Every healthcare marketer faces the same frustrating reality: great lead metrics don’t always translate to actual patients walking through the door. But what separates thriving practices from struggling ones is how they bridge this critical gap.

While generating clicks, calls, and strong cost-per-lead metrics demonstrates campaign effectiveness, there’s an additional layer of optimization that can drive even better results.

By connecting lead generation data directly to appointment bookings, practices can provide higher-quality signals to ad platforms, enabling ads to reach prospects most likely to schedule an appointment. This advanced strategy became a game-changer when our team began working with , one of Canada’s leading ophthalmology practices specializing in elective vision correction procedures. 

While their campaigns were already performing well and generating consistent activity, there was room to enhance performance even further by teaching the algorithms which leads were actually worth pursuing.

Taking Marketing Optimization to the Next Level

For years, the digital marketing industry has relied on proxy metrics to measure success. Cost Per Lead, Conversion Rate, Lead Volume and similar metrics have been the standard benchmarks for campaign performance. However, after decades in the business, we’ve learned that while these metrics are valuable foundational measures, there’s an additional layer of optimization available.

The next level of optimization recognizes that leads have different conversion probabilities. A practice might receive 100 calls in a month, but if only 10 of those calls result in actual bookings, the other 90 represent wasted ad spend and missed opportunities for optimization. This optimization opportunity is particularly valuable in elective healthcare procedures, where patient decisions are highly considered and each lost lead represents not just lost revenue but also a missed chance to build trust and long-term patient relationships.

Why Elective Healthcare Marketing Presents an Opportunity for Advanced Optimization

The elective vision correction market has grown more competitive and complex in recent years. Patients are more cost-conscious than ever, competition has intensified, and the decision-making process has grown more complex.

This presents a great opportunity for practices to explore ways to further enhance their marketing efforts. Traditional volume-based strategies, which focus on generating as many leads as possible, still have value. However, high-growth practices are now looking beyond raw numbers to understand which campaigns actually drive patient appointments. 

The focus is on smarter targeting, better tracking, and leveraging data to reach people most likely to book.

Herzig Eye Institute recognized this opportunity. Their team knew that effective marketing wasn’t just about getting people in the door, it was about reaching the right people at the right time with the right message. With the right optimization tools, they were able to connect marketing performance directly to actual bookings, allowing algorithms and campaigns to work more efficiently in a competitive market.

The Game-Changing Partnership: When Data Meets Strategy

When we partnered with to transform Herzig’s marketing approach, we helped implement this advanced strategy. Rather than optimizing for calls or clicks, the focus shifted to what truly matters: booked appointments. This approach allowed the campaigns, and the algorithms behind them, to work smarter, not harder, in reaching patients most likely to convert.

“I’ve been doing Google Ads for over 18 years, and Liine is one of the best 3rd party tools that’s come around for optimizing ad campaigns,” says Spenser Pontbriand, CMO at 911±ŹÁÏ. “It is probably the best tool that exists for reducing spend on clicks and leads that will never convert.“

The integration allowed us to connect Google Ads directly to actual booking data, enabling machine learning algorithms to identify users who were most likely to schedule consultations. This wasn’t just theoretical. We could see in real-time which audiences, keywords, and ad creatives were driving genuine patient appointments.

“Liine helps solve one of the biggest problems any practice using Google Ads will deal with: No matter how great your Cost Per Lead, it’s incredibly difficult to know if you’re bidding on leads that actually convert into patients,” explains Pontbriand. “Not only does Liine solve that, but it requires very little extra effort from the practice or their agency.“

The Power of Actionable Insights

One of the most valuable aspects of this partnership has been the comprehensive visibility into marketing performance that was previously unattainable. The integration provided a complete view of the patient journey from initial ad impression to final booking.

“As a marketing tool, not only does Liine provide better optimization, but it’s probably also the best overall marketing dashboard I’ve seen,” notes Pontbriand. “You can see at any given time which lead sources and campaigns are converting best so you can better maximize your ad spend and adapt on the fly.“

This real-time visibility has enabled us to make strategic adjustments quickly, identifying high-performing campaigns that deserve increased investment and underperforming elements that need refinement. The result is a more agile, responsive marketing approach that can adapt to changing market conditions and patient behavior.

Efficiency Gains That Matter

The benefits of this campaign went far beyond just the numbers. 

By targeting only high-intent prospects, Herzig’s call center team no longer wasted time chasing leads that were unlikely to convert. Instead, they could focus all their energy on patients who were genuinely interested in scheduling consultations.

This shift had a cascading effect on the practice’s overall efficiency. Call center staff were able to have more meaningful conversations, answer questions in-depth, and guide patients through the decision-making process without feeling rushed. 

Appointment scheduling became smoother, follow-ups were more effective, and the patient experience improved significantly.

In practical terms, this meant higher staff productivity and better use of resources. These aspects are often overlooked but are also a critical component of practice growth.

Looking Ahead

Practices that begin to embrace data-driven optimization will have a significant competitive advantage. The ability to precisely target and efficiently convert prospects into patients is becoming essential for sustainable growth.

Our experience with Herzig Eye Institute demonstrates that when marketing strategy meets powerful optimization technology, the results can be transformative. 

By moving beyond traditional metrics and focusing on what truly drives business growth, we’ve been able to help our client thrive in a challenging market.

Partner with a marketing agency that understands the unique challenges of healthcare advertising. At 911±ŹÁÏ, we combine strategic expertise with innovative technology to deliver measurable results. Contact our team to explore how we can maximize your practice’s growth potential.

Despite investing thousands of dollars in advertising each month, many ophthalmology practices watch their patient acquisition costs rise while new patient volume remains stagnant. Meanwhile, some eye care practices consistently generate predictable patient growth from the same advertising platforms. 

The key difference lies in how these successful practices approach vision-concerned patients, who require fundamentally different messaging and touchpoints than typical healthcare consumers. Their success stems from understanding one fundamental truth about vision patients that changes everything about effective advertising strategy.

Understanding the Unique Psychology of Ophthalmology Patients

Ophthalmology practices can’t use the same advertising playbook as restaurants or retail stores. Eye care patients face higher psychological stakes because vision is irreplaceable, creating anxiety that standard marketing approaches often miss.

Patients often go through a few distinct phases during their patient journey. During the research phase, patients typically aren’t actively seeking treatment. They might be experiencing subtle vision changes, quietly investigating whether their symptoms warrant professional attention. Alternatively, they might be processing concerning exam findings, causing them to seek reassurance or guidance through their internet searches.

This creates a critical opportunity for practices to establish authority through organic search presence. Practices can accomplish this by creating comprehensive content that directly addresses patient concerns and positions the practice as a trusted resource before patients begin actively seeking providers.

In the next phase, the evaluation phase, patients become active comparison shoppers, analyzing procedures, studying success rates, and conducting extensive vetting to determine which provider they can trust with their sight. This phase can last months, particularly for elective procedures.

The last phase is the commitment phase. This phase involves overcoming final barriers: cost concerns, procedure anxiety, scheduling logistics, and family input.

These phases aren’t linear. Patients frequently cycle between evaluation and commitment multiple times. Successful campaigns recognize this fluid movement and provide relevant touchpoints throughout the entire journey.

How Ophthalmology Practices Can Overcome the Patient Trust Deficit

Ophthalmology practices face a unique trust challenge that other medical specialties don’t encounter. Patients can’t easily evaluate the quality of eye surgery results the way they might assess cosmetic procedures or joint replacements. This creates a decision-making environment where credentials, patient testimonials, and practice reputation carry disproportionate weight.

Successful advertising campaigns address this trust deficit directly by establishing credibility and authenticity. Effective campaigns demonstrate expertise, showcase successful outcomes, and connect with patient concerns on an emotional level.

Choosing the Right Advertising Platforms for Ophthalmology

The highest-performing ophthalmology practices run integrated campaigns across both Google Ads and Meta, recognizing that each platform serves a different purpose in patient acquisition.

Google Ads

Google Ads performs best when targeting specific procedures rather than specific problems. While there’s a time and place for targeting symptoms with search campaigns, by this point in their journey, patients are likely searching for solutions rather than answers to general questions.

