We treat dentists' pain with contextual advertising and bring in 6 times more patients for the same budget
How to scale sales in the medical field? Why does the tried and tested approach sometimes fail in contextual advertising? To solve the problem, we find the most unexpected solutions.
Spoilers:
They took the most useful things from the erroneous advertising strategy and integrated them into their standards;
We trained Yandex algorithms to bring in the right clients using an updated landing page and effective micro-conversions;
We compiled recommendations for the sales department that helped close long-running requests;
And we increased the number of target leads by 6 times, while reducing the cost of attraction by 3 times.
Bonus at the end: Key insights for marketers and medical clinic owners who want to improve their sales.
Untargeted traffic and expensive leads cost a Moscow dental clinic a pretty penny
At the end of December 2023, the owner of a dental clinic in the center of Moscow contacted us. The company's marketer had previously set up campaigns himself, and then moved to the position of director. Advertising, although it brought applications, required professional intervention to achieve more ambitious goals.
The challenge was to increase conversion for dental implantation and reduce the cost of a lead, which at that time was 13,000 rubles. Such an attraction price did not fit into the client's unit economics. Meanwhile, contextual advertising was the main supplier of applications for the clinic.
During the advertising audit, we found several critical errors. We will not talk about all of them. We will give an example of 2 critical errors that will later play a role in this case.
Mistake #1
Campaign segmentation and budget allocation
“Hypersegmentation” in contextual advertising works poorly.
The logic of splitting campaigns in some cases is unclear. Instead of creating a single campaign with a single budget, several campaigns with more limited budgets are used. At the same time, the advertising object remains the same – implantation. This approach complicates conversion optimization and practically deprives Yandex algorithms of the ability to work correctly on macroconversions.
We usually recommend combine segments into a common campaign or use a package strategy. In this case, one strategy with a common budget and optimization goals works for several campaigns. To train Yandex algorithms, conversions for all advertising campaigns are taken into account, and the training of automation is accelerated.
Mistake #2
Using Advanced Geo Targeting
Increase the number of clicks/requests from non-target regions.
In medical services, especially in Moscow dentistry, there is a pressing problem with requests from non-target regions and even city districts. This is especially noticeable for non-network organizations. Often this happens due to smart campaigns, where advanced geotargeting is enabled by default and cannot be changed.
We usually recommend Disable this setting where possible to avoid unnecessary costs for non-targeted traffic, which directly affects the increase in the cost of applications.
We also saw errors on the client's landing page and suggested transforming it into an information-rich and trustworthy resource to increase the flow of applications and make advertising campaigns more effective.
An uninformative landing page was filled with useful content and the conversion rate was doubled
We already had experience working with dental clinics. But usually such clients have a full-fledged multi-page website with a large number of services, their detailed description and sequential steps of provision, as well as reviews that inspire confidence.
In this case, there was a “selling” low-information landing page for one service. The client did not plan to make a multi-page landing page, so we gave recommendations for improving the existing landing page:
We refined the logic to gradually introduce the user to the service and provide answers to possible objections. The resulting structure is as follows:
About the service;
Who provides it;
Why is it needed;
Why choose us;
What you need to do step by step to get the service;
Our experience with Before/After examples;
Service options and how much they cost.
We added more texts describing the implantation service, in which cases it is needed or not needed, what will happen if it is not done and what types of materials exist.
We made the font larger, highlighted the main ideas, and divided the semantic blocks with large headings. Colored bars were used for highlighting.
Added more social proof – reviews and before/after pictures. Since the landing page did not inspire confidence before, and for older people, reviews on the site still work well.
5. We also added a benefit to the site for the client in the form of assistance with the return of a tax deduction from the state for medical services.
Usually, if there is an opportunity to offer a price much lower than the market, then a simple, uninformative landing page will do the job. But our client's prices were not like that. Therefore, we added important informational content to help a person define their problem, understand ways to solve it, and order a consultation.
After the improvements, the website now has “what to read”. The clinic's clients are people 45+ and it is important for them to have such information in order to finally form a need and gain trust.
Jumping ahead a bit, overall we increased the landing page conversion from 0.29% to 0.67%. But not everything was so smooth along the way. After all, at first we were faced with failure.
