9 Optometrist Ads Strategies to Generate More Patients

02/15/21 | by Czarina Greaney | Online Advertising, Paid Advertisement

Optometrists and eye care centers are experiencing rapid growth in recent years. But for this growth to continue, you need the best marketing plan if you want to keep up with local competitors. The problem is eCommerce websites and large chains are pricing experienced optometrists and their services out of business! You don’t have to drop your business prices just to get more eye care patients to your door.

With an optimized website, digital advertisement, and an effective online marketing strategy in place, you’ll be able to generate more patients in no time. Below are seven optometrist marketing ads that will strengthen your online presence and convert more online users into paying appointments.

1. PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Advertising is Your Best Bet

If you’ve never heard of PPC advertising before, then you’ve come to the right place. PPC advertising on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo! is the most effective way to turn online users into your new eye care patients. It’s an advertising tool that works through various networks, allowing advertisers (like eye care providers) to push their campaign to the top of search engine results pages.

PPC advertising essentially works by using specific keywords – in this case, keywords that relate to your optometry practice or eye care provider services. The advertiser that’s willing to pay the greatest amount of money for a PPC ad through pre-determined bidding will land the top location for their ad on the search results page. Here are some keywords that optometrists might utilize for the PPC ads of their digital marketing campaign:

Optometrists near me
Eye doctor near me open now
Best ophthalmologist near me
Best rated optometrist near me
Where to buy prescription eyeglasses
Eye exam near me

Your optometry PPC campaign should then be highly optimized, relevant, and results-oriented to entice people to go to your website and at best, make an appointment or a purchase.

2. Increase Conversions with Your Ads

Now let’s talk about conversions. PPC ads are useless without maximum conversions, which basically means that online users end up clicking on your carefully-placed PPC ads (instead of the ads of another eye care practice), thus growing your practice exponentially. Your PPC campaign should include ad extensions, targeting options, even bidding strategies to maximize PPC performance for your targeted audience within the market of eye care providers.

3. Opt for PPC Ads over SEO Marketing

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and this is the advertising practice to increase the quantity and quality of users’ traffic to your optometry website through organic search engine results. It can be effective for any business’s online content by optimizing SEOs enough to bump it to the top results whenever people search for certain keywords. In this case, those keywords could be any of the following, that relate to the services you provide:

eye care check-up
vision care tips
new eyeglasses
optometrist appointment
buy contact lens
Contacts lenses
Dry eyes
Eye exam

However, between PPC ads and SEO, you are better off with PPC ads if you want to grow your optometry practice. PPC directly leads users to your website’s homepage or landing page. The best PPC campaign includes integration with analytics of top search engines, conversation tracking to measure your PPC’s return of investment (ROI), and of course, high visibility on prospective patients.

Since SEO marketing relies on organic search traffic, there’s little guarantee that users will end up on your optometry website, not to mention the thousands of other competitors that are engaging them with their own SEOs. PPC ads are preferable because the advertisers’ bidding process guarantees your optometry practice. practice a top spot in the algorithm – regardless of the competition!

4. Get Users to Click on Your Google Ad

Google AdWords is another effective digital marketing strategy for optometrists. There are similar campaigns like those in Microsoft, Bing, and Yahoo!, but Google AdWords is the most recognizable search engine for PPC campaigns. An effective Google Ad will ensure your business an increase in site traffic, customer conversion rates, click-through rates, and even bottom-line profits.

5. Use Relevant Optometry Keywords

When your PPC ads contain the right keywords, you’ll save a lot of time and money. But the research and selection of these relevant optometry keywords are crucial, especially because they can get quite expensive.

Research typically shows that phrases with three or more words (“long tail” keywords) and building up a list of negative keywords are most effective. You might need to outsource professionals for this step and iMatrix offers great services to help you find the best keywords for your practice. This way you can ensure that your PPC ads are not shown to the wrong audience, which leads us to the second component.

You’ll want to choose optometry keywords that people are searching the web for. Try Ahrefs, Moz, Google Keyword Planner to find keywords that have high volume and easy to rank for. Here are some examples of keywords you can use at your practice.

