What I’ve Learned Spending £100,000 on Google Adwords for Therapy Marketing

google adwords therapy marketingYep you read the headline right. Over the past few years I have spent a whopping £100,000 or at today’s exchange rate $131,000 on Google ads. That is one hell of a huge number! Even I was shocked how large the figure was when I looked in my account the other day.  But here is the thing, in just about every month that I have advertised I brought in revenue which not only paid for my therapy marketing on Adwords but brought me in a significant extra income as well.

Now hell yes of course I would rather that £100,000 was in my pocket rather than Google’s but with most of the major search engines if you want to get found you often have to pay. Google is now like a greedy manager taking their cut of my profits but the deal isn’t so bad because my I come out winning as well. Depending on the campaign,  keywords or location I am advertising I am typically seeing a return of three or four times my ad spend. As a whole, it is estimated that most advertisers using the system correctly will make $2 for every dollar they spend. That is like printing money provided you know what you are doing.

So what have I learned from my years advertising on the platform?

A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing

I have worked with a large number of therapists over the years who have tried their hand at Google Adwords and got it badly wrong. This is because the system is a totally complicated beast which changes every five minutes. In fact even my account managers at Google have got it wrong at times. When I look at their accounts and the way that they have been set up I want to weep because invariably they are burning their cash. I have seen issues such as:

  • Local therapists advertising to the wrong area
  • Therapists not using the right keywords
  • Usage of  bad match types
  • Ignorance of negative keywords
  • Incorrect bidding strategies
  • Ignorance of half the system features
  • Not understanding the success metrics of their campaigns
  • General total lack of understanding of how the system works

These are the therapists who will turn around and say to me that Google Adwords doesn’t work for therapy marketing. In fact that isn’t the case it is the therapists who have rushed in set up ads without getting to understand the system first.

Even the Big SEO Agencies Get it Wrong

I’m currently working with a marketing student who turned over their Adwords account to a big SEO agency to run. Surely people with huge expertise in running websites and pay per click advertising would get him some clients? Err nope because the agency may have been great at SEO and PPC but they didn’t understand the therapy market. My client had told them he wanted to specialise in online sessions and was happy to see clients who were based anywhere in the UK. So the ad agency set up a load of keywords and then tumbleweed.

Just one of the myriad of mistakes they made was using the keyword hypnotherapy to advertise. Yes, it may have been partly relevant to my client’s job but here’s the thing people may look for this keyword as follows:

  • “free hypnotherapy”
  • “Paul McKenna hypnotherapy”
  • ” hypnotherapy to control girls”
  • “hypnotherapy definition”

I could go on. Hopefully, you can see the big problem here. None of those keywords is going to earn my client any cash. In addition, there are about 18,000 searches in the UK for this term alone in the UK at an average cost of £2.50 per click. Even on a generous budget per day for advertising you would lose a ton of cash and get no clients which was exactly what happened to my student.  This agency did not have specialist knowledge of the therapy niche and this was one of many mistakes they made so naturally, their campaign for my client was a disaster.

You Have to Spend to Accumulate

I know therapists love the idea of Facebook ads because you can have such a small budget per day that it feels very manageable. The only problem is that most therapists don’t understand Facebook ads very well either. They are cheap because the people being shown your ad have no intention to buy at that moment. This means to really make advertising on the platform work you need to build a funnel, remarket and cultivate the clients. With Adwords, the people typing in specific search queries are looking to hire someone now which means the cost of advertising to that person is higher but your chance of getting a sale is bigger.

The trouble is that as well as therapists setting up their ads incorrectly they also start to panic when they have to spend £50 and have had no calls so they close the account down. When you use pay per click advertising especially systems like Adwords you have to think strategically. For example, there is no point in spending £50 on advertising for clients who are only going to come and see you for one session. It is great for big-ticket programs but very difficult to make pay if you are selling something cheaply because the clicks will cost more than the revenue. Plan your campaigns carefully so you don’t fall into this trap.

