Google Ads: Turning Clicks into Clients with John Sanders | GP 299

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How do Google Ads and SEO actually work together to grow your private practice? What needs to be in place before you start spending money on ads? How can you turn more clicks into real clients, without wasting your marketing budget?

In this podcast episode, Brandon Shurn speaks about how to make Google Ads work for your practice with John Sanders. 

Podcast Sponsor: Headway

I want to thank Headway for sponsoring this episode. If you run a group practice, you know that accepting insurance can be overwhelming. Between credentialing, billing, and payroll, the admin side can easily take over your week.

Headway was built to help you handle this — and they’re the only platform designed specifically for in-network group practices. Whether you’re growing your team or running an established practice, Headway makes the business side easier with faster credentialing, higher per-session rates, and biweekly payments your team can count on. They work with therapy, psychiatric, and hybrid groups — and there are no subscription fees. Just the support you need to run your practice with ease.

Run your best group practice with Headway — trusted by thousands of group practice leaders to simplify insurance admin and reach more people through in-network care.

Curious how Headway can work for you? 

Meet John Sanders

• Google Ads and SEO

• What to get right before using Google Ads

• Google Ads best practices

• Final takeaways for listeners 

Google Ads and SEO

Your practice marketing efforts often benefit most from a diverse strategy, one that includes digital marketing, keyword-optimized websites, and networking with the people and businesses in your community. 

Real-life social networking and digital marketing are not meant to replace each other, but they provide additional support to your overall marketing efforts. Making use of both means that you are covering all your bases appropriately.

When it comes to Google Ads and SEO, there is some overlap. Google Ads helps boost your business in search pages, and SEO helps Google and prospective clients to find you more easily with keyword searches. 

A lot of the things that you’re doing for SEO will also help your paid ads, and vice versa. (John Sanders)

What to get right before using Google Ads

Before you start with Google Ads, these are the essentials that you should have in place: 

1 – A good, SEO-ready website 

2 – A strong onboard process ready to catch and receive new clients

There’s nothing as disheartening for us as going into the Google Ads account and seeing clients are getting a lot of leads … But they have converted almost none of them into clients because it seems like there’s something wrong in their onboarding process. (John Sanders)

If you want to make sure that your onboarding process is strong, consider the following: 

• Make the contact page easy to navigate for clients. Don’t put barriers between the client and booking their first session with you.

Your contact [page] should be easy to understand; it shouldn’t have a lot of fields in it. But one big mistake I see a lot of … [clinicians] make is they’re asking for insurance information: who’s your employer, asking for a credit card ahead of time. That is probably the number one field that will [turn] people off immediately. (John Sanders)

• Make the contact form only have the essential information: name, email, and what’s your concern. Don’t make the contact form the intake form. 
• Don’t let your therapists handle the intake. Consider hiring an intake coordinator and making the process standardized. 

Google Ads best practices

When you start using Google Ads and you notice that the leads are coming in, here are some best practices that you can adopt to ensure that you have made every buck spent on them worth it: 

• Once a filled-out contact form is submitted, ensure that either you, your receptionist, or your intake coordinator gets back to them as fast as possible, at least within one business day. 

If someone has filled out a form and you get back to them five days later, they have probably filled out other forms on a number of other therapist websites, and somebody’s gotten back to them, and you have lost that person. (John Sanders)

• Hire an intake coordinator if you need extra hands on deck to respond to prospective clients. 
• Answer every call, and hire someone to answer calls for you, rather than having clients leave voicemails, since by that point, clients often end up looking for someone else. 

Final takeaways for listeners 

Make sure that your marketing dollars are returning the investment in value and converted clients. If something isn’t working, stop doing it and try something new. 

Useful Links:

Visit RevKey and connect on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Curious how Headway can work for you? 

Check out these additional resources:

• How Niching Can Grow Your Practice with Dr. Christen Mullane | GP 298
• Practice of the Practice Network
• Group Practice Launch
• Group Practice Boss: www.practiceofthepractice.com/grouppracticeboss $149 a month
• PoP Group Practice Owners Facebook Group
• Free resources to help you start, grow, and scale
• Work with us
• Practice of the Practice Network 

Meet Prof. Brandon Shurn

Brandon Shurn, Ph.D., LCPC, LMHC, AFC®, NCC, is a licensed clinical professional counselor and the founder of EmPower Me Holistic Counseling, a fully virtual Maryland-based practice. He’s also a full-time professor in Seattle University’s online Clinical Mental Health Counseling program. With extensive experience launching and directing university training clinics, Brandon now focuses on helping therapists design and grow impactful, sustainable practices.

Outside of his work, he enjoys fitness, yoga, Wing Chun, golf, reading, and spending time with his family and dogs.

Visit Empower Me Counseling, and connect with Brandon on Instagram and LinkedIn. Email him at: [email protected]