Did Google “help” with your dental AdWords account?

Why that might not be your best option….

Those of us who have tried to contact Google in the past, perhaps to query an anomaly on their map service or to correct the details on a local business listing, may have found the experience quite frustrating. Although Google are getting better at responding to questions, they are still considered by many not to be “customer facing”, at least when it comes to issues related to their free search index.

On the other hand, when it comes to getting in touch with them about paid advertising, things are quite different and there is usually someone online who can respond straight away. With over 95% of Google’s revenues coming from paid services i.e. pay-per-click of some variety, it’s easy to see why they might prioritise customer interaction on that side of their business.

Assistance from Google AdWords specialists

If you are familiar with AdWords, the system where you bid to have your business advert placed in the search results, you will know that Google are quite proactive about offering assistance with setting up you account. AdWords is quite a complicated environment and getting the configuration wrong can lead to lots of wasted money. Consequently it probably comes as some relief for new users when they find a Google specialist on hand to help. But is this always your best option? Evidence suggests that the results can be very variable – get a good guy and you could be OK, but get a less careful guy and you could be struggling. Consistency does seem to be an issue, together with a tendency to move campaigns onto too broad a basis, rather than to seek out clicks which have more chance of converting to meaningful enquiries. I don’t think the issue is skill based; more about the ability to assess *exactly* what the client needs, rather than just applying some boiler-plate parameters.

We have seen this in a couple of cases recently, where a Google employee stepped in to help the dentist configure their account. Each time, the dentist had elected to pursue a ‘DIY’ approach as they were on a limited budget and felt they could not justify monthly management charges – this subsequently turned out to be a poor move as we will see.

Where the recommendations failed….

In each of the cases noted above, the dentists were running with fairly limited click budget – £15 and £20 per day. They also wanted to target specific treatments and in a defined geographic area. Notwithstanding this, they were advised to advertise on the ‘display’ network and to include several broad match keywords in their accounts. Additionally they were encouraged to broaden their campaign targeting to regions outside of their target location and which bore little relevance to the references made on their landing pages. To the inexperienced, these broader reach options may sound really great, but in reality, if they are not configured very carefully and only where appropriate, the effects can be quite negative.

What actually happened in both of these cases is that the number of clicks to the website increased slightly but inspection of the search terms leading to the clicks showed that the traffic was pretty much irrelevant e.g. users searching for implants on the NHS and “cheap” cosmetic dentistry services. This traffic was finding the dentists adverts in main due to the “relaxed” settings suggested by the Google specialist. When we were asked to intervene, it became fairly obvious what had happened – critical factors such as a comprehensive list of negative keywords were not even in place. In reality I imagine that the Google guy had discussed the need for checks such as a negatives list, but seemingly had not assessed whether the dentist was sufficiently experienced to implement it.

We are currently working on these accounts to bring them back into balance and to stem the leaked budgets.

On the flip side….

To be fair to Google, this is not the only experience. Whilst there are a number of reports of Google favouring “relaxed” parameters when it comes to setting up accounts for new users, there are numerous positive experiences too. In particular the training we have received from Google’s team based in the UK has been excellent and the insights they have offered to help optimise our own dental campaigns have been invaluable. We are now in a great place to benefit our clients AdWords campaigns with this knowledge and experience. So thank you Google for this very proactive and useful service.

Summary

When it comes to AdWords, you have to know what you are doing or be willing to accept that your budget may get depleted on wasted clicks. Features suggested by external specialists can be very useful but only in the hands of an experienced practitioner – implemented poorly they will waste your cash. So our recommendation is to seek advice rather than attempt a DIY solution – even if you are being assisted by a Google specialist!

If you would like to know more about pay-per-click, the Dental Media web marketing team will be pleased to assist. Call us on 01332 672548 to find out more – our advice is free of charge.