We launched campaigns based on proven dental advertising standards, but did not achieve good results
When forming our advertising strategy, we followed our proven standard of working with dental clinics:
We worked out the semantics for search campaigns in detail.
We collected 1000 key queries on implantation, highlighting high-frequency and low-frequency queries. We also highlighted high-frequency queries of 2-3 words. For example, “Dental implantation”. They usually work best in dentistry, but have an excessively high cost in search advertising.
We also worked on low-frequency semantics, for example, “Implantation of the third upper tooth price”, to try to use them in the TOP search results and get results due to higher conversion to the application.
Launched a Product Campaign.
We started showing the implantation service in the Product Campaign, which is usually used to advertise online stores.
Created a service catalog for product listings to reach different audiences in a low-competition campaign: single jaw implants, double jaw implants, and services using different types of implants.
Launched retargeting to catch up with the audience in YAN. While this doesn't work very well for therapy and other dental services, as demand is often urgent, targeting a repeat audience works well for implantation.
Parting with a large sum is difficult. And the path to implantation begins with a therapist, so the decision-making period increases (while the decision is being made or the money is being saved).
The more expensive the service, the better retargeting works.
But the results were disappointing. Although the traffic remained at the same level – no applications were received. January is considered a good month for implantation, but it did not meet expectations.
Our promotion of dental clinics primarily involves search advertising with targeted (and broad) keywords. The dental auction is very overheated, which means that to buy 1 click, you need to pay 300-500 rubles. This is the only way to get into the TOP-3, and below that – there is often no point. When there is a website and a well-known brand, this high cost per click can pay off due to a higher conversion rate into a lead. Let's say we buy 10 clicks for 500 rubles, we get 1 lead for 5,000 rubles.
In the first month, we were still advertising on the old landing page. The brand was not very well known, and the old “sales” site did not inspire confidence. The search statistics did not meet expectations. We were unable to get the necessary conversion into an application, no matter what “correct” settings we used.
And instead of an application for 5,000 rubles, at best we managed to get leads for 10,000 rubles, which did not fit into the client’s economics.
By the end of January, the new site, created according to our recommendations, was ready to accept applications. And we began to look for new solutions to increase quality traffic to it.
More applications were needed. Yandex algorithms were trained to bring in the right clients using non-standard micro-conversions
We didn't have enough applications to train Yandex's algorithms, so we abandoned optimization for the final goal (quiz, call, application on the website) and focused on micro-conversions, such as:
Active time on the site (more than 2 minutes);
Scroll the page to the end;
Interacting with forms (starting data entry);
View images before and after procedures.
We marked all the activities on the new landing page and began to analyze which of them positively correlated with the number of applications. This allowed us to fine-tune the optimization.
As a result, the most effective optimization for this project was the one based on active time on the site. It brought in more requests and, accordingly, Yandex algorithms were better trained to bring to us those who would perform this action and convert into a consultation. We supplemented this optimization with a non-standard combination of contextual advertising settings.
Turned old mistakes into new achievements and brought in 3 times more applications for implantation, reducing their cost by 50%
We continued searching for new hypotheses. We remembered that the client had previously received applications quite well, the problem was their price and lack of growth. Then we thought: what if we use some old and erroneous client settings in our work. This idea seemed illogical, but required verification.
Here are some “old” client settings, we decided to return:
Advanced geographic targeting — coverage of the entire Moscow region.
Extended geographic targeting was introduced to add an audience from the region to the expensive and targeted audience of Moscow, which is cheaper. Based on the statistics of the client's previous placement, applications from the region were converted into qualified leads 70% less often. But we were ready to sacrifice conversion now in order to significantly reduce the cost of traffic.
Hyper-segmentation of campaigns – launching multiple small campaigns with different goals and limited segment budgets.
We thought that combining a large block of semantics into one Search Advertising Campaign would be beneficial: more data for training – more conversions, everything is logical.
In practice, everything turned out to be more complicated. Some high-frequency semantics, as we expected, really started to give good results as soon as we managed to find a micro-conversion. However, some keywords only spent money without bringing anything. Medium and low-frequency queries completely disappeared from the radar. Therefore, we reworked the segmentation:
Effective high-frequency keywords were allocated to a separate advertising campaign with conversion optimization based on visit duration with pay-per-click;
Low-performance ones – in a campaign with payment for conversions for the same goal;
Keys that have not received proper statistics are subject to manual bid management.
