Case study: Google Ads for therapists with low ad budget, Ontario
See some of our success stories, and the results we generate for our clients. We're eager to help you, too!
Average cost per booking: $142.00!
Marketing for therapist in Ontario
Low-budget campaign
INITIAL SITUATION
We wanted to show you this case study because it features something we usually tell our clients NOT to do - a very low advertising budget. The therapy practice that we want to talk about is a virtual-only PP operating all across Ontario.
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We told this client that it will probably take some time for them to see the campaign to actually work and deliver good results. The client was ok with that so we got to work :)
WHAT WE DID
Scope of services:
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Website redesign
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Landing page design
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Google Ads management
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Analytics and conversion tracking setup
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First, we redesigned client's website to make it more attractive to potential clients.
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We designed a separate landing page just for Google Ads purposes.
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We created the campaign from scratch.
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And we've been running and optimizing this campaign ever since.
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What's the difference? We don't want to share every single detail of this campaign, primarily to protect our client's privacy, but we had to optimize all the elements so that they would work with a small budget of less than $1,000 per month.
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This required the following actions:
Narrowing down the scope of the campaign to just one service.
A/B testing the landing page to find the optimal version of it (we changed the LP 3 times in just a few months!).
Narrowing down the campaign's audience (so that no one outside of client's target group would click the ad).
Continually verifying and optimizing campaigns settings, keywords, ad groups, and copy to make it work at full speed.
With a low budget, you need to get every element right. You need to narrow down your campaign and focus ONLY on things and actions that will get you more high-quality traffic and exposure to your ideal target audience.
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Contrary to appearances, low-budget accounts require more work and attention than mid-size budget ones, because you can't really afford to lose even one cent on the wrong traffic. And you still need some time and room for testing, because most likely, you won't get it right on the very first try.
RESULTS
Take a look at the screens from this client's Google Ads account. As you can see, it took them 4 months to get a significant number of conversions. After a few months we were good to go with maximize conversions bidding, and that was a big game changer and first really good month for this client.
But it took us a few months to get there, and it's always the case with low-budget accounts.
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Month 1
It wasn't the full month, as you can see, the campaign started on July 11. The account recorded only 2 conversions in the first 3 weeks.
Month 2
Month two not much has changed, slightly higher CPC, slightly fewer clicks, the same number of conversions, and a very similar pattern - at the beginning of the month.
Month 3
The first good month - 7 conversions, this time, in the second part of the month. CPC goes down, we doubled the number of clicks per month.
Month 4
The number of conversions goes down a little again, but the CPC stays at the same level. We also got some more clicks vs. month three. After October, we switch to maximize conversions to see whether this bidding strategy would get us better results.
Month 5
The best month since we started mid-July. 9 conversions, evenly spread throughout the month. Cost per conversion below $100, meaning that our client makes money after the first full session with a client. We continue to optimize this campaign. Our client decided to increase the budget starting December 2024 :)
CONCLUSIONS
As you can see, it took us 5 months to get to an account that runs a profitable campaign. Most likely, with a larger budget, we would get there sooner, but we cannot underestimate the importance of optimizing the campaign and the landing page regularly.
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A few important conclusions for therapists running ads on a small budget:​
Don't expect to be profitable in the first 3 months of the campaign
Expect fluctuations in the account's performance
Optimize everything you can regularly, both concerning the campaign and the landing page
Increase your budget as quickly as possible, but do so gradually
Do you want us to help you run your Google Ads campaign and/or optimize your website? Let's talk! Feel free to schedule a free consultation with us! We look forward to talking to you :)
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PS. If you run your own account and you'd like to consult your results, feel free to book a 1-hour Google Ads consultation!