PPC Advertising on Google Has a Low Bounce Rate

So what do I mean when I talk about bounce rate? Bounce rate is when a visitor comes across your website and visits one single page and immediately decides your site is boring, irrelevant or slow and heads off immediately elsewhere. Having a low bounce rate shows Google that you are attracting the right visitors to your site meaning it should in theory move it up the rankings for certain keywords.

Traffic to a website tends to be classed in five categories:

  • Social
  • Paid Search
  • Organic Search
  • Direct Traffic
  • Referral Traffic

The traffic with the lowest bounce rates tends to be a referral or organic views but in my case, my next best traffic is Google Adwords with a relatively low bounce rate. That means people who are seeing my ads are coming on to my website and staying because my campaigns have been set up to show them highly relevant website pages.  My worst form of traffic is one from social media. It is relatively obvious why. People on social media are using it to engage with friends and family not to really view my website. So if they do head on over to it from an ad on Facebook or from seeing one of my posts they are less targeted customers. This is another reason why Google Adwords traffic can be superior to Facebook ads.

Diversify and Avoid Using One Marketing Method Alone

As I have mentioned before Adwords, Facebook and SEO are changing every five minutes.  One minute you are sitting pretty at the top of Google and the next you are down on page three. Or perhaps you were spending £2 a click and getting customers but suddenly your local competition gets fiercer and now your costs have doubled. Or even worse Google or Facebook have decided that your website isn’t up to scratch and is making outrageous claims and suddenly won’t allow you to advertise at all.

Whatever you do in your marketing you must never rely on one channel too heavily because one day something will change and those leads will disappear. It is essential that you try and build up a therapy marketing strategy that gets clients in from every direction you can.

  • Facebook
  • Adwords
  • SEO and Organic Rankings
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Therapy Directories
  • Referrals
  • Joint Ventures
  • Networking
  • Email Marketing

Using Google Adwords at the moment is a great way to get in clients in your door but it should not be your only strategy just part of a diversified plan to get revenue in every way possible.

Want to Learn How to Set up a Therapy Marketing Campaign in Google Adwords?

As I’ve mentioned before Adwords is changing all the time and last year the whole platform got a totally new design.  So I thought it was time to refresh my online course to reflect these new changes. At the beginning of the year, I filmed a new series of videos to guide you through setting up campaigns that will convert.  This video course is designed to:

  • Get you regular client leads who are looking to buy your services.
  • Target only clients who are looking for your particular niche expertise.
  • Help you to get to number one on Google.
  • Build search campaigns that are localised.
  • Teach you how to use pay per click advertising to make money.
  • Allow you advertising flexibility so you can respond to customer need instantly.
  • How to get clients even when you are starting off in practice.

Until the end of March, you can claim a 20% discount on the course before the course reverts back to its normal price by using the code ppc2019. This is the system that has made me a considerable return on investment over the years and after spending £100,000 on ads I believe I am one of the most qualified hypnotherapists on the platform in the UK.  Just click the link below if you want to give this amazing marketing channel a try.

google adwords hypnosis marketing

Google Adwords Therapy Marketing

 

Therapy Marketing and Retargeting Plus a Great Case Study

Therapy Marketing and RetargetingWell we are almost half the way through the year already. Time flies when you run your own business and we it won’t be long before the holiday slowdown so I thought I would talk about some techniques to get some customers in through your door before everyone takes a vacation. Today I wanted to write a post about therapy marketing and retargeting. Plus I have a great case study that I wanted to share with you from one of the therapists who used my Google Adwords course to attract new clients in Sydney Australia.

So What is Retargeting?

If you are not using retargeting in your advertising then you are missing a trick. This is such a simple concept yet so many therapists have not even thought about applying the principles to their marketing efforts.

Very simply retargeting means marketing to clients who have already shown an interest in your products or services on your website. Although we can of course retarget to people who may have sent us emails in the past or used us to help them before the term retargeting typically is linked with website visits.

