As a subscriber to my Blog, you know that I extol the virtues of organic strategies that increase the visibility of your practice website. These search engine optimization techniques (SEO) work well in most communities and will generate new patient telephone calls from within your local area. But in extremely competitive and crowded geographic areas – whether it be Boston or Manhattan or Orlando – organic visibility is difficult to achieve. In this kind of Internet environment, a well designed Google AdWords campaign (PPC) might be worth your consideration.

Create a compelling offer. “Buy three implants and get the fourth for free” is NOT what most people are searching for. Think about who you are and who you are hoping to attract and build your campaign around an offer that would generate new business. And for sure you need to be aware of what your competition is doing. It doesn’t do any good to offer an implant for $4500 when a similar offer right next to yours is advertising the same implant for $3000.

Your goal is to get patients and not clicks. If the reach of your campaign is too broad, many people who click on the ad will not be realistic candidates to drive to your practice. So it is critical to keep the geography tight in order to increase conversion.

Your ad copy must stand out. Your ad is going to appear next to at least three competitors at the top of the search results page. So your message must be inventive and creative and appealing in order to get what you’re hoping for – prospective interested patients calling your office.

The landing page must be extraordinary. Video and photos are a must, and keep the written paragraphs that describe the procedure short and succinct. When someone clicks on your ad, they will be ported to that specific landing page on your website. That page must be promotional as well as informative in order to compel that patient to call. You absolutely need to include a call tracking telephone number and forms that make it easy for a visitor to this page to request an appointment.

Let everyone on your team know about the campaign. As basic as this sounds, there is nothing worse than having someone answer the phone who doesn’t know about the details of the promotion. And be sure to respond to forms that come in from your offer within 30 minutes in order to significantly increase conversion rates.

Determining the proper budget. Your AdWords budget needs to be adequate to achieve the desired results. A good rule of thumb is to expect at least four dollars in production for every dollar you spend running a pay per click campaign.

I strongly believe that the average dental office does not have the time or the expertise to manage a successful Google AdWords campaign. You need help from experts who do this for a living. My friends at TNT have shared some truly amazing data with me on return on investment from campaigns they have designed and administered. If you are located in a competitive marketplace and are trying to attract patients for specific procedures, I suggest you call Tim Healy at 214-680-1270. You have nothing to lose. The call is free.

Call me the eternal optimist, but I have always felt that a dental practice providing great clinical treatment supported by exquisite consistent customer service could do well in any town in America. Recently I am seeing and hearing a lot of angst and anger from my clients that is making me question whether my optimism can still be justified. This unease has been building gradually over the last five years for four major reasons.

• Doctors are coming to grips with and reacting to the competition from the expansion of corporate dentistry into their neighborhoods. Private equity firms are making significantly large investments in corporate dentistry companies providing them the capital for the aggressive acquisition of successful private practices.

• Dental insurance carriers are denying more and more necessary treatment and requiring doctors to jump through hoops to get paid. It is becoming an exhausting fight.

• Many insurance carriers will no longer allow their in-network providers to balance bill patients up to the published office fee for procedures once that patient has exceeded their annual maximum benefit.

• Insurance fees are definitely going in the wrong direction. Delta Dental – the largest dental insurance company by far- is eliminating in many states their Premier fee schedules and requiring in-network providers to accept insultingly low fees that are often 30-40% less than usual and customary fees. PPO dominance is becoming the norm.

I sense we are fast approaching a tipping point. It is getting closer to decision time.  In this current environment, only the courageous and the smart and the truly committed dentists will be able to continue to practice comprehensive, high-tech quality dentistry while earning a paycheck commensurate with their talent and experience, years of schooling, investment in technology and on-going continuing education.

Can you do this while accepting PPO fees? I don’t think so. Can you do this understanding and complying with the restraints of remaining an in-network provider? In my opinion, only with great difficulty. Thus I think you will need to take the steps to create the impression in the minds of your patients that you and your staff are worth the additional costs to continue to stay with your practice and receive the quality treatment they deserve. That is the challenge, and I welcome the opportunity to discuss my ideas on how to make this happen.