Symptom-focused campaigns may generate significant traffic, but are typically not ideal for lead generation. The true strength of Google Ads lies in appearing with the exact result someone is looking for at the precise moment they’re searching for it. 

The best-performing campaigns focus on procedure and solution-specific keywords rather than general, question-based queries. This approach captures patients who have moved beyond the research phase and are actively seeking treatment options.

Meta Advertising

Meta’s strength in ophthalmology advertising lies in its ability to reach patients before they begin actively searching for treatment. The platform excels at delivering educational content that builds awareness, addresses common misconceptions, and establishes practice authority over time.

The most effective Meta campaigns for ophthalmology focus on patient education rather than direct promotion. Content addressing common vision concerns, explaining procedure advances, or discussing when to seek treatment performs significantly better than advertisements directly promoting services. 

This strategy nurtures patients throughout their research phase, positioning your practice as a trusted authority when they’re ready to move toward treatment decisions.

Implementation Roadmap

The most successful transformations follow a structured approach that minimizes risk while maximizing learning opportunities.

First, it’s important to focus on establishing proper tracking, identifying high-value patient types, and launching focused campaigns targeting the practice’s most profitable procedures. Campaign launches should begin with conservative budgets on proven strategies rather than attempting to test multiple approaches simultaneously. Once foundational campaigns demonstrate consistent performance, budgets can scale, and additional strategies can be layered in.

Next, the optimization phase begins using performance data from foundational campaigns to refine targeting, messaging, and budget allocation. This phase typically reveals unexpected insights about patient behavior, competitive dynamics, and conversion patterns that inform future strategy decisions.

Expansion occurs gradually, adding new campaigns, platforms, or targeting approaches only after existing campaigns achieve stable performance. This methodical approach prevents the common mistake of scaling too quickly and losing the ability to identify which changes drive results.

It’s important to view paid advertising as a systematic approach to predictable patient acquisition. When executed with attention to patient psychology, platform-specific optimization, and continuous improvement processes, paid advertising can become the foundation for sustainable practice growth.

Ready to Transform Your Practice’s Patient Acquisition Strategy?

The practices that achieve this transformation share one common trait: they partner with specialists who understand both ophthalmology patient psychology and digital marketing optimization. 

Over the past 25 years, 911±ŹÁÏ has specialized in refining digital marketing strategies specifically for ophthalmology, ENT, and other medical specialties. Through thousands of campaigns and millions in ad spend analysis, our team of specialists has identified the precise strategies that separate practices achieving significant growth from those struggling to break even on their advertising investments.

If you’re ready to discover which specific approaches will work best for your practice and patient population, let’s schedule a conversation to review your current results and identify your highest-impact opportunities.

Patients are clicking your ads, visiting your website, and filling out your forms, but they’re not booking appointments. Why?

Medical practices are facing unprecedented challenges in converting online interest into appointments. Rising acquisition costs have forced practices to spend more per website visitor, but those visitors are engaging less once they arrive. On top of that, increasing medical skepticism and ineffective lead response systems are creating the perfect storm for today’s conversion crisis.

Despite rising traffic and increased marketing efforts, many practices are struggling to convert initial interest into actual appointments. In 2025, ophthalmology marketing isn’t just about attracting leads—it’s about closing the gap between interest and action. With traffic costs rising, engagement dropping, and conversion rates declining, marketing teams must rethink their strategies. The downward trend in digital marketing performance is pushing medical practices to adapt and implement stronger, multi-faceted strategies to stay competitive.

Key Challenges Facing Ophthalmology Marketing in 2025

Rising Traffic Costs & Declining Engagement

An article published by explored , which highlighted the scope of this issue:

• Increasing Traffic Costs: Global website traffic dropped by 3.3% year-over-year (YoY), forcing brands to depend more on paid ads.
• New Visitors Leave Quickly: User engagement metrics are declining globally, with time spent on-site, page views, and scroll depth falling by 6.5%.
• Conversion Rates Decline: Global conversion rates dropped by 6.1%, worsened by the lower yield of paid traffic. 

“A study of 90 billion sessions shows organic traffic is down from last year, pushing more brands toward paid channels to make up the difference.” ()

Beyond increasing traffic costs, a fundamental shift in how users interact with search results is also impacting organic marketing efforts. While much of the conversation around declining engagement focuses on paid traffic, organic search strategies are also evolving. Practices must now consider how to maintain visibility even when users aren’t clicking through to their websites.

Recent data shows that nearly 60% of Google searches now end without a click to any website, as users find their answers directly in search results or through AI-powered overviews. This shift has given rise to the term “zero-click marketing,” a strategy that focuses on providing value directly on the platforms where potential patients already spend their time.

For medical practices, when combined with the 3.3% drop in global website traffic and 6.5% decline in content engagement, this trend means that traditional strategies focused solely on driving website traffic may become less effective. Still, educational content on your website remains essential for establishing authority and nurturing potential patients throughout their research phase. 

By strategically sharing your expertise and experience, you create opportunities to engage patients with accurate, accessible information at every stage of their decision-making journey.

Lead Response & Management Issues

This data highlights the importance of timely, personalized engagement to maximize conversion rates. Practices that fail to respond quickly are leaving significant revenue opportunities untapped. This gap in lead management directly impacts conversion potential.

The Rise of LASIK Misinformation

Another challenge affecting conversion rates in the medical industry, particularly in the vision sector, is the increasing spread of LASIK misinformation. According to the Refractive Surgery Council (RSC), the dark web of LASIK complainers contributed to a spike in anti-LASIK activity in 2024. This included the circulation of various media content, publications from former industry professionals, and increased social media activism that raised concerns about potential complications. These different channels have worked together to amplify anti-LASIK messaging across multiple platforms.

The refractive surgery industry must take a proactive approach to counter misinformation through transparent education and clear, fact-based marketing content. Practices need to develop comprehensive strategies that address patient concerns while maintaining trust and credibility.

What This Means for Your Ophthalmology Marketing Strategy

To bridge the gap between interest and action, practices must refine their approach to lead management, advertising, and patient engagement. The following strategies will help address declining conversion rates, improve response times, and attract higher-quality leads.

Creating a Sense of Urgency Around Lead Responses

One of the most crucial elements of ophthalmology marketing success is response time. Data shows that to maximize their chances of conversion.

• Implement a CRM or lead management system to track patient inquiries, automate follow-ups, and manage drip campaigns.
• Monitor the lead-to-appointment lifecycle to optimize marketing investments and improve conversion tracking.
• Consider strategic outsourcing to call solutions to fill gaps in administrative or marketing support, ensuring no leads slip through the cracks.

Diversify Traffic Strategies

To combat recent trends, practices need to diversify their traffic sources and avoid relying on ineffective lead-generation methods. This means avoiding common pitfalls in current advertising platforms:

META Platform Issues: First, eliminate the use of Facebook’s Advantage Plus feature, which typically generates high volumes of low-quality leads that rarely convert. Next, stop using Facebook intake forms – many users don’t recall completing them, leading to wasted follow-up efforts on non-viable leads. These poor-quality leads waste valuable time for both refractive coordinators and call center staff.

Google Advertising Considerations: Avoid relying on Broad Match and AI-driven algorithms that prioritize Google’s revenue over lead quality. Instead, focus on Quality Score – Google’s diagnostic tool that rates your ads from 1-10 based on ad relevance to search terms and intent, landing page experience matching search intent, and expected click-through rates (CTR).

Instead of using outdated strategies that produce poor-quality leads, consider these updated approaches:

• Test new campaigns, such as Local Service Ads, to attract more qualified leads.
• Avoid over-reliance on AI-driven advertising settings, which can sometimes prioritize impressions over conversions.
• Audit existing landing pages to ensure a seamless user experience with clear calls-to-action, such as scheduling appointments, self-tests, pricing requests, or direct phone numbers.