You have probably seen this in action before but have never really thought too much about it so let me explain. Have you ever visited a website before and looked at certain products debating on whether to make a purchase and then found that when you left that website you suddenly saw adverts for the exact product you were looking at? If you use the internet then this is probably happening to you daily. As an example yesterday I was on a website printing off information about getting a new house sign made. Five minutes later on Instagram, an advert was served to me with the exact same sign enticing me to make a purchase.

Therapy marketing and retargeting can do the same for you but only if you set it up correctly otherwise you could be wasting your money.

How The System Works

When a person heads on to your website a portion of JavaScript “Cookie” is placed into the person’s browser. As they continue to surf on other sites this “Cookie” notifies retargeting platforms to serve up ads based on your browsing history.  So if a person comes across my website and spends time looking at my Stop Smoking page I can have ads set up to remind that person of my service. I can then follow them around the web until they eventually pick up the phone to book with me.

Although this is the simple version it is a little more complex to set up to get right but immediately you can see the potential. Remember only a small portion of your visitors will convert into purchasers on their first visit. Retargeting means that you up your chances of success of eventually getting that sale.

The Pitfalls for Therapists Remarketing

Firstly getting retargeting approved on Google Adwords is incredibly difficult because of the sensitive area that we work in. In fact, I bypass that platform for this particular purpose. I can totally see their point as well. Imagine you are browsing a web page about erectile dysfunction and immediately I start serving ads up to the person about my therapy to help solve the problem. Now imagine that this person lives with their family and another member uses the same computer and sees the ads. This means they immediately know something about a family member that should have remained very private.

Facebook however does not have such stringent rules and retargeting therapy is possible providing you serve ads in the correct way. If you purchase my Facebook Ads Course I show you how to use this lucrative form of advertising to get more sales and leads.

There are other problems with remarketing as well. Go back to the example I gave you earlier on about heading to a website offering house signs.  In this instance, I had already purchased the sign a month or so earlier. I was actually revisiting the site to print off the details for one of the builders because he wanted something similar on his house. The company that had served me the advert had actually already made the sale but were still spending money showing ads to me which were now unnecessary.

In addition how many times have you gone to a website and browsed a product to find it is exactly the thing you didn’t want. Now imagine the horrible product following you around the internet day in day out. If anything you are now put off ever visiting that website again as it has a negative impact on you.

The key to remarketing is striking the right balance between serving up ads that directly speak to a person but doing it for just the right amount of time so that it does not become stale.

Retargeting and Shopping Carts

Another useful area where remarketing can be used is when someone heads to your online shop and abandons the cart without finalising the purchase. Statistics show that around 68% of people never finish a purchase on a site which is a huge amount of money being left on the table. Reminding those people of your product can significantly reduce that figure. A perfect example of how therapy marketing and retargeting could make you lots more money especially if you are selling big-ticket items.

General Remarketing

As I said earlier even if you consider it too difficult to set up a remarketing campaign you can retarget customers using a simple email. Where possible you should be collecting emails of visitors to your website as well as people who use your services. If you send them offers, information on new services and general interesting updates you can get additional business. This is a no brainer! Remember it is hard enough to attract customers who spend with you in the first place. Once you have those customers nurture them and provide them with extras that make them want to buy from you again and again.

A Case Study

google adwords hypnosis marketingFinally, I just wanted to share with you a quick case study from a hypnotherapist in Sydney who just finished my Google Adwords for Therapists Online Course. This therapist is a newcomer to hypnotherapy and had just started a therapy business in a highly competitive city. He knew that just waiting for SEO to help him get some business was going to be a long process so he decided to buy my course on paid advertising to see if it could help him get some clients. He was happy to give his permission for the following statistics to be shown to you all.

On his very first attempt at creating ads his results were as follows:

Total Ad Spend – $914.09 (including GST which is 10%).
 
