Did you know that the cost per click (CPC) for healthcare-related Google Ad campaigns is $4.70? This is will only keep going up as the years go by so working on an effective way to lower its cost now is a must.
Knowing how to lower CPC in your L.A. healthcare PPC ads is no small feat. Not only does it take time, but it also requires you to know the ins and outs of the healthcare industry as a whole.
L.A. Healthcare is an extremely competitive and regulated industry that moves billions of dollars every year.
But that doesn’t mean that you need a massive budget to compete with some of the bigger names.
In fact, by knowing what to change and where to adjust, you can save thousands of dollars every year in ads alone.
This article aims to show you how to lower CPC in your L.A. healthcare PPC ads in actionable steps that can start working this week.
Trying to figure out how to use PPC but don’t want to waste your budget? Let us help.
What Drives High CPCs in L.A. Healthcare?
We can’t talk about lowering CPCs without first talking about what causes them to be high in the first place. Healthcare PPC is expensive in LA due to several reasons:
1. Competition: Hospitals, clinics, specialists, and urgent care centers in L.A. are all bidding in many areas. For the main high-value services such as surgery, cosmetic, urgent/emergency, and others, many, if not all, providers want to dominate. This makes the CPC of these areas a lot more elevated in comparison to others.
2. Regulation and Compliance: L.A. Healthcare ads need to know how to show trust signals, comply with HIPAA if there’s data involved, and follow ad platform rules for medical terms. A mistake in any of this can cause an overall reduced quality score or full-on ad rejections.
3. Ambiguous Search Terms: The use of very generic and informational terms such as “symptoms of” or “what to do for” might yield low conversion rates while still costing clicks. Irrelevant clicks will only waste your budget and hurt your quality score as a whole.
4. Badly Optimized Landing Pages: If your landing page doesn’t match the expectations that your ad set up for it (loads slowly, looks unprofessional, has generic content, is unresponsive), then your click-through rate will suffer as a result.
5. Keyword Match Type Creep & Search Partners: Poorly restricted phrase match keywords can trigger many irrelevant searches that eat up your budget. Also, search partners can deliver clicks at different quality levels. These can often inflate the costs of ads without bringing in any conversions.
6. Geographic Targeting: If you’re targeting the entirety of L.A. or large metro regions without focusing on a specific location, then you’ll be paying for low-intent clicks. This includes areas far from where people would convert.
Strategies to Lower CPC in L.A.Healthcare PPC Ads
Did you know that Google Ads holds 69.04% of the PPC market? This means that not properly learning.
Here are some actionable strategies you can start working on today that are suited for the L.A. healthcare industry to lower CPC without sacrificing lead generation.
Improve Quality Score
Quality Score directly influences CPC. The higher your quality score, the lower your CPC is.
Google will always reward advertisers who create highly relevant and user-friendly experiences. This includes keywords, ad meanings, and landing pages.
Every ad should start with a copy that directly reflects the intent behind the keyword you chose.
For example, if your keyword is “plastic surgeon in Los Angeles,” then your headline and ad description should use that exact keyword and offer a clear next step, such as booking a consultation.
Structuring your campaigns into single keyword ad groups (SKAGs) can also help you achieve stronger relevance and coherence between keywords and your ad copy.
While this approach takes longer to build due to the sheer volume of keywords, it tends to bring in higher click-through rates (CTR) and lower CPCs.
But we’re not done yet; working on your landing page is also important. Relevance and user experience are top priorities when creating a landing page. Ensure that when users click on your ad, the content they see matches their search intent.
The page should also load quickly, ideally under 3 seconds. This goes for mobile devices too. The landing page needs verified doctor credentials, patient reviews, and clear contact options to gain a user’s trust.
Last but not least, you can enhance a user’s experience with extensions such as call, location, or sitelink extensions that improve visibility and CTR.
Optimize your Keyword Strategy
Your keyword strategy determines how often your ads appear and how much you pay per click.
Focus on long-tail, high-intent keywords such as “pediatric urgent care in Los Angeles” since they reflect what serious patients are truly searching for.
These tend to have less competition and a clearer purchase intent compared to shorter keywords like “doctor” or “urgent care.”
You can use a mix of exact match and phrase match keywords for high-intent searches as a way to control your ad spend. Don’t forget to also add negative keywords to filter out irrelevant traffic.
For example, if you’re advertising premium services, then you should filter out anything that doesn’t fit that criteria such as cheap, free, deal, etc.
If you don’t know exactly which keywords count toward your negative keywords, then you can always review your search term reports and find out based on real data.
Also, don’t forget to incorporate location-based keywords throughout your campaigns. Adding Los Angeles or a specific zip code can make your ads a lot more relevant to local users. This not only improves your quality score, but it also reduces overall wasted impressions from people outside your service area.
Smart Bidding & Budget Controls
Even the best targeted ads can waste budget if the bids aren’t properly managed. Smart bidding strategies can lower CPC while improving your conversion rates. Once your campaign has enough data, you can test target CPAs and maximize conversion strategies that let Google optimize for cost-effective results.
You can also set bid adjustments based on location, time of day, and even device type.
