The secret to advertising through Google

Editor's note: As part of an occasional DrBicuspid.com series featuring advice from dental consultants, marketing expert Richard Geller offers a key concept for successful advertising.

In my experience, patients who find their dentist through the Internet tend to spend more on dentistry. So how can you attract these patients?

Richard Geller has advised thousands of dentists on practice marketing and case acceptance, and has written a book on the same topic. He helped launch the first popular intraoral video camera.

In a previous article, I discussed tricks for getting patients through your own Web site. But that's not the only way to reach out online. Google ads can also work.

In fact, you can advertise on Google and have almost no competition. Here's how:

The best known Google ad program is the one that shows ads when you do a simple search. But remember that people spend maybe 1% of their time searching. With the other 99% of their time, they hang out in other places: social media, news sites, or professional sites like this one.

So if you advertise on Google Search, you are only showing your ads a fraction of the time people are spending on the Web. And worse, you have maybe 20 competitors all screaming for your prospect from the same exact search page.

So your prospect flips to one ad, flips back, flips to a competitor, flips back. Wouldn't you do that if you were searching for a dentist? Since each doctor may pay a buck or $1.50 per click, you end up spending a lot of money on clicks that don't result in patient visits.

So how do you get a high volume of good-quality clicks? Try the Content Network. These are little bitty "text ads" that Google (or Yahoo or MSN) places on other Web sites. These big search sites act as intermediaries, buying ad space for you on sites ranging from GolfBagsAreUs.com to MySpace.com and everything in between. Content Network is mega huge -- it's the entire Internet, not just search.

Someone will be looking for golf bag information, or maybe looking for information on gums and teeth, and they will see your ad. They won't see 20 other dentists. Just yours. And they'll click.

No time to sell your dentistry. But you can collect their information and sell your dentistry to them next week, or perhaps next month. In other words, you have them in your "marketing funnel" -- a database of prospective patients.

Now with this type of advertising, you had better grab 'em quick. To do that, the ad has to bait them. So why not offer a free video or report? A book or a CD? In return, ask for their names and addresses, and get permission to market to them.

Okay, done ... they are off looking at more golf bags, but now they are in your funnel. You can then send them good e-mails or snail mail, and convert them from a good, warm lead into a smiling, live person in your chair.

I have prepared a video for you that shows you how this all works. The Content Network is quite tricky compared to Google Search and affords a lot more room for innovation -- or for error.

www.cases4dentists.com shows you exactly how you can increase your lead volume using Google advertising and the rather little-known Content Network.