.
• 7:22
  SEO does not guarantee that your clinic will show up in AI-generated recommendations.
• 7:28
  There isn't some magic optimization trick that guarantees ChatGPT will recommend you.
• 7:35
  There are ways to improve the odds of it suggesting your clinic But the work you're doing to build a strong, consistent authority online presence also makes it easier for not only traditional searches, but those AI systems to understand and recommend your clinic.
• 7:59
  And you're building a presence rather than renting each individual visit.
• 8:06
  Does that mean Google Ads are a bad investment?
• 8:09
  Not at all.
• 8:10
  There are times when Google Ads make a lot of sense.
• 8:13
  Maybe you've just opened a clinic and your SEO hasn't had time to gain traction yet.
• 8:19
  Maybe you've launched a new high-value service.
• 8:22
  Maybe there's a particular service that generates great patients and you want additional visibility for it.
• 8:30
  Maybe you're in an extremely competitive market and want to appear in both organic and paid.
• 8:36
  That's where I really like the idea of Google Ads and SEO working together.
• 8:44
  Your SEO is building the foundation.
• 8:47
  Your ads can help you get additional exposure while that foundation grows.
• 8:53
  The problem is when a clinic becomes completely dependent on paid traffic because it never invested in organic presence.
• 9:03
  If you have a weak website, an incomplete Google Business profile, very few reviews, thin service pages, and almost no organic visibility, I wouldn't automatically throw your entire marketing budget into Google Ads.
• 9:19
  I'd want to fix some of those foundation problems, too.
• 9:24
  So what about Facebook and Instagram ads?
• 9:28
  Meta ads serve a slightly different purpose.
• 9:32
  Google Search ads typically reach someone who's already searching.
• 9:36
  Meta ads can introduce your clinic, service, or offer to someone who wasn't necessarily looking at the moment.
• 9:44
  That's a big difference.
• 9:47
  Someone searches Google for pelvic floor physical therapy near me, that's a clear intent.
• 9:53
  They're looking for something.
• 9:56
  But if that same person is scrolling through Instagram and sees an ad for a physical therapy clinic, you caught their attention while they're really doing something else.
• 10:08
  That doesn't make Meta ads bad.
• 10:11
  They're just doing a different job.
• 10:13
  They're great to create awareness.
• 10:15
  They can introduce people to services they may not have known existed.
• 10:20
  They can promote an event, offer, workshop, or specific program.
• 10:25
  A med spa might use them to introduce a treatment.
• 10:28
  A dental practice might promote a cosmetic service.
• 10:32
  A clinic might use them to get a specific program in front of a very defined audience.
• 10:39
  But again, you're paying for that exposure.
• 10:42
  Before you pay for more traffic, fix where you're sending it.
• 10:49
  There's one more thing that I want you to consider before spending money on any type of ads.
• 10:55
  One, where are these ads going?
• 10:57
  We had a really great episode where we talked about how you need to direct these ads if you are running ads to clearly defined landing pages.
• 11:09
  Oftentimes, I see clinics simply throwing money right out the door because they're sending people, they're paying for ads and sending people to the wrong page, maybe their homepage, maybe a specific service or condition page, but it's missing the mark.
• 11:26
  There's too many actions they can take once they reach that page, and it's just not the right way to handle them.
• 11:33
  We also want to s- ask the question, what happens after someone clicks?
• 11:37
  Because Google Ads can't fix a bad website.
• 11:41
  Meta ads can't fix unclear messaging.
• 11:45
  You can pay to send hundreds of people to a page, but if that page barely explains what you offer, doesn't answer their questions, doesn't establish trust, and doesn't make it easy for them to schedule or book an appointment or take the next action, you're paying for traffic that never turns into patients.
• 12:04
  One thing that I would suggest is if you are running ads of any type, dig into your analytics.
• 12:12
  Figure out which phrases are actually driving traffic to your website.
• 12:17
  Make sure they're not your just your branded phrases, meaning your company name, because again, somebody would be searching for your company.
• 12:26
  If they're searching for your company, they want your company.
• 12:29
  So I would avoid overspending on branded keywords.
• 12:34
  I would also watch and look at your analytics and see how long people are spending on the page that they land and what actions they're taking.
• 12:46
  Oftentimes, when we dig into Google Analytics, we'll see that clinics are spending an awful lot of money on ads just to have somebody bounce.
• 12:55
  They go to the site, boom, and then for a second, and they're gone.
• 12:59
  So if you are going to invest in ads, make sure that you're investing in really good landing pages to go with those ads.
• 13:09
  If you are driving traffic to specific pages on your website that are general pages, which I really don't suggest you do, please make sure that they're really high quality pages.
• 13:22
  Otherwise, again, you're just kind of throwing your money away So where should your clinic invest first?
• 13:30
  If you have the budget to do everything well, this isn't necessarily need to be an either/or decision.
• 13:38
  You might invest in SEO while running ads for a certain high-value search, maybe through Google Ads.
• 13:46
  You might use meta ads for a specific promotion or service.
• 13:50
  Those channels can complement each other.
• 13:54
  But if you have a limited budget and you're asking,"Where should I spend first?" I usually suggest that you start with SEO because I don't want your clinic's visibility to exist only for as long as you're willing to pay for the next click.
• 14:12
  I want you to build something.
• 14:14
  I want Google to understand your clinic.
• 14:16
  I want your Google business profile to be strong.
• 14:19
  I want your website to clearly explain what you do.
• 14:23
  I want your most important services to have useful, optimized pages.
• 14:29
  I want you building reviews, authority, and content.
• 14:34
  And increasingly, I want AI search platforms to have enough information gathered about you that they want to recommend your clinic.
• 14:45
  Because patients' search isn't happening in one place anymore.
• 14:50
  It's happening in traditional Google search.
• 14:53
  It's happening in DuckDuckGo.
• 14:56
  It's happening in Google Maps.
• 14:57
  It's happening through AI-powered Google results.
• 15:01
  It's happening through ChatGPT, Grok, Perplexity, and other AI search tools.
• 15:07
  And who knows exactly what the landscape is going to look like a few years from now.
• 15:13
  That's why I'd rather build a strong digital presence you can support your visibility through multiple platforms rather than entirely basing it on your paid exposure.
• 15:26
  Here's the simplest way to think about it.
• 15:29
  SEO builds the foundation.
• 15:32
  Google Ads can capture additional existing demand.
• 15:37
  Meta ads can help create awareness and demand.
• 15:41
  You may eventually want all three, but build the foundation first, then use paid ads strategically to amplify it.
• 15:52
  Because ads can buy you attention today.
• 15:57
  SEO is an investment in making your clinic easier to find tomorrow, next month, next year, and wherever your patients choose to search next.
• 16:10
  I want to leave you with this thought: Ads buy attention on a specific platform.
• 16:17
  SEO builds a digital presence that can help your clinic get discovered across Google, Google Maps, and AI search.