SAN DIEGO, Calif.—Perhaps you have heard the acronym “PPC” and have no idea what it stands for—but have always wanted to know. If so, you are in luck, because this article explores how pay-per-click (PPC) advertising helps ECPs, including The Eye Doctors, a Florida optometry practice, exponentially increase their number of new patient leads, month over month and year over year.

PPC, Explained

With Google PPC advertising, advertisers place monetary bids on certain search terms, or keywords, such as “eye exam” and “contact lenses.” Similar to the way an auction works, an advertiser must beat other advertisers’ competing bids to win ad placement. If the advertiser wins the bid, their ad, which includes the specified keyword, appears on the right-hand side of the first Google search results page whenever an Internet user types in a search query that contains the keyword (or, sometimes, variations of the keyword).

Unlike traditional forms of advertising, which typically require that the advertiser pay an up-front fee to run an ad, PPC ads only require that the advertiser pay for the ad any time an Internet user clicks on it. Once the Internet user clicks on the ad, they are taken to a landing page on the advertiser’s website. Successful landing pages work to convert visitors into patients through the use of a form field or phone number that the visitor can complete or call, respectively, to make an appointment or learn more about the advertiser’s available services or product.

The Eye Doctors, a Thriving Florida Optometry Practice

The Eye Doctors is a full-service optometry practice, complete with an optical shop. Although the practice was named the Tampa Small Business of the Year in 2013, the practice is perhaps not so small, seeing tremendous growth over the past few years.

With locations in Tampa and New Port Richey, Fla., three doctors of optometry, a licensed optician and several friendly, knowledgeable staff members, The Eye Doctors is continuously growing, largely to their utmost level of customer service and vision care. While the practice is known for their higher-than-average success rates in treating chronic dry eye as well as their success in the treatment of myopia and other vision problems through such treatments as Ortho-K (i.e., corneal reshaping without the need for surgery), it is their reputation for patient-focused care that attracts many new patients to the practice each month—that, and most recently, the practice’s success with Google PPC advertising.

The Eye Doctors’ PPC Strategy and Success

Because setting up and managing PPC ad campaigns can be a full-time job in itself, The Eye Doctors enlisted the help of iMatrix, a leading provider of vision care websites and online marketing solutions—including paid advertising, search engine optimization and review management—to establish and manage their paid advertising campaigns. The Eye Doctors determined a PPC advertising budget, and a team of Google AdWords Certified account managers at iMatrix took it from there.

By diversifying the Eye Doctors’ PPC ad campaigns through the use of a wide variety of keywords, such as “eye doctors,” “eye doctor near me,” “eye care” and “eye exams,” iMatrix created a successful PPC ad strategy that drove 124 new patients leads to the Florida practice in August 2015 alone.

Not only do successful PPC ad campaigns help practices see a dramatic increase in their number of new patient leads, but they also provide a measurable return on investment (ROI). This is because leads that come in through PPC ads can be directly attributed to the ad campaign, thanks to a call tracking phone number that is associated with each campaign. Thus, The Eye Doctors is easily able to see how much new revenue the practice is receiving from new patients that were acquired through the PPC ads in relation to their PPC ad budget.

Kevin Whaley, The Eye Doctors’ practice manager, agrees. “Sometimes, it is hard to know what the value of certain marketing efforts is because the results are not instantaneous and are hard to attribute to our various marketing campaigns. However, with pay-per-click advertising, the ROI is quick, and easy to calculate,” said Whaley.

iMatrix provides mobile-friendly websites and other online marketing solutions, including social media management and SEO, that are designed specifically for eyecare professionals and other health care practices.