After managing over 50 medical practice campaigns across Australia, we have identified a clear pattern. The practices that fail share the same mistakes, and the top performers share the same principles.
Let’s break it down.
Mistake #1: Treating Google Ads Like a Billboard
A billboard is passive. Google Ads is a conversation. When a patient types “best orthodontist Brisbane CBD,” they are actively seeking a solution. Your ad is not just an impression, it is a response to intent.
Yet 87% of the campaigns we have audited treat their ads like digital billboards:
- Generic copy (“Quality dental care for the whole family”)
- No specific call to action
- Landing pages that are just the homepage
What top performers do differently: They match ad copy precisely to search intent. A search for “invisible braces cost Brisbane” gets an ad about transparent aligner pricing with a dedicated landing page showing pricing tiers, before and after photos, and a specific booking CTA.
The gap between a 3% and 12% conversion rate often comes down to how precisely your landing page answers the question the patient was asking.
This comes down to attention to detail, which is something medical professionals already excel at.
Mistake #2: Ignoring Negative Keywords
This is the silent budget killer. Without a robust negative keyword list, your ad for “dental implants” shows up for searches like “dental implant complications,” “dental implant removal,” and “cheap dental implants,” none of which represent your ideal patient.
We typically add 200 to 400 negative keywords in the first month of any campaign. That alone can reduce wasted spend by 30 to 40%.
The Framework We Use
| Category | Example Negatives |
|---|---|
| Price shoppers | cheap, free, discount, budget, affordable |
| DIY and Research | how to, tutorial, DIY, at home |
| Careers | jobs, salary, career, training, course |
| Competitors | specific competitor names |
| Irrelevant procedures | procedures you do not offer |
Think of negative keywords as a filter for your ad spend. They ensure your budget is only reaching the patients who are genuinely looking for the services you offer.
Mistake #3: Not Tracking the Right Conversions
Here is where it gets interesting. Most practices track “form submissions” as their primary conversion. But that is only part of the story.
The practices generating 3 to 5x return on ad spend track:
- Phone calls (with call tracking and recording)
- Form submissions (with source attribution)
- Chat interactions (if applicable)
- Booking confirmations (the actual appointment, not just the enquiry)
Without this full picture, you are making decisions with incomplete data. You might pause a keyword that generates phone calls because it does not generate form fills. We have seen practices accidentally kill their best performing keywords this way. More than once.
If you are not sure which KPIs matter most for your practice, that is worth exploring before spending another dollar on ads.
Mistake #4: Set and Forget Campaigns
Google Ads requires ongoing attention and regular optimisation. It is not something you can set up once and leave unattended.
We see this constantly: an agency sets up a campaign, sends a nice report each month, and nobody actually looks at the search term data. Meanwhile, 40% of the budget is going to irrelevant searches.
What regular optimisation looks like:
- Weekly search term reviews
- Fortnightly ad copy testing
- Monthly budget reallocation based on procedure profitability
- Quarterly landing page refreshes
The practices that treat Google Ads as an ongoing process rather than a one time setup consistently outperform those that do not. It is not glamorous work, but it is the work that actually moves the needle.
Mistake #5: Competing on Price Instead of Value
This one is particularly common among general dental practices. When your ad copy leads with “affordable” or “low cost,” you attract price sensitive patients. These patients are more likely to shop around, less likely to accept treatment plans, and far more likely to leave a negative review over a $20 discrepancy.
Top performing practices compete on:
- Expertise and specialisation (“15 years of implant experience”)
- Convenience (“Same day emergency appointments”)
- Trust signals (“Over 500 five star reviews”)
- Outcomes (“Before and after gallery with 200+ cases”)
This ties directly into how you build your personal brand as a specialist. The practices with strong brands pay less per click and convert at higher rates. It is not a coincidence.
The Top Performer Playbook
After analysing the top 10% of our medical practice campaigns, here are the five principles they all share:
1. Hyper Specific Landing Pages
One landing page per service category, minimum. The best campaigns have pages for individual procedures. A patient searching for “wisdom tooth removal Brisbane” should not land on your general dentistry page.
2. Geographic Precision
Instead of targeting “Brisbane,” they target specific suburbs within a 10 to 15km radius of the practice, with ad copy that references the local area. “Dentist in Paddington” converts better than “Dentist in Brisbane” for someone sitting in Paddington.
3. Dayparting Strategy
Most patient searches happen during lunch breaks (12 to 2pm) and evenings (7 to 9pm). Top performers increase bids during these windows and reduce spend during low intent hours.
4. Remarketing Sequences
Only 2 to 3% of visitors book on their first visit. A proper remarketing sequence (educational content, then social proof, then offer) captures the other 97%. This is where most practices leave the most money on the table.
5. Monthly Optimisation Cycles
Not set and forget. Monthly review of:
- Search term reports
- Negative keyword additions
- Ad copy A/B testing
- Landing page conversion rates
- Budget reallocation based on procedure profitability
If this sounds like a lot of work, that is because it is. But it is also the difference between a 2x and a 10x return on ad spend. If you want to understand the broader SEO landscape alongside your paid strategy, the two work best together.
The Quality Score Factor
Here is something most practices and even some agencies overlook: Google assigns a Quality Score to every keyword in your account, rated 1 to 10. This score directly impacts how much you pay per click and where your ad appears.
A keyword with a Quality Score of 8 might cost you $4 per click. That same keyword with a Quality Score of 4 could cost $8 or more. Over hundreds of clicks per month, that adds up fast.
Quality Score is influenced by three factors:
- Expected click through rate (how compelling is your ad?)
- Ad relevance (does your ad match the search query?)
- Landing page experience (does your page deliver on the ad’s promise?)
Most practices have Quality Scores between 3 and 5. Getting them to 7 or 8 can literally halve your cost per click. That is the same results for half the budget, or double the results for the same budget.
What This Means for Your Practice
If you are currently running Google Ads and not seeing at least a 4:1 return on ad spend, there is almost certainly low hanging fruit to capture.
The good news? Most of these optimisations do not require more budget. They require better strategy.
Start with these three actions this week:
- Audit your search term report — identify the top 50 irrelevant searches and add them as negatives
- Install call tracking — if you are not tracking phone calls, you are flying blind
- Create one dedicated landing page — pick your highest value procedure and build a page that speaks directly to that patient’s intent
The practices that win at Google Ads are not spending more. They are spending smarter. And if you want to build the systems that make this kind of optimisation sustainable, that is where real long term growth comes from.
If your current approach is not delivering, you are welcome to get in touch for a no obligation review of your campaigns. Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes is all it takes.
Insights for Medical Professionals