Implement Essential Software Systems 

To successfully execute these strategies, practices need several key systems in place:

• Website analytics for tracking user behavior and conversion paths
• CRM system with robust drip campaign capabilities
• Call recording systems (such as LIINE) for quality monitoring
• Conclusn at the administrative level for comprehensive practice analytics
• Digital Marketing integration platforms for unified data analysis

The Gen X Opportunity: A Market Worth Targeting

One critical marketing opportunity heading into 2025 is Generation X. According to , Gen X makes up 30.4% of U.S. households and holds significant purchasing power.

The Gen X demographic presents a valuable opportunity for medical practices, as they control significant wealth and prioritize high-quality healthcare. Services like EVO ICL, RLE, premium cataract treatments, and dry eye solutions are all gaining traction, with RLE showing particular promise for future patient acquisition. Gen X consumers are financially equipped and seek procedures that improve their quality of life, such as vision correction. By focusing on these procedures, convenience, trust, and flexible payment options, practices can effectively engage with this group, addressing their desire for better vision and an overall enhanced quality of life.

Top Recommendations for Medical Practices in 2025

To overcome the issues with conversion, ophthalmology marketing teams must take a proactive, data-driven approach. Here’s what practices should focus on:

• Test new campaigns, such as Local Service Ads, and avoid relying solely on AI-driven ad settings.
• Audit existing landing pages to make it easier for users to contact your practice.
• Create a sense of urgency for lead responses: contact inquiries within five minutes.
• Track the lead-to-appointment lifecycle with CRM tools to optimize marketing ROI.
• Address LASIK misinformation through transparent education and fact-based content.
• Leverage the purchasing power of Gen X by tailoring marketing strategies to their preferences.
• Implement strategic outsourcing based on practice needs: Find partners that can fill in the missing areas your practice may need additional support with.

Take the Next Step: Secret Shop Your Practice

If your practice is struggling with lead conversion, 911±ŹÁÏ offers a secret shop assessment to evaluate response times, engagement quality, and marketing effectiveness. Contact us today to find out how you can improve your patient acquisition strategy and maximize your marketing investment.

Google’s search results continue to evolve beyond the traditional “10 blue links.” Among recent innovations, AI Overview has emerged as a significant development that healthcare website owners need to understand. This isn’t just another algorithm update – it’s likely a fundamental shift in how people interact with search engines and are presented answers to questions. Let’s explore how Google’s AI Overview is revolutionizing the way healthcare practices manage their digital presence in search results.

What are AI Overviews in Google?

Google AI Overview brings another shift in how certain kinds of search results are presented, particularly for those quick-answer style queries. It uses artificial intelligence to generate concise, direct answers to user queries directly within search results. This feature is designed to provide users with quick, relevant information without requiring them to click through to a website. 

Back in Sept 2023, the AI overviews for informational medical queries looked like this:

Today, they look like this:

While the Overviews are still designed to provide quick answers, UI/UX changes (re: link icons next to answers) in today’s version provide optionality for users to click through to listed websites, while prioritizing scannability with highlighted text, boxed key points, and images. This shift aligns with Google’s push to streamline quick-answer queries and deliver immediate, high-quality summaries.

Think about how you search Google. You either need a quick answer (how many ml in an oz?), or you are attempting to do something (things to do in Boston). With AI Overviews, Google has decided to start handling way more of the quick answer style queries themselves. While this arguably improves the search experience for users, it also reshapes how businesses and content creators approach SEO.

Overview pulls from various high-quality sources to create summaries that fulfill user intent quickly. Google handling these style queries is going to result in lower clicks and traffic to your website. However, AI will continue to reference brands and products in its responses, and you’ll want your brand to be among those it mentions.

Google’s AI Overview Impact on Click-Through-Rate

Google’s AI Overviews are typically triggered by these types of searches:

• Short Facts
• Consquence
• Comparison
• Reason
• Definition
• Boolean
• Instructional

The impact of AI Overviews varies depending on the type of query. Top-of-funnel informational searches will see reduced click-through rates (CTR) as users find immediate answers in the AI-generated summaries. 

In July 2024, Healthline Media reported 45% of the medical keywords they tracked returned an AI overview. Glacial is currently compiling it’s own tracking report for specific specialties, but our estimates are that almost all medical related keywords that fall into one of the above buckets will be triggering an overview answer.

However, bottom-funnel, high-intent and local related searches, like “eye doctor near me“, remain unaffected, which is critical for medical practices as these lower-funnel, high-intent, “I’m-actively-looking-for-a-service-provider” searches drive the majority of patient leads.

Keep in mind that not all clicks are equal.

If your website is losing clicks, take a moment to evaluate what kind of traffic is being affected. Likely traffic is down because an old blog post used to rank first overall for a niche question, where as now an AI overview appears and becomes a zero click search.

Before stressing about traffic being down month over month, confirm if the drop is tied to lead generating service and location pages, or supporting content.

Google does not provide any AI overview segmented data in their analytics platforms, so marketers will have to do some extra digging (and simulated searches) to hypothesize and find the root source of any decrease or increase.

Adapting your strategy is key. By balancing concise, digestible information with in-depth content, you can maintain visibility, reinforce brand credibility and remain part of the decision-making process, even if users engage differently than before.

Impact of AI Overview on Traditional SEO Metrics

As AI-generated summaries reshape search results, traditional SEO metrics are evolving. Here are some general stats to consider:

• 52% of links featured in AI overviews come from top-10 ranked sites
• Preview links show 80% correlation with top-10 results
• Rankings in AI Overview and traditional search results operate independently
• Results show high volatility due to overviews being AI-driven generation

While these general trends provide context for AI’s broad impact on search, let’s examine how specific areas of search marketing are being affected:

Organic SEO

AI Overviews click-through or impression data does not show in Google Search Console or Google Analytics. This creates a significant blind spot for marketers trying to measure their content’s true reach and performance.

Local SEO

The map packs fall under the navigational and local service-based search intent queries. As of January 2025, we’re not seeing any AI overviews appear for these style searches (i.e. LASIK Seattle). 

These style queries have long been the searches that bring patient leads, so it’s good to see for now that the area is unaffected for practices. When reviewing site traffic metrics, these continue to be the most important to check when looking into any traffic declines. Was it “ophthalmologist Nashville” that dropped, or “what is the bump on my eye?”.

Paid Search 

The introduction of AI Overview has notably influenced how users interact with search results, particularly for healthcare-related queries. Research indicates that when AI Overview appears for health-related searches, advertisements also show up 65% of the time, creating a more complex competitive landscape.

Should I Optimize Content for Visibility in AI-Generated Summaries?

Optimizing for AI-generated summaries involves structuring your content to be easily digestible and directly address user queries. While optimization for AI Overview shouldn’t be your primary focus, certain practices can improve visibility:

For informational content:

• Focus on concise, factual presentation
• Include relevant statistics and structured information
• Minimize computational complexity for crawling
• Prioritize clarity over keyword density

For local visibility:

• Maintain accurate directory listings
• Focus on geographical relevance
• Ensure consistency across local citations

How Do You Rank a Medical Website in Google’s AI Overview?

Google’s AI Overview pulls information from high-quality sources to generate quick, authoritative answers. To increase your chances of being featured, your content must be well-structured, relevant, and aligned with user intent.

Focus on User Intent and Context: Answer questions directly. Provide concise, accurate answers to common user queries.

Creating Efficient, Crawlable Content: Conduct keyword research to identify and incorporate terms users are searching for. Use clear headings, bullet points, and lists to make your content scannable. 

Providing Clear, Factual, Authoritative Information: Focus on E-A-T. Establish Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness in your content.

Maintaining Strong Traditional SEO Fundamentals: Ensure your website follows core SEO best practices, including fast load times, mobile optimization, and structured data. Strong technical SEO, high-quality backlinks, and well-optimized metadata help maintain visibility alongside AI-generated search results.

By combining these strategies, you can increase your chances of being included in AI-generated summaries.

The Technical Aspects of AI Overviews

The output of a Google result page is a combination of multiple different algorithms that come together to deliver a final search result.

For the AI Overviews algorithm, the main factor is content relevance and semantics. Google’s algorithms understand words in mathematics. Each word has a mathematical value plotted in a multi-dimensional space. Using vector embeddings, these algorithms take your query and compare it against passages from indexed website content for the closest relevant mathematical values.

