We want to share a simple trick every dental practice should use to optimize their Google AdWords account.

AdWords Is Complicated (and kind of boring!)

AdWords management can be really, really complicated.  Don’t feel bad if your dental practice struggles with AdWords.  Big technology companies hire full-time employees and outside AdWords consultants to manage their AdWords consultants.

There’s a lot to think about.  Campaigns, ad groups, budget, keywords, type of keywords – broad match, exact match,  modified broad match, location targeting, ad scheduling, ad copy, bidding and much, much more.  If a dentist is dedicated to learning the ins and outs, we are sure they can figure it out and beat out the other dental practices in town.   In fact, we have created this dental AdWords blog to help dentists figure out and optimize their Google PPC.

OK.  Enough with the preamble.  Suppose you want the “Easiest AdWords Secret Every Dentist Can Use” now, right?  Well, we put it right in the title of this post so we are not really hiding it.  The easiest thing a dental practice can do to improve their AdWords account is to make sure they are using display URLs and to make sure they are using display URLs correctly.

Display URL Explained

What is a display URL you ask?  Great question my dentist friend.   Every dentist Google ad has a URL to show the Google search where the searcher will land once they click on the Google ad.   For instance, Upside Down Frowns Dentistry might use AdWords to advertise dental implant procedures.  Of course, we think it is a best practice that Upside Down Frowns Dentistry should have a landing page that specifically talks about Dental Implants.  (it actually is a best practice!!)   That page might have a URL that would be something like www.UpsideDownFrownsDentistry.com/dental_implants. But, let’s assume for a moment Upside Down Frowns Dentistry does not have a specific dental implants page set up yet.   No problem.

Fake A URL With A Display URL!

Good news!  If there is not a specific landing page URL, Google allows you to fake one for the purposes of the dentist Google Ad.   For instance,  you can literally use a “display URL” of www.UpsideFrownsDentistry.com/FakePage (a page that does not exist on your dentist website) and use a “destination url” of a URL that actually exists and send dental prospective dental patients to the “destination url” page.

OK. So now you know what “diplay url” is.   Great.  But, why should your dental practice care about “display urls”?  How will “display urls” help you optimize your dental AdWords account to save money, get more ad clicks and grow your dental practice.  Wonderful questions.  Please give me a minute to explain.

AdWords Relevance Is Key

The key to dental AdWords management is relevance.   Find keywords that are relevant to prospective dental patients.  Write Google ads that are relevant to the person searching for a new dentist on Google.   If your dental practice offers dental implant services, you better be bidding on the keywords phrase “dental implants”.   If you bid on the phrase “dental implants”, you better be showing an ad that specifically talks about “dental implants”.

Relevance Matters

Thinks it doesn’t matter to show a Google ad that is relevant to the search term?  Go ahead, try it.   Here’s how it will work out.  Your generic (non-relevant) Google ad might show on the front page for a while.  Hooray!   But, here’s the problem your competitors will show ads that are highly relevant to the search term “dental implants.”  Prospective dental patients will click on the other dentist Google ads rather than your Google ad.  But, it gets worse.  Way worse.  Soon,  the Google AdWords system will want more money to show your crappy, generic Google ad on the front page.    You will give Google more of your money that could be used to your dental practice. (but don’t worry Google needs your money – they are working on toilet paper that will fly right to your butt and that’s important!!)  But, at some point, if your generic ad doesn’t get clicks and your competitors do get clicks, Google will relegate your dentist ad to the 2nd page of Google results.  You don’t want that.  We promise.  You really don’t want that.  You know the old joke? Where’s the best place to hide a body?  The 2nd page of Google results.

OK.  So have we hammered home the relevance point enough?  Will you make your dentist Google ad relevant? Promise?   Please just do it. You can be stubborn about other stuff.  This is too important to mess around.

OK, Great. So now, you will write a highly relevant dentist Google ad.   Something like?

Need dental implants?
Transform Your Smile!     www.UpsideDownFrowns.com

Do you like the Google Ad above? Really?

Have you missed the entire point of this blog post?  Let’s try again.

So now, you will write a highly relevant dentist Google ad.   Something like?

Need dental implants?
Transform Your Smile!     www.UpsideDownFrowns.com/dental_implants

We’ve kept the Google ad (unrealistically) simple to make the point that the addition of “display URL” (dental_implants) makes the Google ad more relevant.

Display URLs Make Your Dentist Ad More Relevant to Google Searchers

First, the display URL makes the ad more relevant to the searcher.    A typical Google searcher is looking at all the ads on the search page for less than two seconds – your Google ad needs to stand out and say “pick me, pick me” in every possible.  If you think the typical Google searcher is carefully looking at the Google ads and deliberating thoughtfully you have been hitting the nitrous oxide to hard.  Any AdWords manager can tell you that people are constantly clicking on Google ads completely thoughtlessly.  This is why your ad needs to hit them at a primitive level.  (AdWords Pro Tip – Another advantage of a Display Url is you can dissuade some unwanted clicks when your ad is super duper clear)

Display URLs Make Your Dentist Ads More Relevant to The Google Robots

OK, so for a moment imagine you are a Google robot. Your main job is to figure out if a dentist Google ad might be relevant to a Google search.

Let’s look at a search for “dental implants dentist”.  You are the Google robot.   You need to figure which ad below is more relevant and should be placed higher the search results and priced lower.

GOOGLE AD A

Need dental implants?
Transform Your Smile!     www.UpsideDownFrowns.com

GOOGLE AD B

Need dental implants?
Transform Your Smile!     www.UpsideDownFrowns.com/dental_implants

So which would you pick?  That’s right!  You got it this time.  Good robot!  Google Ad B is more relevant!

We hope this blog post helped you understand why using display URLs is so important.   If you choose to ignore this post and continue using generic, irrelevant Google ads that’s up to you.  But, instead of going that route would you mind just sending us your would-be wasted cash directly?

ConverstionSmiles is a dental AdWords management company.  Need help managing your dental AdWords campaign?  Read our dentist AdWords or contact us to manage your dentist AdWords account for you.

Before hiring a new AdWords consultant read this.