Total Revenue – $2740
Lifetime Customer Value – $342.5 (based on my first 8 clients – I suspect this will go up over time).
% spend on advertising – 33.3%
As you can see the numbers speak for themselves. In a really short space of time, he had attracted 8 new clients and earned back significantly more than he had spent in advertising. He believed that with tweaking he could lower the percentage he spent on advertising. I believe that not only could he substantially lower that figure he could also have significantly increased his revenue by selling programs rather than individual sessions. This is the power of pay per click advertising done correctly.
Just as an interesting aside this means that this therapist made back over twenty times the cost of my course on his first attempt. Not a bad investment especially when similar or even better results can be repeated time and time again.
Of course, not everyone gets this right first time and without guidance, I have seen people make some horrible errors and lose lots of money because they did not understand what they were doing. Those same people believed that Adwords was simply not worth the money when in fact it was them who had the problem rather than the system. Be careful dabbling in something you don’t understand!
Until the next time

Hypnotherapy Marketing and Google Adwords

hypnotherapy google adwordsFor those of you who are unaware Google Adwords is the number one tool used by Google to make money. In fact in 2013 Google made over 50 Billion in advertising revenue mostly because of Adwords. So what does Adwords do? In simple terms when a person uses Google to search for a term they are presented with a long list of websites which link to the information that they want. Google will always try to make the search results relevant and as closely linked to the original question as possible. Depending on the popularity of a keyword the first four results on a laptop and first three results on a mobile device will be adverts. Following this you will see maps results if applicable and only then the organic search results. Understanding how to rank for Pay Per Click adverts as well as organic rankings can make a huge difference to your hypnotherapy marketing.

The top four Adwords results are the result of people paying in order to get found for certain keywords. So if a person in Luton types into the search box “find a hypnotherapist in Luton” the first four results shown as well as some bottom page results will show up hypnotherapists in the area who are paying to advertise their business. The remaining results below the top four will be people who have optimised their websites well enough so that they appear on that coveted front page on Google.

So what does that mean for your Hypnotherapy Marketing? Well number one if your website is not appearing on the front page at all you are in trouble. Most potential customers other than word of mouth referrals will be looking for therapists by using  a search engine. If you don’t appear on that front page those prospects will happily go elsewhere. So at the very least you need to have a sufficiently well optimised website so that it shows highly in those search results. If you want to take your Hypnotherapy Marketing that one step further then you may want to consider using Google Adwords to get further up the search engine rankings.

Google Adwords uses pay per click which means that every time somebody clicks on one of those ads you will be charged a fee. This means that potentially many people can click your advert and not ring or buy your products but it will still cost you money. On the plus side if your cost per click for the words or phrase that you are looking for is very small you can probably live with a number of non converted clicks as the costs will out weigh the revenue you get for selling your treatments or services.

I always recommend that if you don’t understand what you are doing with the system get some help to navigate the complexities of Adwords. This is why I have created a new online course to help you skyrocket your profits by using pay per click advertising in your area. This online course consists of over two hours of video recordings designed to help you start your own profitable localised campaigns allowing you to bring in significant additional revenue to your business.

Hypnotherapy Google Adwords
Hypnotherapy Google Adwords Online CourseGoogle Adwords can be a fantastic tool for hypnotherapists who want to get new customers fast but set up it up incorrectly it can cost you a small fortune. As an illustration of this I once worked in a small Health Centre in the UK who had supposedly paid an SEO professional to set up their Adwords account. In particular this centre advertised on the system for massage clients, acupuncture and osteopathy. It was only when I was talking to the business owner and checked their website that I found that the Adwords account was not well set up. In fact any person in the area who had been looking for a certain form of intimate massage of a sexual nature had ended up on their site. This had cost the business owner a small fortune in pay per click and of course had yielded no clients!

Remember if in doubt then get our online course which can guide you through the process of getting the system working perfectly for you. I know exactly what works for hypnotherapists and what does not so rather than learn by trial and error get it right first time as the cost of our course is significantly less than you could lose with an incorrectly set up campaign. If you need help understanding Google Adwords, organic search results or any other form of Hypnotherapy Marketing I also offer one to one marketing programs. Contact me for more information.

*This blog post has been updated in November 2016 to reflect changes in the Adwords system.