In nerd speak: To appear in AI Overviews, your content should be concise, factual, and structured with simple subject-verb relationships to answer the user’s query as efficiently as possible. Bonus points if you can also provide unique perspectives and first-party data alongside your answers. 

Is it Bad if I Don’t Rank in the Google AI Overview?

Not ranking in the AI Overview doesn’t mean your SEO efforts are failing. Traditional rankings still matter, and not all queries trigger AI-generated summaries.  Some users prefer clicking through to full articles rather than relying on summaries, depending on their needs.

It’s also important to consider audience behavior. For instance, some industries or topics may see less reliance on AI summaries, making traditional SEO strategies equally valuable. While appearing in the overview is advantageous, it’s not the sole determinant of success.

For medical practices, the real focus should be on the types of searches that drive patient conversions. While AI Overview visibility can enhance brand awareness, it’s the bottom funnel, service-specific queries that have the biggest impact on appointment bookings. 

Here’s why traditional SEO and high-intent searches remain the most critical for practice growth:

• Most patient leads come from service-specific and location-based queries
• Bottom-funnel searches typically drive actual appointments
• Brand mentions in AI overviews, while valuable, aren’t critical for practice growth

Key Takeaways for Medical Providers

Google AI Overview represents a significant shift in how Google gives users information online. However, it’s not about completely overhauling your SEO strategy—it’s about adopting.

AI Overviews are volatile. They rely on a different algorithm than traditional search results, meaning what appears today may disappear tomorrow as Google fine-tunes its models and indexes new content.

For medical practices, understanding AI Overview’s role within the broader SEO landscape helps maintain perspective on its actual business impact. While it signals an evolution in search, its influence on patient acquisition may be less significant than initially assumed.

As you consider these key insights, it’s important to focus on actionable strategies that will ensure your medical practice adapts effectively. Here are some essential takeaways to guide your SEO efforts in light of the evolving Google AI Overview:

1. AI Overview primarily affects top-of-funnel, informational content that already has a low conversion rate and was already being answered with featured snippets.
2. Focus optimization efforts on service-specific and location-based queries.
3. Maintain high-quality, efficient content that aligns with user intent.
4. Monitor changes, but continue prioritizing traditional SEO fundamentals, especially Local SEO.
5. The intersection of AI Overviews and Paid Ads will be important to watch over the next 12 months.

If you’re looking for ways to refine your digital strategy and maintain your practice’s visibility amidst evolving search trends, reach out to discuss how we can support your practice’s SEO goals and ensure you’re well-positioned in both traditional search and AI-generated results.

Planning for marketing and business development in 2025 requires a strategic approach that anticipates evolving industry trends, technologies, and market demands. Medical practices today are dealing with massive changes in procedure volume, technology upkeep, staff shortages, ever-evolving competition, and economic disruption.

The pressure on physicians, administrators and marketing directors to enhance return on investment has never been higher. How do we accomplish this with young people hampered by economic frustration and declining refractive surgery volumes?

While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, there are several promising approaches to help optimize your practice for the year ahead. Keep reading to learn five key areas that can strengthen your strategic planning for 2025!

1. Leverage Refractive Lens Exchange 

Focus on leveraging RLE as a vision correction procedure that is ideally suited for GenX and has massive potential for growth in 2025. Are you participating?

This is a vastly important generation with purchasing power. Their focus on flexibility with healthcare payments is important, and their choice of quality healthcare is evident.

The lens implant options for RLE have evolved, making many people happy to be able to reduce their dependence on glasses and contacts. RLE marketing can be challenging but can be approached from a variety of angles.

Here is what some other industry people have to say about RLE, implant options, and creating better consumer awareness.

Market data indicates that Refractive Lens Exchange (RLE) presents a strong opportunity for both patient satisfaction and practice growth. In a 2024 911±ŹÁÏ. case study, the average cost per lead for Google Ads paid search was $187.00, and the cost per lead for social media ads was $25.00. Although this data shows costs per lead are higher than what you would see with LASIK and cataract ad groups, the costs are well within the range of acceptability.

There is still a gray area around the awareness of the procedure and what terms should be used to describe it. The main descriptions should include not just Refractive Lens Exchange (RLE) but also Custom Lens Replacement (CLR). Unfortunately, there is no magic word that has evolved yet that is like LASIK so creating awareness will prove more difficult.

Let’s hear what people are saying about Refractive Lens Exchange:

“If you are seeing a refractive surgery candidate older than 40 years of age, take the time and explain the concept of presbyopia. The best solution for presbyopia is Refractive Lens Exchange with a trifocal lens. Assuring the eyes are very healthy and discussing the potential drawbacks of the IOL is paramount.”

-Rob Melendez, MD, MBA
Juliette Eye Institute, CEO/Founder

“Today’s patient has more options than ever to achieve excellent post operative vision.  The variety of IOLs can be confusing and patient education is critical to meet expectations.  Having an educational program is extremely valuable and can reduce the surgeon’s chair time as well as improve patient satisfaction.”

– Edward J. Holland, MD
Director of Cornea, Cincinnati Eye Institute
Professor of Ophthalmology, University of Cincinnati

“As an Ophthalmic Consultant and CEO, metrics on patients and planning are key to future financial success and growth of a practice. To be more progressive in 2025, take an example from your own playbook and understand the road map of the premium patient. Not all patients need hand holding, rather the patients that are paying out of pocket and choosing the refractive elective services are your savvier patients that are looking at your social media presence, looking at how well your website presents the technology of your providers. You have one chance to sell yourself, making sure that your practice, your providers, and your technology will live up to the expectations of the patient. You need the tools and information to set the patient’s expectations so that when they finally arrive at your practice – closing is so much sweeter!”

– Tracy J. Kenniff, MBA, OCS
Practice Administrator
The Eye Center, Greenfield MA

“Clinics that focus on educating patients and putting their needs first in marketing Refractive Lens Exchange (RLE) are likely to see strong growth in the coming years. Although RLE as a procedure is still not widely known, many people over 50 are frustrated with using glasses, contacts, and readers. These potential patients know they have a problem but are not yet aware of the solution. To grow RLE procedures consistently, clinics should adopt a modern vision correction approach and invest in effective traditional and digital media campaigns that deliver a positive return on investment.”

– Mike King
Clinic Marketing System

2. Identify Your Online Persona and Embrace a Patient-First Value Proposition

Making patients feel empowered with vision correction goes a very long way. Each patient is unique, and they all have a story to share. At its core, patients simply seek better vision. True emotional intelligence in healthcare means shifting our focus from professional achievements to what matters most: our patients’ quality of life and their journey to improved sight. 

Many eye care practitioners were first made aware of this concept in a book by Donald Miller, where he aims to help businesses tell meaningful stories to dramatically improve their business. Creating an online persona is crucial for practices aiming to connect deeply with their target audience. An effective persona helps you understand your patient’s needs and visual goals, driving a more personalized approach to patient care and marketing.

We have seen the emergence of three general types of practice/provider personas. Some practices may fall outside these categories, but these are the main common personas. Consider whether or not your practice falls in any of these categories:

1. The Self-Focused Practice

In this scenario, the practice website talks a lot about the physicians successes. Although it’s great to put forth the extensive experience that your physicians have, its also important to make sure its not overboard. Experience matters significantly, but be careful to make sure it does not outweigh the message of delivering quality vision care for your patients. Many people would argue that it’s the doctors who show empathy that patients remember so vividly.

2. The Patient-First Practice

In the next scenario, the practice’s website is welcoming to the average person and addresses the symptoms, needs, and desires of patients. You will often see real patients and hear real patient stories on these websites. Creating a genuinely warm patient experience requires more than just clinical excellence—it demands emotional intelligence (EI). This cornerstone of a patient-first philosophy encompasses four key abilities: identifying emotions in ourselves and others, using emotions to guide reasoning, understanding emotional complexity, and managing emotional responses. When properly integrated into practice, these EI skills not only enhance patient care and satisfaction but also strengthen safety protocols and treatment outcomes

3. The Oblivious Practice

The last scenario involves practices that are oblivious to how a website should be used as an opportunity to introduce yourself to the community. In today’s healthcare world, where patients actively research and compare providers online, neglecting your digital presence can have profound consequences. A poorly designed website doesn’t just fail to attract new patients—it actively drives them toward more digitally savvy competitors. With countless options available, patients won’t hesitate to choose practices that demonstrate professionalism and attention to detail through their online presence.

