When someone needs cosmetic dentistry this fact is unavoidable:
They’re going to be laying down many thousands of dollars for the service.
So if you’re a dentist… winning new customers in this space is valuable.
Like most markets where customers are spending big, the AdWords space for cosmetic dentists is extremely competitive.
So… if we can show how a cosmetic dentist is generating 200 + enquiries per month from AdWords at a cost per lead of just $37…
And sending us emails like this:
That would be pretty great, right?
Well, the good news is that’s exactly what we have on our hands here.
We’re going to pull back the curtains on just how this successful digital marketing campaign for a cosmetic dentist is putting up those impressive numbers.
Let’s do it!
The Backstory
This client is a current client, so we’re going to keep things anonymous.
But we can give their back story.
And it starts with a problem:
They had entrusted their marketing to an agency that was simply not delivering the volume or quality of leads they required.
After many months with slow results, they decided to make the move to work with Local Digital.
We audited the account and identified quite a few things wrong.
They were using poor (or straight up odd) landing pages.
Lots of budget was going towards Display Campaigns (yuck!).
There was very little in the way of hyper targeted campaigns (e.g targeting people specifically looking for dental implants).
The ads were showing Sydney wide when the client only had clinics in certain locations.
You get the picture.
Our PPC Pros got on the case.
We devised a strategy that essentially boiled down to this:
- Using high-quality landing pages designed to convert the click into an enquiry
- Building out new AdWords campaigns with a very high level of targeting to minimise waste and focus spend on the most valuable areas
Let’s pull it all apart.
New Landing Pages
Most dentists we come across send their AdWords traffic to their website.
Normally it’s straight to the home page.
There’s no way to sugarcoat this…
That’s not the right way to do it.
The reasons for this are many:
- Many websites for dentists have been thrown together quickly or by a friend, without any thought given to how that site turns visitors into leads
- Many dental websites will have a range of distractions that can lead to a visitor from the ad not getting in touch
When someone clicks one of your ads, you have very little time to make an impression.
If you do a poor job, they click the back button on the browser, never to be heard from again.
And what’s worse, you would have paid for the click (roughly $5 to $18) for them to do that.
That hurts.
So, all campaigns need to use landing pages.
Landing pages are like a mini sales pitch for your service.
They are designed with all sorts of visual cues that encourage visitors to get in touch.
They use compelling and convincing copy.
They do all they can to turn a click into an enquiry.
We started with our client by building out this landing page:
That’s just a snippet of the top part of the page.
But here’s what’s going on with it:
- Prominent contact form that makes it easy to get in touch right there and then
- Phone number in the top right, large, with click to call so people can call there and then
- Three key selling points across the top to encourage people to get in touch
- The headline and supporting text making it clear these are competitively priced implants done by the experts
The rest of the page provides supporting information on the features and benefits of their service including before and after photos, videos etc.
So let’s think about it.
You search “cosmetic dentist” and click on ad that goes to the above page.
And then another ad that goes to this one:
Which one is most likely to win your enquiry?
Hint?
It’s the first one.
That second page makes it tough to get in touch.
Doesn’t illustrate why the visitor should choose them.
Loads up the entire top of the page with images instead of copy that encourages the reader to take action.
So… landing pages are important.
Did it work?
The Results (at first)
Our campaigns were built quite tightly around dental implant terms.
We had campaigns for general dental implants and all on four implants.
We kicked them off around the 22nd of June and did this:
So, that’s 9 leads in 12 days at a cost of $176 per lead.
Not the best start.
And July wasn’t much better:
In the first 26 days of July only 18 leads were generated at a cost per lead of \$126.
Although we’d been working on the account, and the cost per lead had come down, the volume of leads was nowhere near where it needed to be.
In fact, we even had a sad email like this from our client:
Some changes needed to be made.
Changing The Strategy
The Local Digital crew put our heads together and decided to look at things another way.
We went at it from the customer’s point of view.
Specifically, how is a customer considering dental implants likely to be feeling at the time?
No doubt worried.
Worried about the skills of the person providing the service.
Worried about the cost of the procedure.
Overwhelmed by the various options.
Concerned they won’t make the right choice.
When they are looking to spend anywhere from $3,000 to $30,000 on a procedure, they’re going to need to be “warmed up” before they choose who to go with.
It’s unlikely a 100% cold prospect will click an AdWords ad and then book in a consultation there and then.
They need time to do their research.
They need time to build trust in the service provider.
As such, rather than trying to get them to book in a consultation straight away, we changed our approach.
We decided to give something of value away in exchange for their email address.
We then put that address into an automated email follow up.
Essentially… we created a marketing funnel.
It’s a topic we’ve covered in this video:
The New Strategy
The new strategy we devised involved four main areas:
- Writing a high-quality ebook that answered pretty much every question a person can have about dental implants
- Designing a new landing page to promote the ebook
- Setting up email automation in the background to automatically send the ebook then follow up with the person over time
- Updating the AdWords campaigns to be in line with this new approach
The Ebook
The ebook was written to give away for free.
It is something of value to make someone comfortable with giving us their email address.
And it doesn’t need to rock the world.
It can be simple in it’s design, as long as the content is good.
Here’s a few pages to show what ours looks like:
At the end of the ebook we remind them to book in a free consultation.
This book does a great job of conveying our client’s expertise to the prospect.
It helps the prospect to know, like and trust our client.
And when they know, like and trust them, they’re more likely to turn into a customer.
The Landing Page
The landing page was updated for the new eBook:
Instead of trying to get the person to book in a free consultation, the landing page promoted the ebook.
The page explains what the ebook is and what they will learn when reading it.
It’s a much “softer” ask of the person landing on the page.
They simply enter their details and get an ebook, with no commitment to meeting or consulting about anything.
In the form we happen to ask if they would be okay with being contacted. About 50% of people say yes to this.
The Email Followup
When the user requests the ebook, they are sent a series of automated emails:
The first email is sent instantly and gives them the link for the ebook and has a bit of supporting information.
The next email is sent the day after that and has a range of before and after photos to show them what is possible.
The next email is sent three days later and offers a free consultation. We opt for this delay so they have enough time to digest the ebook.
This process works.
In the original strategy, we went all in and tried to convert them to a consultation as soon as they click the ad. If they bounced they were gone.
In this strategy, we hook them with a softer commitment like an ebook, we have their email address, and we can warm them up with this sequence.
We also are growing an email list of people interested in our client’s services. That can be marketed to in future for free, for example, if the client runs a special offer on their services.
The Results (take two)
Alright.
Enough about the strategy and tactics used.
What are the results?
Well, the emails from the client are a clue:
And let’s look at what AdWords says:
So far in August the campaign has generated 214 enquires at a cost of $37 per enquiry.
This is 214 people interested in dental implants.
Some of these people have said yes to a free consultation.
Others have received the ebook then follow emails and got in touch later.
However, it looks like the code has been cracked for this particular client.
Next Steps
So where to from here?
Now that we have a landing page offer and automated marketing funnel in place, the best thing to do is scale up the traffic.
We’re working on expanding the AdWords campaigns as much as possible to drive even more visitors to it.
We’re also going to tap in to another epic source of visitors… Facebook ads.
Perhaps that will be covered in another blog post?
The End
So that’s about it for this post.
If you’re trying to generate leads online with AdWords and not having much luck, give this strategy a go.
And if you need help with the strategy or implementation, our PPC Pros would be glad to help.
We’re even offering no obligation, free strategy sessions to start the conversation.