For example, if desktop users have higher conversion rates than mobile users on your ad, then you can reduce mobile bids to avoid going over your budget. You can also increase your bids during peak hours and decrease them during low-performing periods.
Segmentation is just as important. Avoid adding every single service into a single campaign and instead separate them by service type, location, and audience. This gives you a lot more control over bidding and lets you increase the budget of your highest-performing segments.
Refine Audience Targeting and Layering
Precision targeting ensures you are only paying for the clicks that are the most likely to convert. For L.A. healthcare PPC, audience layering can reduce CPC while maintaining or improving lead quality.
You can start by using remarketing lists to target people who have already visited your website in the past or interacted with your business in some way. These users are a lot more familiar with your brand and are more likely to book an appointment, which means that your CPC tends to go down.
You could also leverage in-market audiences. These include people actively researching L.A. healthcare services in your specific niche.
For example, if you run a blood bank, you can target audiences searching for a place to donate and what they would need to be able to donate in the first place.
That being said, audiences can be used to filter out users who aren’t a good fit for your L.A. healthcare company’s website.
With negative audiences, you can remove people looking for jobs, students, or users outside of your service area. This prevents wasted clicks and ensures that your ad spend is used on users who are interested in your services.
Localize and Optimize Geographical Targeting
When it comes to healthcare in L.A., blanket keywords are almost always useless. Instead, what you should be focusing on is local precision.
By using radius targeting and segmentation, you can reach users who live in a reasonable driving distance to your healthcare facility. Patients almost always will consider providers based on convenience.
So creating ads that target users near your L.A. healthcare facility will generally have higher conversion rates overall.
Make sure you do your research and analyze which neighborhoods and regions would bring you the highest ROI. After it is settled, you can apply location-based bid modifiers, which help you increase bids where performance is strong and decrease the ones that are underperforming.
As an L.A. healthcare provider, your website and landing pages should have multilingual support. This should also apply to your ads. Create localized ad campaigns in Spanish and other commonly used languages in your area.
Create Compelling & Trust-Driven Ad Messaging
In L.A. healthcare advertising, if your message doesn’t communicate any sort of value or trust, then users won’t care. Simple and generic copy such as “Top Los Angeles Clinic” will never stand out in a saturated market.
Instead of generalizing, highlight what your healthcare company is best known for.
What makes your facility better than the competition? Use clear and actionable language that speaks directly to a patient’s needs. Small phrases such as “insurance accepted” or “same-day appointments” can boost your CTR and improve ad relevance.
When people feel like they found the perfect provider for them, they are more likely to click and follow through.
Mentioning where your healthcare facility is located can also help your ads perform better.
Adding “Los Angeles” or being even more specific and saying “Pasadena” in your headlines will improve local relevance and will help you rank in local Google ad searches without having to raise bids.
Want to create ads that demand attention and convert? We can help.
Knowing Healthcare Advertising Policies
Healthcare advertisements in Los Angeles are riddled with strict ad platform rules and regulatory guidelines you must follow. Lack of compliance can and will lead to disapproved ads, account restrictions, and even higher CPC due to having lower ad quality. Before launching any ad campaign, ensure that it adheres to HIPAA regulations and all of Google Ads’ healthcare policies.
Double-check that you’re not using unverified medical claims or using exaggerated language, which can seem as fake as “guaranteed results.”
If your campaign focuses on prescription-related treatments, then ensure that you have all of the necessary restricted drug term certifications from Google.
Following all of the rules and policies not only keeps your business safe, but it improves ad trust and consistency, which in turn helps reduce CPC after a while.
Continuous Testing
PPC is not a digital marketing strategy that you set once and never change again. It’s a strategy that requires consistent upkeep, especially in the healthcare industry.
The key to keeping a low CPC in L.A. healthcare PPC ads will always be ongoing testing and refinement.
Make sure you’re always A/B testing ad copy, headlines, and CTAs to find out what version provides you with the higher ROI. Test different bidding strategies like moving from manual CPC to automated target CPA and analyze which one brings you the best results.
Always stay on top of your search term reports and performance. Find out where most of your leads are coming from and what specific keywords are bringing in the most conversions. Use this information to adjust your campaigns with different bid strategies, targeting, and content optimization.
The more you use data to optimize your content, the lower your CPC will go over time, all without sacrificing lead quality.
Get a Custom PPC Strategy That Converts and Helps You Grow With Blacksmith
We just went through some of the best strategies to create ads for L.A.-based healthcare providers. All of these strategies are actionable and should be implemented and taken note of as soon as possible.
But we’ll be honest here; creating ad campaigns, segmenting, ensuring you’re compliant, and constantly testing will take a lot of your time every week. This is time you could be using on other aspects of your L.A. healthcare company. So what now?
That’s where we come in. Blacksmith is a PPC management company with a group of seasoned marketers ready to create the perfect PPC ad strategy for your L.A.-based healthcare business. From analyzing your campaigns to improving your CPC rates and conversions, we’ll make sure your healthcare business thrives and your ad budget is used to its full potential.
Still unsure if investing in a custom PPC strategy is a good idea for your L.A. healthcare company? Don’t worry, click here to schedule a call with us and we’ll provide you with a full business audit. This way we can show you how a custom PPC campaign can bring in new customers with the proper setup.