Let’s hear what people are saying about embracing a patient-first value proposition:

“Remember that the patient is the hero of the story, not you. All marketing efforts should be geared toward elevating the hero, aka your patients!!”

– Dr. Brett Mueller
Mueller Vision

“Patients must feel connected, informed, and safe in their journey with us. This starts with interest and research online, extends through their experience in our practice with a great surgical outcome, and ends in success as a patient advocate spreading the word to everyone they know. It’s up to us to create these three feelings in every patient interaction – and be committed to constantly re-assessing and evolving everything we do.”
 
– Christine Scarlett & Lauren Weaver
The Patient Whisperers

3. Stay Up to Date 

In today’s ever-changing world, it’s essential to stay up to date on emerging trends, data trends, what media is working, how leads are generated and where you get the best bang for your buck for patient acquisition.

One strategy practices can put in place to stay up to date with the latest digital marketing trends and techniques is to regularly read industry news and publications. Many digital marketing blogs, magazines, and websites provide regular updates on the latest trends and techniques.

Several industry leaders offer valuable resources across different aspects of practice management:

On the administrative side, there is the AHA (Administrators Helping Administrators) webinar series run by James Dawes, Patti Barkey, and Janna Mullaney. This has proven to be very informative and unbiased.

Guido Piquet, CEO of Mann Eye Institute, hosts ‘The Ophthalmology Experience’ podcast produced by Boost Patients. Known for staying ahead of industry trends, Piquet regularly tests and implements innovative software solutions before they become widespread in the field, making his insights particularly valuable for forward-thinking practices.

On the marketing side our team at 911±ŹÁÏ holds regular webinars going over various trends. Additionally, we release various case studies on marketing cost per leads by media source.

Let’s hear what practices and industry professionals have to say about staying up on trends:

“Do Your Homework” or “Homework Never Ends…Even for Professionals.

Every single year I pit all of my media representatives (of which I have 35) up against each other. I begin to heavily assess market research data pertaining to SW Florida on how my target audience most commonly receives information. For example, in October, I asked Comcast (a partner who would know) – to compile the top OTT/Streaming platforms’ cumulative rankings and highest-rated ROI’s for a 12 month period. Comcast uses set top box data directly into their customers’ homes to “first-party” ascertain the viewing habits of all audiences.  I was able to quickly determine which OTT mediums were priority. THEN – I sent a “BCC” email to all of my reps and said…these platforms are my top priority. 1. Do you sell this? 2. Can you target it uniquely or are you just throwing money into the wind? 3. Who is going to give me the lowest CPM?”

– Bev Hollingshead
Marketing Director
Frantz EyeCare

“Many practices overlook the value of educating their existing patient databases on premium vision correction procedures. A practice should understand the opportunities to market and offer these services to their existing patients. Additionally, the practice should have a strategy to gauge their patients’ interest in these procedures and how to nurture them. Having an automated way to gather this information and put it into targeted drip campaigns and text blasts can be very powerful.”

– Guido Piquet, MBA, COE
Chief Operating Officer
Mann Eye Institute

“Consider the performance signals you are feeding your marketing engines and strategy.  Are these signals “proxy metrics” like clicks and inbound calls lasting more than 30 seconds or are they actual patient bookings. Adopt online booking as an option for your patients.  Simply put, your practice is behind if you don’t already have this in place.  I’m confident that there will be objections from colleagues in your practice, but patients expect to do business with you as easily as they can do business with everyone else.”

– Charlie Winn
Chief Revenue Officer
Liine

4. Make 2025 the Year to Audit and Edit Your Lead Follow Up Process

Even practices considered among the best in the country need to stay vigilant, as 2024 marked a sea change in understanding best practices and what it takes to engage potential patients to book consultations.

2024 began with groundbreaking insights from two major Carl Zeiss Meditec case studies. These case studies were tremendous at getting to the bottom of an issue that has plagued practices and marketing firms for years: the consistently inadequate follow-up process and lead response time in refractive surgery. 

This critical deficiency, which was clearly identified in both studies, had deeper roots than initially understood. The issue first surfaced around 2015 through MD Prospects and Michelle Pelletier’s work investigating the lead-to-consult bottleneck. 

A telling pattern emerged in MDprospects reports: hundreds of leads would appear in the system, yet very few converted to consultations. While this observation was a generality, it proved remarkably common across practices. The industry made attempts to improve, but didn’t have clear goals to aim for.

The breakthrough came with the first ZEISS case study, which established that seven return phone calls were the magic number for improving lead-to-consult conversions. By early 2024, this finding highlighted a stark reality: most practices weren’t just falling short of this standard—they lacked the internal capacity to achieve it. 

Significant progress was made with the analysis tool developed by Dan Haddad at the Laser Eye Institute in Troy, Michigan. This comprehensive tool, which became the industry standard for evaluating total response, examined calls, self-tests, contact forms, and scheduling capabilities. Dan’s work quickly demonstrated a clear correlation between improved response time and quality and increased surgical conversions. 

Now that the study has revealed the blueprint for proper response protocols, practices face a new challenge: how to consistently meet this elevated standard?

Let’s hear what people are saying about the lead follow-up process:

“In today’s digital-first world it’s increasingly important to be fast and first. In fact, 78% of consumers will choose the first business to respond to their inquiry. You can’t improve what you haven’t measured. Creating a repeatable process to routinely test your digital funnel is paramount to success in a digital-first world. People turnover, websites break, and workflows change. These changes are difficult to detect without a solid process in place to routinely digitally mystery shop your practice and continuously monitor your speed-to-lead contact time.”

– Dan Haddad
Marketing Director
Laser Eye Institute

“I think the most important thing I come back to repeatedly is for practices to regularly “shop” the patient journey.  Search for yourself as though you are a patient, click on all the links on your website or other marketing assets, call your own practice or others and ask a couple of questions. Shadow a patient through a consult and/or do one as a group as though you are doing a play and refine messaging and flow together.  It’s very easy to come up with many ideas for optimization, but the great practices make time to evaluate and refine and practice.”

– Amy Jo Lippe
Account Manager, Florida Region
RxSight

5. Evolving Privacy Standards Should Not Be Ignored

2024 marked another year of healthcare digital marketing compliance updates, requiring medical providers to reassess their online marketing strategies due to increasing concerns about patient privacy and stricter data protection regulations.

A major development came in June when the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a ruling that partially vacated HHS guidance on website tracking technologies. While initially causing some confusion in the industry, the ruling specifically addressed the combination of IP addresses and visits to public (un-authenticated) healthcare related webpages.

The realm of SMS communications also saw increased scrutiny. Medical practices implementing text message marketing or appointment reminders need to ensure they have proper documentation of patient consent for SMS communications, maintain secure messaging platforms, and provide clear opt-out mechanisms.

The international dimension of digital healthcare marketing also gained prominence this year, with more practices wondering about the impact of GDPR on their operations. Even U.S.-based healthcare providers need to consider GDPR compliance if they’re treating European patients.

This complexity is particularly evident in how practices must handle capturing lead and patient information. HIPAA-compliant forms remain the foundation for any medical practice doing digital marketing, as the combination of collecting personal identifiers with health-related information from leads still constitutes Protected Health Information (PHI) under HIPAA regulations. Plus, forms can be used to collect the required consent forms for SMS communications.

Looking ahead to 2025, industry experts recommend the following when thinking about compliance and digital marketing:

• Reviewing your website forms and the technology behind them.
• Staying up to date on state level privacy laws as these supersede many others.
• Updated privacy policies that reflect current regulatory requirements.
• Continuing to evaluate online pixel technologies and the HHS Bulletin.

