In one of our previous posts, we explained why Google Ads is the best marketing channel for therapists and coaches and a powerful tool that mental health professionals can turn into lead-generation machines for their practices. However, you may still have some doubts and questions about running Google Ads campaigns for your therapy practice.
So, we decided to put them together and provide specific and exhausting answers to them. Hopefully, they will help you understand what running Google Ads for your business entails!
Question 1: When should I start a Google Ads/Google Search campaign?
The short answer is when you have at least six or seven regular clients, and you want to grow. Google Ads requires a significant investment, so we don't recommend this strategy if you're just starting out and/or you have a limited marketing budget.
We want to be fully upfront here: Investment in Google Ads starts at around $1,500 per month (this estimate is for the Canadian market; the budget for the US might be a bit lower)
If you cannot afford that kind of investment and keep it running for at least two months before you get your first clients, there are better and cheaper ways to start a therapy practice.
You can read about them in this blog post: How to get first therapy clients.
At this point, you may wonder: Can I start with a smaller budget? The answer is two-fold:
On the one hand, you can lower your budget a little. If you're willing to spend at least $1,300 per month for the ad budget and marketing agency's fee, you should be good to go. Plus, there is a location question involved as well; some locations will be cheaper to run ads.
On the other hand, you need a budget that's sufficient to bring enough traffic to your website. Take a look at these calculations:
The CPC (cost per click) rate can be between $1.50 and $10 (depending on many factors)
With a $30 budget per day (~$1,000 per month), you can get about 10-15 clicks every day.
That gives you from 300 to 500 clicks per month.
And that's the smallest statistically significant number that allows us to:
Optimize your ads in Google Search
Test different approaches, ads, and ad groups
Ensure constant traffic coming to your website every week
All in all, that's the budget required to secure sufficient click-through rates, conversion rates and overall campaign performance for your account.
Question 2: What costs are involved with Google Ads?
In general, there are two major costs you need to consider:
Advertising budget
That's the cost that goes directly to Google for displaying your ads for therapy services. The CPC cost that we mention above is directly associated with your advertising budget. To get it, Google charges your credit card (there are other payment options, but credit card is the most popular one).
Management fee
If you decide to work with a marketing agency for therapists, such as FullyBookedPros, you also have to pay the monthly service fee. For this fee, we set up your Google Ads account and run and optimize it on a daily basis so that you can get the best possible results from Google Ads.
Our service fees start at $499 per month.
What about other costs?
Depending on your situation, there can be involved other costs, such as:
Domain and hosting
Website design and development
Graphic design
Sometimes, though, if you already have a really good website, and there's no need to do anything about it, all you need to pay is the advertising budget and the service fee.
Question 3: How do I know if my Google Ads campaign is effective?
Here, again, the answer is two-fold. First off, we provide all our clients with monthly reports and even more frequent updates, so that you know what's going on with your account.
Secondly, we implement something called conversion tracking. It's a mechanism that involves other Google tools (Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager through Google-provided code snippet), allowing us to track the results of our campaigns, not just views and clicks but also so-called conversions that are bookings from new clients. Typically, such conversions are tracked via a contact form, a booking calendar or a third-party software (e.g., JaneApp or Calendly).
At the end of each month, you get information from us on how many people booked a consultation/therapy with your business thanks to Google Ads (with conversion tracking, we can only track bookings that come from Google Ads, not other channels/sources).
Put these two points together, and you have clear information on what ROI (return on investment) your Google Ads campaign is producing.
Question 4: How many bookings will I get?
The answer to this question depends on your budget, your offer, and the quality of your website. A bidding strategy is also important. Consider this example: Suppose you have a fantastic website and well-optimized ads, but your prices are well over market standard (let's say you charge $400 per session).
In such a situation, you may not reach your ideal clients because they won't be able to afford your therapy services, and therefore, they won't book with you, even if Google Ads did its job, right? You need to understand that Google Ads is not a lonely island; this strategy exists within your business, and it needs to be aligned with other aspects of your therapy practice.
And what about the bid strategy? Google enables you to bid on different things, from conversions to impression share. Implementing the wrong bidding strategy will result in a decrease in your account's performance as well as a higher cost per conversion.
However, if your website is well-designed, has sales-boosting elements, and your offer is attractive to potential clients (e.g., you don't overcharge and have all the necessary qualifications), you can expect around 12 bookings per every $1,000 of your advertising budget.
Please note, however, that it's just an estimation and for the Canadian market only. And don't forget there are other factors at play, especially how many people are looking for services in your area.
Moreover, it may take some time to get to this result, usually after two or three months of setting everything up and optimizing your account.
Question 5: Can't you just set up my Google Ads account and let it run?
We love a stock market reference a lot. Can't you just invest money in the stock market and let it grow? :) You sure can, but likely you won't make much money, right? That's because the stock market is a living thing; there are many factors at play, and you need to monitor what's going on and react to changes.
It's the same story with Google Ads for psychotherapists. Rates change, new players come to the table, old players change their strategies, and performance of relevant keywords and ad groups varies. The search network is also a living thing that requires continuous monitoring.
Plus, it's really important to run tests and experiments to find opportunities to make the most of your campaign. And tests take not just money but time as well.
So, if you want to be sure that your campaign is running at full speed, you need to monitor and optimize it on a regular basis. Take a look at this checklist on our website: There are over 40 optimization tasks we need to perform daily/weekly/monthly to ensure everything is going in the right direction.
Wrapping up: Google Ads for psychotherapists
We hope this short guide answered some of the questions you had about running Google Ads for your business. If you'd like to know more, don't hesitate to reach out! We're happy to provide you with all the details you need to make an informed decision on whether you should start a Google Ads campaign or not.
In short, thanks to Google Ads, you can reach potential clients and specific audience segments (based on your requirements and business profile). Combine this reach with good timing, and you're on the right course to getting many new clients through your door!
Our clients see up to 6% conversion rates, which is fantastic and means that thanks to Google Search, they get new bookings every month, oftentimes, every week.
As part of our service, we will set up all the necessary accounts for you (Google Ads, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager) as well as the campaign itself and conversion tracking. All to ensure that you can reach your target audience effectively!
We invite you to a free and non-binding initial consultation with us!
We look forward to working with you!
Monika & Mike