And over the next month of work, advertising with such a mix of settings worked much better. The new strategy brought 3 times more applications for implantation. And reduced the cost of the application by 50%.
More applications – more appointments for consultations: recommendations for the sales department and doctors
We listened to calls to better understand the target audience and to figure out which requests from contextual advertising can be considered high-quality and suitable for further campaign training. In the process, we realized that there were many problems in the work of the sales department. For example, operators often spent too much time searching for information or did not know how to move on to booking a consultation in time. Managers also gave unnecessary information “from themselves”, not related to the client's request.
Working with requests in this area of dentistry is quite a complicated process. After all, simply signing up for an initial appointment is one thing, but deciding on expensive implantation is quite another. Such requests have different degrees of readiness, and the conversion from consultation to purchase of the entire service is low – about 14%. To increase sales, it was necessary to improve the quality of the sales department.
We decided to help the client and prepared recommendations for improving the efficiency of working with applications. Here is what we suggested:
Personalize communication. It is necessary to address the client by name and take into account the details of his request.
Know your services well and be able to provide quick and correct advice. Create convenient tables-references with frequently asked questions and answers. Delve into the client's problems, answer questions that interest him and not waste time on unnecessary information.
Close the deal. After providing information, the manager should repeat the main points to ensure that the client has understood everything correctly and to obtain his confirmation. For example, “I have booked you for a consultation on dental implants next Monday at 12:00, correct?”
Keep the client. Shortly before the appointment, it is worth reminding the patient about the appointment, clarifying whether plans have changed and, if necessary, rescheduling the appointment.
A flexible approach to advertising and deep immersion in the client's business increased the dental clinic's applications by 6 times, reducing their cost by 3 times
Our full funnel strategy helped drive lead growth and better cost per lead. After all the changes, we saw significant improvements:
Increase in applications: The number of targeted leads increased 6 times compared to the first month of operation.
Application cost reduction: The cost of a lead decreased from 13,387 rubles to 4,356 rubles, which is 3 times less.
Increased website conversion: conversion from user to potential patient has doubled
Increase in the number of doctor consultations: Since the start of operations, their number has increased 12.5 times, as initial applications have begun to be processed much better.
Key insights for medical clinic owners and marketers who want to improve the effectiveness of contextual advertising
We have combined here the life hacks that we received on this project and our experience in promoting dental clinics:
If expensive services are involved in the promotion, the transaction cycle will be long. Therefore, using the final goal (successful consultation at the clinic or sale) for optimization is useless due to its remoteness.
It is possible to combine the attraction of relatively inexpensive but engaged traffic with its subsequent warming up using more classic advertising tools, for example, retargeting, on Search and in YAN.
Performance promotion of dental services is not only Search. Smart advertising formats (Campaign Wizard, Product Campaign) work great, and by “blurring” the audience, you can attract it cheaper.
Yes, such an audience is usually less convertible due to the fact that non-targeted traffic comes along with the targeted traffic. But when testing different hypotheses, choosing suitable advertising goals and optimizing the work of the sales department, you can get an excellent result.
Promoting dentistry in Moscow is an expensive pleasure. In order to join the auction and show up to the right audience, you need to set an appropriate budget. At the moment, we recommend 600-800 thousand rubles per month, if we are talking specifically about Moscow.
A large budget will allow you to buy a quality audience right at the start. If you train advertising campaigns on a quality (albeit expensive) audience, then further optimization will be much easier than pulling advertising campaigns out of a pile of junk that falls out due to low rates and budget.
This project showed that searching for new growth points can sometimes lead to the most unexpected solutions, but give high results. The main thing is to always test, search. And even an error, in skilled hands, when combined with other proven settings, can become an effective tool.
If you need to increase your conversions, order our deep audit of contextual advertising for 0 rubles on makodigital.ru
How will this be useful?
We will find technical errors in campaign settings and segment them by danger level: minor, significant and critical.
Let's check the statistics and find the reason for the increase in the cost of circulation and the fall in profits.
Important! We will recommend positioning, content and development (conversion, usability, functionality) for the site.
We will develop a contextual advertising strategy with new growth points.