Turning Strategy into Success

The more you can anticipate changes in consumer behavior, stay ahead of technology trends, and focus on building meaningful relationships with your customers, the better positioned your business will be to thrive. Start planning now by setting clear, actionable goals, optimizing your existing processes, and investing in the right tools and talent to fuel growth.

Contact the team at 911±ŹÁÏ to learn how we can help your practice navigate the challenges of 2025 with innovative marketing strategies, cutting-edge technologies, and expert guidance tailored to your unique needs.

A powerful online presence is crucial in the current medical market. One of the most effective ways to attract and convert potential patients is through well-designed landing pages coupled with targeted paid advertising campaigns. 

Forward-thinking healthcare providers are leveraging these powerful tools to not only attract potential patients but to engage them meaningfully, ultimately transforming digital interactions into real-world patient relationships. By embracing data-supported strategies, your medical practices can position itself at the intersection of patient acquisition and care delivery in an increasingly competitive market.

Keep reading to learn more about the key elements of creating landing pages that boost conversion rates and how to leverage paid ads to drive traffic to these pages!

The Power of Paid Ads in Healthcare Marketing

Medical paid search has become a valuable tool for healthcare providers looking to expand their patient base. While organic search results are extremely valuable, they can sometimes take a while to show significant improvements.

Paid ads, on the other hand, can offer immediate visibility and targeted reach. When implemented correctly, paid ads can deliver a substantial return on investment. 

Measuring Success and Optimizing Performance

Creating an effective landing page is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring and optimization. Here are some key metrics to track:

Conversion Rate

This is the percentage of visitors who complete the desired action on your landing page. A good conversion rate can vary depending on your industry and specific goals, but it’s always good to simply aim for continuous improvement.

Cost Per Conversion

This metric helps you understand the efficiency of your paid ad campaigns by showing how much you’re spending to acquire each lead or patient.

Creating Effective Ad Campaigns for Healthcare Providers

The journey to a successful landing page begins with a well-crafted ad. To create effective campaigns, it’s important to understand your potential patients and what they’re looking for online.

Designing Pages That Turn Visitors into Patients

After someone clicks your ad, they’ll see your landing page. Here’s what makes a good one:

Attention-Grabbing Headline: Your main message should be clear and relate to why the person clicked your ad.

Helpful Information: Give visitors the key details they need, focusing on how you can help them. Include positive feedback from other patients to build trust.

Clear Next Steps: Make it obvious what you want visitors to do next, whether it’s booking an appointment or learning more about a treatment.

Works Well on All Devices: Make sure your page looks good and is easy to use on computers, tablets, and phones.

Building Trust:  Include information that shows you’re a credible and trustworthy healthcare provider.

By focusing on these elements, you can create ads and landing pages that effectively connect with potential patients and encourage them to choose your practice.

Case Study: A Success Story from 911±ŹÁÏ

Texas Eye Surgeons – Revitalizing an Outdated Cataract Landing Page

In March 2024, our team updated a pay-per-click landing page for . The results were remarkable:

• More people clicked on the ad: The click-through rate went up from about 6% to over 7%, which is much better than the typical 3.5% in the industry.
• Each click cost less: The price per click dropped from $5.84 to $4.63, saving money on advertising.
• More potential patients reached out: The number of people contacting the clinic doubled, going from 7 to 15 in just one month.
• The website became much better at turning visitors into leads: Before, only about 2 out of 100 visitors would reach out – now, more than 7 out of 100 do.
• Getting each new potential patient became much cheaper: The cost went down from $285 to just $89 per lead, which is far less than the industry average of $150.

These dramatic improvements demonstrate the power of updating outdated landing pages with modern, conversion-optimized designs. Updated, optimized landing pages can have a significant impact on key performance metrics in healthcare PPC campaigns. 

Elevate Your Practice with 911±ŹÁÏ’s Expertise in Landing Pages and Paid Ads

Creating high-converting landing pages and running effective paid ad campaigns are crucial components of a successful healthcare marketing strategy. By focusing on targeted keywords, compelling ad copy, and well-designed landing pages that address your potential patients’ needs, you can significantly increase your conversion rates and grow your practice.

At 911±ŹÁÏ, we specialize in creating customized marketing solutions for healthcare providers. Our team of experts can help you develop and implement a comprehensive strategy that includes optimized landing pages and targeted paid ad campaigns to drive more qualified leads to your practice.

Ready to take your healthcare marketing to the next level? Contact the team at 911±ŹÁÏ to learn how we can help you create landing pages that convert and implement paid ad campaigns that deliver results.

Listen to Glacial’s Recent Podcast Episode All About Digital Ad Success With Landing Pages

An easy-to-use online scheduling system enables healthcare providers to meet patients where they already are: online. , the Patient Revenue Platform for high-growth practices, provides online scheduling software to make it easy for patients to book appointments 24/7. The benefits for healthcare organizations are immense. 

Online scheduling can reduce no-shows, improve scheduling efficiency and accuracy, and allow staff to focus less on booking appointments and more on patient care. With increasingly tech-savvy patient populations and current staffing shortages across healthcare practices — online scheduling fills the gap, improving access while reducing administrative burdens.

Marketing this convenient option to current and potential patients will be crucial for encouraging adoption and bringing in more patients. As a digital marketing agency, 911±ŹÁÏ understands the importance of an online presence and the utilization of digital tools for engagement. Promoting these digital scheduling options enhances patient convenience and access to care.

To drive this success, healthcare providers must promote their online scheduling systems to boost awareness and usage. Keep reading to learn five ways to promote patient usage of online scheduling tools!

1. Enable Online Scheduling Directly Through Your Website

Optimizing your practice website for the patient scheduling experience is critical. When visiting your website, you want new and existing patients not only to want to book appointments with you but to be able to do so seamlessly. 

To help accomplish this, add a prominent “Schedule Now” button to your website in a bright, brand color, separate from your primary website palette. Link this button to your user-friendly . Make sure this button remains visible on-screen even during scrolling so that it is present no matter where each visitor is on the page.

You can also create a homepage banner that specifically highlights online scheduling availability. Use eye-catching imagery and language like “Online Scheduling Now Available” while linking to your booking page, taking patients directly to your . Additionally, ensure all promotional links and ads directing patients to schedule go straight to this page.

Optimizing your website for easy patient self-scheduling improves convenience and access for all current and potential patients who may visit your website.

Quick access allows seamless follow-through when a patient decides to book an appointment. When your site provides a smooth self-service scheduling experience, you increase new patient acquisition simply through the convenience of online booking. It’s far easier for patients than calling your office, waiting on hold, or being limited to standard business hours. 

When potential patients come across your practice when searching for care, with a simple click-of-a-button way to book an appointment, you increase your chances of that patient booking an appointment rather than looking elsewhere. Access and convenience are key.

Promoting your online patient scheduling software is another way to boost awareness of this easy option. The around-the-clock availability brings convenience and accessibility that increases bookings.

2. Promote Online Scheduling on Your Social Media Channels

Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are great platforms to target both new and existing patients. Regular social media posts can build awareness of your online scheduling capabilities and keep your practice top-of-mind for booking follow-up appointments.

On some platforms, such as Facebook or LinkedIn, you can update your header image by highlighting “Online Scheduling Now Available.” Using visuals like a calendar icon next to the messaging can further emphasize the convenience of online appointment booking like this:

You can also pin a post to the top of your profile that states “Now Scheduling Appointments” with eye-catching imagery for social sites such as Instagram and Facebook:

When you are planning social media content, think about how to pivot posts to include a link to your scheduling page. Weaving mentions of your simple appointment booking process into relevant content keeps the option top of mind for your audience and provides seamless access points to schedule.

Promoting your scheduling capabilities on social media expands your reach to both new and existing audiences, driving more online bookings and helping your practice see more patients. It’s important to remember to keep your messaging consistent across all social channels. 

You may also want to consider using relevant hashtags and tag your location to increase visibility. Your social media activities should work cohesively to showcase online scheduling as an accessible, seamless option for patients to connect with your care.