Eye surgery
Vision therapy
Sports vision
Sunglasses
Eye and vision exam
Contact lens exam
Dry eye
Red-eye
Back to school eye exam

6. Attract Patients in Your Local Area

PPC and Google ads can help you best target your ideal patient from your local area. These networks have various means of effective geographic targeting that’s even tailored per country and city. You’d also need to register your optometry practice as a “local business” in their online listing because this helps potential patients find you faster. You can do this by claiming your Google My Business. Click here to add or claim your GMB account.

PPC will also incorporate your local city name within the ads, along with a phone number, which will easily catch the attention of residents who are in close proximity. It’s pointless to have PPC ads in a different country where you don’t offer services in the first place. You’ll be able to attract potential patients searching for eye exams, contact lenses, prescription glasses in your area.

7. Make Your Optometrist Ads Specific, with an Easy Call to Action

Since you are offering a specific service, your ads should be tailored to eye care patients looking for an optometrist. Your PPC and Google ads should be specific to eye care and vision care services and coupled with an effective call to action.

Here are some examples:

Feeling Eye Strain? Schedule Your Eye Exam Today!
Let Us Help You Choose The Best Glasses For Your Face Shape.
Worried About Using Contact Lens? We’ll Show You How.
Enjoy This Package Deal Of An Eye Exam Plus a New Pair of Eyeglasses!

These are just examples, of course. Any PPC campaign starts with thorough research of the keywords that have a great track record for getting people to click on that certain ad above the rest.

8. Create Eye-Catching Email Ads to Improve Patient Loyalty

If your practice is already sending out emails regularly, you can easily add new optometry products, promotions, events, and more to your emails. These ads are positioned throughout your optometry email campaigns. It’s a great way to bring in additional revenue for your practice.

Consider these optometry email ad ideas:

This Month Only Get $99 Off Designer Frames
Summer Savings: Free Eye Exam
See Clearer with a New Updated Prescription, Get A Free Eye Exam
Stock Up on Contact Lenses, Take 50% Off
All Prescription Glasses Are 30% Off

Use eye health observances as an opportunity to remind your patients about the importance of healthy vision and to schedule an appointment for a checkup, new glasses, contacts, or eye drops.

Since July is UV Safety Month, your practice can create email ads promoting the importance of protecting your eyes outside. You can advertise your designer sunglasses, tinted frames, contact lenses that have UV protection, and so on.

This August, talk about Children’s Eye Safety and how important it is to get an eye exam. You can say, “Keep your child’s eyes healthy and ready for their first day of school by getting an eye exam.”

Taking advantage of optometry observances and creating ads around those days will help increase your revenue and drive more patients into your practice.

Learn More: 6 Things to Look for When Choosing an Optometry Marketing Consultant

9. Use Facebook Ads to Attract More Patients to Your Practice

Your optometry practice can advertise on Facebook at an affordable price. You can define how much you plan to spend on your campaigns in the budget and schedule section of the Ad Set. Facebook will automatically run your Ad and continue to deduct money from your credit card until you tell them to stop.

With Facebook ads, you’ll be able to target a specific and larger audience like people who have liked pages about colored contact lenses, users who are interested in contact lens-related pages, pages run by eye care professionals, and pages related to glasses and designer sunglasses that have been liked.

Your Facebook ads should have a clear call to action, be visually appealing, and stand out from the rest of the feed. This will keep users engaged and stop them from scrolling through the rest of their feed. In your ads, include questions to spark interest, create a conversation, and hopefully result in a booked appointment.

Learn More: How to Use Optometry Marketing to Promote Your Practice Online

Target Your Ideal Patients with iMatrix

We know this might be a difficult task for full-time optometrists, so let us take care of your digital marketing and land new patients for you. The value of full-service, experienced eye care, and optical center will draw in a number of patients. Invest in paid aids to grow your optometry practice. It will surely only be a matter of time before your marketing tactics work!

Call us at 800.792.8384 or click here to learn more about our digital eye care marketing solutions.