Google Call-Only Ads for Dentists

Learn more about how call-only ads can help your dental practice
In the past few years, more and more businesses have started using call-only ads as a way to promote themselves online on Google. And it’s easy to see why this might work.

Although text-based platforms are becoming more and more prevalent, calls are still the most important way to reach a company in the service industry.

Nothing replaces human interaction during a call, which is why the majority of local mobile searches result in a call to a local business.

What are call-only ads?

Call-only ads are a type of Google Ads whose primary focus is to make people call your dental practice. They still list your website name and link, however the headline typically includes your company’s phone number.

Call-only ads are only targeted toward mobile users, as they make it easy for people using their mobile phones to tap on your ad and give you a call directly, without having to browse through your website and search for your phone number.

This is how a call-only ad would look like for an imaginary dental practice located in Sheffield:

​How to setup and create call-only ads

You can create call-only ads within the Google Ads interface. Go to the Campaigns tab, click the large blue + sign button.

This will lead you to the following screen where you will have to choose the campaign goal. As you want to generate leads via a call-only campaign you should select the option Leads.

Next you will have to select the network on which you want to run your call-only campaigns. Here you should select the option “Search”.

If you have successfully navigated through the first two steps you will be prompted with a question on the way you’d like to reach your goal.

As your goal is to create a call-only campaign you should place a check before “Phone calls” and enter the country as well as your dental office’s phone number.

You’re almost there. Give your call-only campaign a name, for example “Call-only General Dentistry” so that you will be able to easily identify it when you log on to your Google Ads account at a later stage.

In order to place your call-only ads only on Google you should un-check the option to Include Google search partners. This way you ensure that your ads are only triggered on Google and not some other websites when someone types in keywords that are targeting.

​To finish up and create your first call-only campaign you only need to enter the keywords you wish to target into your ad groups and create multiple variations of ads for each ad group.

Simple tips that might help your call-only ads:

Schedule:

When you create Call-Only ads you have the option to schedule them for specific days of the week or hours of the day. Make sure that your call-only ads are only active when you can ensure that someone is available to answer the incoming phone calls at your dental practice.

It won’t do you any good if people are calling, but there’s no one there to answer. For one, you have to pay for people who click your ad and secondly it is very frustrating for the potential patient to hear their phone call going unanswered or straight to voice-mail.

Conversion tracking:

Make sure that you have your conversion tracking setup in a way that you make use of Google’s free call forwarding feature. This way you will be able to track phone calls and leads from your call-only ads and see whether they are producing a positive return on investment for your dental practice.

Communicate the most important information:

As you have less room to communicate relevant information to potential patients when you use call-only ads as opposed to traditional search ads, you have to be very clear about what you want to include in the advertising text that people will see besides your phone number.Make the most of your two headlines of 35 characters each and two descriptions of 90 characters each.

Test different messages:

Test out various types of call-only ads and see which one works for you over time. It is necessary to experiment and see what messaging works to convince potential patients to click on your ad and give your business a phone call.

Focus on transactional keywords:

Since you’re creating call-only ads to generate phone calls, I recommend you to only bottom-funnel keywords. These keywords should be keywords that indicate a clear search intent of someone looking for a dentist right now. Location-based, emergency and time-based keywords will generally be your best choice.

Set expectations:

There is nothing worse than the uncertainty of not knowing what to expect for someone who is thinking of contacting your business. Include some information such as “Friendly staff ready to answer your call”.

Target the right location:

Location targeting is everything. You want to be certain that only people within your area call you unless you provide a regional or international service. As a dentist most of your customers will typically lie within a 10-15 mile radius of your business.

Track call quality:

While Google can help you to track call or lead quantity, it is not able to judge call quality. That is where your front-office staff comes in, as it can provide you or your Google Ads agency crucial information. Are the right kind of patients calling your business?

Are people calling you thinking you are a different dental practice? Are people who are calling you price shoppers? Are people asking about services you do not provide?

Once you know more about the quality of the incoming controls you can take appropriate action to avoid specific type of phone callers by switching up the messaging of your ads.

Answer the phone, and do it right:

The caller experience has to be pristine. For new patients, the first phone call will be the first point of contact with your dental practice. As you only have one chance to make a great first impression you should make sure that you have the right person answering the incoming phone calls at your office.

Make sure your front office staff has sufficient training to answer phone calls in a friendly and empathetic manner, in order to hook patients and give them a great customer experience from the very start.

If on the other hand you don’t answer the phone at all or do it in a rushed or arrogant manner, you can be sure that the potential patient will hang up the phone and take his or her business elsewhere, where they are more welcomed.

Should you give call-only ads a try?

The main reason why call-only ads can work so well is that they are simple and easy to use.A potential lead just taps on your phone number, and they can call you on the spot. It’s the fastest, best way to get in touch with a business.

Don’t hesitate and give call-only ads a shot, as there is a high probability that they can produce leads and patients for your dental practice.

Some people will welcome call-only ads as this type of ad allows them can skip the process of browsing your website and call your business directly. Other people prefer to get a first impression of your dental practice via your website, and will not be willing to give you a phone call without knowing anything about you.

As with most online marketing campaigns, you have to run an experiment in order to find out if it works or not. Give call-only ads a try, find out for yourself if they are helpful in acquiring new patients to your dental practice.

​Now that you are armed with powerful knowledge on how to create a call-only campaign, I hope that you will go ahead and implement this type of campaign into your very own Google Ads account.

If you still fill uneasy about the task of managing your own Google Ads account and you don’t want to waste the majority of your advertising spend on irrelevant clicks, I am here to help. Feel free to reach out via e-mail or the contact form and I will be happy to discuss your questions with you.