3. Utilize Your Google Business Profile

When patients are actively searching for care, you want your practice to appear as an option that offers easy and immediate booking. Research shows that are booked after business hours, and  prefer online booking. If your practice doesn’t provide a seamless way for them to schedule through an online search, patients may look elsewhere or postpone their visits rather than wait on hold or for the next business day when calling your practice.

 reported that they’d skipped doctor appointments altogether due to challenges associated with scheduling, including being directed to schedule appointments via a traditional phone call. Make your patient scheduling platform visible and accessible to ensure that you are capturing patients who prefer a more streamlined scheduling method.

Google Business Profile

A strong Google Business Profile (GBP) can help you accomplish this goal. Having this presence is essential as an overwhelming majority of consumers search for local businesses and healthcare providers on Google. A GBP helps patients find and learn about your practice, acting as a lead-generation tool to drive online scheduling.

It’s essential to optimize your profile to rank highly when prospective patients search for doctors in a specific specialty and location. Manage your online reputation carefully, as positive Google reviews can be a significant component of attracting new patients. 

Consider also adding quality photos and video content on your GBP to help attract these new patients. Your GBP is another way to prominently highlight your “Schedule Now” booking option. 

For multi-location practices, you can add a unique booking link to each location’s GBP. It’s also important to ensure your booking link is prominently displayed on your GBP’s landing page. 

For multi-location practices, this would be your locations page. Make sure you make your Preferred Booking link the main call-to-action on your GBP pages so patients can see it immediately and easily book appointments with you. 

Using your Preferred Booking partner’s link rather than a generic booking page ensures you get credit for all bookings driven through your GBP.

Pay-Per-Click Campaigns

You can further amplify your presence through Google Ads pay-per-click campaigns. Run geo-targeted ads with strategic keywords and optimized copy to drive traffic directly to your scheduling page. That way, when patients find your ad, they can conveniently book an appointment on the spot rather than abandoning their search. 

Paid campaigns expand your reach to searching patients who may not have been to your website before or be aware of your practice in general. These ad campaigns can be your key to getting these potential patients to your online website, where they can easily book when they are ready to schedule.

4. Encourage Online Scheduling Via Appointment Reminders & Recalls 

There are numerous ways to boost online booking using your  and other methods. For example, add a line to your reminder cards stating: “Schedule an appointment online 24/7”. 

Also, consider including a QR code that patients can quickly scan to be taken directly to your patient scheduling platform for easy booking. This QR code can also be added to your email signature, posted on the patient portal, or added to other reminder cards or physical documents that you provide to patients. 

For email and text recall messages, embed a clickable link to your scheduling page as well. A recall helps patients keep your practice top-of-mind when it comes time to book their next annual appointment or wellcare visit. With a scheduling link added to these recall messages, you provide patients with a click-of-a-button way to get on your schedule while their healthcare needs are top of mind. 

When you incorporate online booking prompts through patient communications across multiple touchpoints, you will drive increased engagement with your convenient scheduling system.

5. Try Text and Email Campaigns

Email and text messaging provide affordable and effective channels to directly promote your online scheduling capabilities to patients. Considering say “Ease of Access” heavily influences their choice of a healthcare provider, an email or text campaign can help you get in front of your patients in a way that they’re familiar with. 

Use this option to promote your digital scheduling tool or other practice promotions, and add links that enable these patients to get on your schedule in seconds. Here are a few ways you can use these channels to build awareness of your online scheduling capabilities and boost bookings:

For New Patients

For new patients, send informative emails or text content like infographics and include a prominent link to schedule appointments online. Provide relevant resources on topics that resonate with your specialties, such as back pain relief tips for work-from-homers.

For Existing Patients

For existing patients, create customized email campaigns recommending self-service scheduling. Announce the launch of online booking via text message as well, promoting the speed and simplicity of booking digitally. 

Consider including direct scheduling links in your messages. You can also set up automated appointment recall cadences via text to encourage patients to book their next visit.

Email and text campaigns build awareness of your online booking capabilities and make it easy for patients to connect to your practice. 

Boost Online Scheduling Usage & See More Patients!

Meeting patients where they already are digitally improves access to care and scheduling efficiency. With convenient self-service scheduling, you can enhance patient experience, improve scheduling accuracy, and boost patient acquisition! It all starts with the right approach.

The future of healthcare is digital. Let’s work together to promote patient usage of online booking for a more convenient and accessible experience. Schedule a  now, or contact the team at 911±ŹÁÏ to learn more about adopting online scheduling and helping your practice succeed with digital marketing!

As AI becomes more popular, you may assume it is the best option, especially when running paid search ads. However, as with any tool, Machine Learning from Google isn‘t meant to be used exclusively. Keep reading to learn why Machine Learning and AI will only get you so far with Google!

What is Google’s Machine Learning Tool?

Google’s AI-based Machine Learning is a wonderful tool. It has the ability to look at a wide range of Signals – things like time of day, previous searches, browsing habits, location, and more to determine when and where to serve ads for the maximum chance of success. 

Google is constantly giving advertisers new tools to leverage Machine Learning: Bidding methods like “Maximize Conversions”, keyword types like the revamped “Broad Match”, ad types like “Responsive Search/Display Ads” and even entire campaigns, such as the brand new “Performance Max”.

Machine Learning Only Gets You So Far

However, as good as it can be, it’s not perfect. Max Conversion keyword costs can skyrocket out of the blue, campaigns like Performance Max give advertisers almost no control over what keywords they can use, allowing users to see the ads inadvertently, and broad match keywords can make very wild assumptions as to what someone’s intent is. 

Google’s at its best when you meet it in the middle: Strict, human-curated keyword lists and ad copy, regular monitoring of performance, and frequently human-driven optimization. Google can do what it excels at: Target people based on their interests and habits, serve ads at the best times and pair the best ad copy for the best keywords. 

Machine Learning has come a long way in a few short years. Google attempts to shoe-horn it wherever it’ll fit (or even when it won’t) and it’s on the advertiser to understand how it works, why it works, and when it’s appropriate to use it.

Google is Ending Support for Expanded Text Ads

Google is ending support for Expanded Text Ads on June 30th, which had three set headlines and two set descriptions. What was put there was what people saw when they saw the ad. With Expanded Text Ads, Google never changed the order that you specified.

Now, Google is moving to make Responsive Search Ads the only ad option for Search Campaigns. With Responsive Search Ads, you provide Google with up to 15 headlines and 4 longer descriptions. Once you’ve input these, Google’s algorithm determines the best combination and placement of those headlines.

With this update, Google is still only showing three headlines and two descriptions at once. However, it is optimizing what people see to ensure optimal results and leads. Not to worry if you’re a Glacial client though, because we’re already automatically optimizing all ads and using Responsive Search Ads.

You Won’t Get the Best Results if You Only Rely on Google’s AI

Google is constantly learning, changing, and adapting. When it comes to your ads, this means it’s always testing headlines, copy, combinations of descriptions of ad copy, and even the time of day that’s best to show your ads.

As a result, Google is always testing and refining for the best possible performance based on your set account goals. This includes optimizing for lead generation, increased visibility for traffic, and performance.   

Regardless of the AI capabilities and Google’s ability to optimize campaigns,  if you’re coming up with poor quality descriptions and headlines that don’t grab people, it won’t help. Google ranks its quality score from poor to excellent. 

If your ad is lower than excellent, then your ad won’t receive the same amount of views, visibility, and clicks. You need an expert that understands your campaign goals beyond what Google understands for AI. 

This is the only way to ensure that your campaigns perform the way you want them to. If you want to see leads and low-cost conversions, AI will only get you so far. 

Although it’s tempting to completely rely on Google’s capabilities, you can’t just set it and forget it. Get the conversions and results you want by choosing the experts at 911±ŹÁÏ. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you with your paid search needs!

A lot has changed because of COVID-19 and we have the paid search data to prove it. Keep reading for part 2 of our COVID-19 Paid Search Trends!

Here’s something you already know: COVID-19 has had major impacts on businesses large and small, in particular those of you who do elective surgery. Here’s something you may not know: Doors being closed has not prevented people from seeking care online. 

