If you are looking to boost the SEO for your pharmacy, you might be considering using a pay-per-click service such as Google Ads. This is an effective way to attract more traffic to your website, or to increase footfall in a bricks and mortar store. However, to ensure that you are getting the best value from your investment, it is important to have a solid strategy.
Here are some common mistakes pharmacies make with Google Ads campaigns, and how to avoid them.
Not targeting specifically enough
It can be tempting to keep your choice of keywords as wide as possible in an attempt to broaden your reach, but in fact if your approach is too broad, it will weaken your results. You might get clicks, but many of these will be people who are nowhere near your location, or not looking for the products and services that you offer.
If you have a physical store, use location targeting to attract customers who live within a certain radius. If you have an ecommerce store, target the areas that you want to deliver to. Google uses various factors such as the user’s settings, devices and previous browsing habits to determine who to show the ads to.
You can also use relevant key phrases such as ‘flu jab near me’ or ‘pharmacy in [your town]. Avoid using any words that aren’t directly related to your campaign.
Not optimising ads for mobile devices
It’s estimated that over 60 per cent of Google searches are now carried out on mobile devices, so it’s crucial to optimise your ads and landing pages for devices such as phones and tablets. Make sure that you have a responsive website design for your pharmacy, which displays and functions equally well on mobile devices and desktops.
Check that your booking form, contact details and directions work instantly and are not slow to load or difficult to navigate. Enable location extensions if you have a physical store so that customers can find you on the go.
Not using dedicated landing pages
If all of your ads simply send users to your homepage, then you will have a higher bounce rate, because many people won’t spend the extra time searching for links. Instead, make sure that traffic is sent to a dedicated landing page for the service.
The landing page should be well-written, with a punchy headline, clear body copy about the product or service, a section to address any common queries, and have a concise call to action that leads directly to the next steps.
Not tracking conversions
If you don’t use an analytics tool to track conversions, then you won’t know how effectively the ad campaign is working. Track key actions such as phone calls, contact form submissions, and bookings, and review the data regularly so you can decide how much budget to continue spending on the PPC campaign.