Preface
Fertility is an issue that affects many people, but is not necessarily something that everyone who is affected is comfortable talking about with others. Often times, these types of conversations are left for the closest members of a family. Why does this matter when it comes to a multi-physician fertility practice’s digital marketing strategy? This aspect common in the field of fertility is relevant because often times potential patients will either seek the recommendations of their closest confidantes or they will turn to an Internet search in order to receive recommendations while maintaining anonymity. The latter of which directly concerns the digital marketing service of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or Search Marketing.
Starting Point
Today’s Business has been conducting a SEM campaign for a multi-physician fertility practice for over a year with very good success. However, January 2017 was an especially productive month for the SEM campaign. The stats included in this case study showcase that successful month.
SEM is an important part of digital strategy for any company, but can be vital to a multi-physician fertility practice. In a tough business climate for medical practices, having the practice show up for certain keywords related to the field of medicine can be invaluable to getting new patients over another competitor. Additionally, because of the aforementioned sensitivity of the subject of fertility, the anonymity of an online search could actually become more valuable than it already is. This is the advantage Today’s Business has been able to give this multi-physician fertility practice.
The goals of this SEM campaign are pretty familiar, but no less important. The emphasis is placed on increasing traffic to the site based on different keyword searches and, ideally, turning that traffic into conversions and sales. Conversions in this case come in the form of contact forms submitted, Google AdWord calls, and calls from call extensions.
Results
Now that the aim of the SEM campaign has been established, it is now important to analyze the results and gauge just how successful the campaign has been. As mentioned, the following stats are a snapshot from one month (January 2017) of the campaign. Starting from a high-level view, the below is an overall summary of the results:
Overall Summary
Contact Forms: 10
Google AdWord Calls: 14
Calls from call extensions: 10
Spend: $2,560.50
Clicks: 351
CTR: 3.78%
Avg. CPC: $7.29
Bounce Rate: 69.43%
Cost Per Conversion: $75.31
While all these figures provide important context for how the campaign performed, there are a few to hone in on. The first group of stats that deserve attention are the conversions, which are outlined first in the data set. Obviously, conversions are the lifeblood of SEM and digital marketing in general; making it unsurprising these stats are some of the more important ones listed.
In January 2017, this multi-physician fertility practice had 10 contact form submissions, 14 Google AdWord Calls, and 10 calls from call extensions, totaling 34 conversions. Thirty-four conversions in one month is an impressive figure and could certainly lead to a few new patients. This is especially noteworthy because a lead in In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) could yield the practice around $8,000. If one of those conversions leads to an IVF session, the ad spend has been covered almost four times over! This is an incredible potential coup for a practice.
Another number to look at is the average cost-per-click (CPC). Overall, the multi-physician fertility practice averaged $7.29/click. While this may seem a little high, it is actually a pretty good figure for the medical industry. The industry tends to skew toward a higher CPC, but getting qualified conversions can lead to a high return on ad spend (ROAS).
The high-level view is useful for dissecting the SEM campaign as a whole, but more details can be discerned by drilling down to 3 campaigns run within the overall SEM campaign. Below are the results of the “IVF”, “Fertility/Infertility”, and “Egg” campaigns:
3 Campaigns
IVF
- Clicks: 124
- CTR: 4.39%
- Avg. CPC: $7.79
- Cost Per Conversion: $80.52
- Conversions: 12
Fertility/Infertility
- Clicks: 178
- CTR: 3.47%
- Avg. CPC: $7.84
- Cost Per Conversion: $63.42
- Conversions: 22
Egg
- Clicks: 49
- CTR: 3.71%
- CPC: $4.06
These three campaigns are named as such because those are the keywords related to fertility Today’s Business focused on. For example, if someone searched “IVF”, then this multi-physician fertility practice was likely to show up in paid results.
With this breakdown via keyword campaign, it can be seen where the conversions produced came from. This gives Today’s Business as well as the practice insight into what works as far as words that get people to the site. Additionally, the clicks and average CPC are also important for seeing how many users clicked and what the cost-per-click came out to. Again, these CPCs seem high, but are actually good for the industry. Basically, adding one new patient who undergoes any treatments per month means the practice is paying pennies-on-the-dollar for patient acquisition. This is the real, quantifiable value of SEM.
Conclusion
In summation, Today’s Business has provided SEM services for this multi-physician fertility practice for over a year with great success. The numbers have continued to steadily improve, culminating in an ultra-successful January 2017. The value of this service, in general, and for medical practices is clearly on display with the 34 total conversions Today’s Business got this practice last month. When the services (procedures) being sold are expensive, just a handful of conversions could become incredibly lucrative. SEM is an exciting tool for medical practices to utilize in order to get a leg up in an extremely competitive space.