For many practices, the question has not been “should I advertise?”, it’s been “can I advertise?”. Regardless of whether or not you’ve been able, our hope is that you find the below data useful and informative. 

This data compiles information from all of our Google Ad Search campaigns that have been active for the duration of the crisis, with the dates ranging from February 1st up until April 30th. 

LASIK Search Results

Let’s start with LASIK – the bread and butter of many Google Search campaigns. LASIK is generally a strong performer even in down months, so it’s been very interesting to watch the changes in performance over the last few months. 

Below we see Clicks (blue) versus Click-Through Rate (red). Not surprisingly, clicks for LASIK related searches dropped and continue to drop. We’ve seen clicks start to increase towards the end of April, but generally have been massively impacted by the pandemic. 

CTR, on the other hand, has seen increases month over month. More on this further below.

Clicks and CTR are fun and all, but who really cares about those when you can look at conversions? In the chart below, we have Conversion Rate (blue) versus Cost Per Conversion (red).

We saw a jump from a 15% average conversion rate and a $107 average cost in February to a 19% conversion rate and a $69 cost in April. Some practices even saw more leads than before, despite far fewer clicks. These are really extraordinary improvements that can be explained by a few different factors:

• Limited to no competition. Many practices shut down their campaigns during this period, putting the practices that remained active in their markets in control. Not only did this result in cheaper click costs, but it also reduced the options people had to choose from. This helps explain both the higher CTRs and the improved conversion numbers. 
• The right demographic: The LASIK demographic is largely unafraid of the virus and is more bored than ever. 

Have questions about paid search? Check out our video below for answers to some common questions about how it works!

Cataract Search Results

Now, let’s talk about Cataract. In the chart below you’ll see a very similar trend to LASIK on Clicks (blue) versus CTR (red). Unlike LASIK however, we have not really seen any major improvements in terms of clicks over the last few weeks, but they are starting to even out.

On conversions (below), though their paths are similar, the change was far less dramatic than what we saw with LASIK. Conversion Rate (blue) only saw an improvement of about 2% total, while cost per lead dropped about $19. We have a few thoughts as to why this may be:

• The Cataract demographic: COVID-19 has impacted this demographic the most, and we suspect this has had the largest role in why clicks have both dropped dramatically and have yet to start recovering. 
• The competition: Cataract Search campaigns already had minimal competition in many markets, so even if a few competing advertisers dropped out, it would have a minor impact on overall costs.

We will continue to monitor these trends and post updates regularly, though it feels like every day we take a small step closer to a normal life. Many practices are ramping up to open their doors very soon, with others still weeks or more away and we anticipate the trends changing dramatically over the course of the month. 

As it stands now if you’re able to continue or start advertising, LASIK is still a safe bet, especially while many practices continue to hold off on ads. You can currently get a lot more ‘bang for your buck’ than you would have in February, so lower budgets can still succeed. 

We are less enthusiastic about Cataract given the stagnant trends over the last few weeks, but as you saw, even within that demographic our campaign performance improved. 

Nobody can predict what will come next with COVID-19. It’s somewhat humbling to know that everyone in the world is dealing with the same issues, and we’re all working together to make things as good as we can. 

If you’re considering re-starting or even starting a campaign, our paid search team at Glacial is happy to discuss your options from low-cost branding campaigns to gain some exposure or Search Ad campaigns to boost lead generation.

Contact your client manager to discuss how paid search can help your practice as we navigate a post-COVID world! 

COVID-19 has changed a lot of things as people work from home, social distance, and practices struggle to find new ways to communicate with patients during uncertain times. Although it feels uncertain, now is not the time to suspend services like PPC and Facebook advertising.

Keep reading for a breakdown of our data and how campaigns are performing right now!

Google Advertising

Our Google Ads team has been keeping a close eye on how the outbreak of COVID-19 has impacted lead generation and ad engagement. Starting on March 1st, our team has been tracking the overall average performance of our campaigns and comparing them to the previous period.

The numbers we’ve seen so far paint a positive picture for those who are able to continue their Search campaigns with Google. We plan to update these weekly to keep track of the latest trends to keep you informed.

In all cases, traffic has dropped, but conversion rates have increased substantially. This simply shows that although overall traffic and impressions for services are reduced, the quality of the traffic is increased. Many practices are currently seeing increased Search leads as a result.

Interestingly, this is in sharp contrast to Facebook, which has seen large increases for Ad-based traffic over the past few weeks.

LASIK

March 11-20 (Compared to March 1-10)

LASIK, maybe unsurprisingly, had the biggest jump with a 109% increase in conversions. This makes sense when we consider that the LASIK demographic is staying/working at home, and finding things to do to fill their time.

• 78% increase in conversion rate
• 18% increase in total conversions
• 6.5% reduction in cost per conversion
• 31% reduction in clicks
• 20% reduction in impressions

Update (3/21-3/27):

The LASIK numbers continue to improve! Even as traffic drops, both total conversions and conversion rates have consistently improved over the last few days.

If you can manage it, these numbers show there is still plenty of merit in promoting your LASIK practice. If you’re looking for ideas, let us know and we’ll be happy to talk.

• 3.5% increase in conversion rate
• 13% increase in total conversions
• 18% reduction in cost per conversion
• 13% increase in clicks
• 9.5% reduction in impressions

Cataract

March 11-20 (Compared to March 1-10)
Cataract advertising has seen a moderate increase in conversions at 45%. Our specialists were surprised to see an increase at all here, given that this is the demographic most impacted by COVID-19.

Although, like the LASIK demographic, this could be about future planning during forced downtime.

• 81% increase in conversion rate
• 109% increase in total conversions
• 26% reduction in cost per conversion
• 17% reduction in clicks
• 6% reduction in impressions

Update (3/21-3/27):

We’re starting to see a small drop in performance for cataract surgery campaigns. Considering how strong the previous period was, these drops are not dramatic but do indicate a slow decline in people seeking out cataract expertise.

Overall, the numbers are still up over pre-pandemic numbers. It will be interesting to see how they fare over the next few weeks.

• 11% reduction in conversion rate
• 26% reduction in total conversions
• 13% increase in cost per conversion
• 17% reduction in clicks
• 25% increase in impressions

Eye Care

March 11-20 (Compared to March 1-10)

Eye Care (‘Eye Glasses/Eye Exams, etc) saw conversion increases of 57% in this period. According to Spenser Pontbriand, Director of Search Services, this is the least surprising increase.

People have been rushing to get their appointments taken care of or order their contact lenses, etc. before practice closures hit home. If your practice offers online ordering for eye care supplies, there is ample opportunity to reach this audience using paid search.

• 45% increase in conversion rate
• 45% increase in total conversions
• 7% reduction in cost per conversion
• 7% reduction in clicks
• 11% reduction in impressions

Update (3/21-3/27):

There have been moderate drops across the board for general eye care terms this week. Unlike surgical procedures where people could simply be doing future research, we’re starting to see a reduction in the individuals seeking out more basic eye care needs.

If you offer an online store, there is still a huge opportunity for you here. Likewise, if you’re still open for emergencies, this may be worth promoting so people know where to find you when it really counts. Otherwise, this may be one to pull for now if you’re looking to save on advertising spend.

• 21% reduction in conversion rate
• 66% reduction in total conversions
• 40% increase in cost per conversion
• 57% reduction in clicks
• 46% reduction in impressions

What This Means For Your Practice

In summary, generally, we have seen a positive increase where it counts from the COVID-19 outbreak for those continuing to advertise their services using Google Ads. Although overall ad traffic is down, it seems those conducting eye care related searches are high intent users that are more likely to convert.

Our advice? Don’t withdraw your Google Ad marketing if possible. If you are looking to cut spending, we are happy to provide advice on ways to adjust your budget or look at lower-cost campaign types.

With other advertisers pulling their marketing, your business could gain more impression share alongside cheaper click costs.

It’s important to have a plan in place for scheduling appointments and consults with these leads once business restrictions are lifted, and your practice will be grateful to have a back-log of prospective patients ready to be booked.