This Independent Community Pharmacy in the Midlands were managing their own Google Ads in-house. Here’s what happened to their Travel Clinic business when we suggested that we should manage it for them
Before we begin, I want to make it clear – this is in no way a critique of the pharmacy who were originally managing their own Ads.
There aren’t many digital marketing agencies around who specialise in Pharmacy, and fewer still who deliver tangible results. The initiative of this pharmacy for doing Google Ads before discovering us is laudable.
That said, this is the difficulty sometimes with the perception of Google Ads. Mismanaged, Google Ads are a black hole for advertising budget. This burns people using them, and they write off the platform entirely.
About the Pharmacy
This Pharmacy based in the Midlands is a family-run Pharmacy single, who were keen on growing the number of bookings they were getting for Clinics. They’d already got a steady flow of bookings through their own SEO efforts.
They have a website with an integrated booking Calendar, showing patients live available times for appointment bookings.
The Challenge
This pharmacy understood the opportunity of Google Ads, but hadn’t had success managing the account themselves.
As you can see below, the Cost/Conversion line was averaging around £8. I’ve highlighted the very first conversion as a demonstration of how expensive Google Ads gets without proper supervision.
This means they were only getting a low amount of Phone Calls & Bookings, and paying a high price for each one.
Ideally, you want the opposite of that.
The Results
It becomes demonstrably clearer in this image what a difference our management made. Regular optimisations and refining of the account meant both that the Ad Budget was allocated properly, and the relevant audiences were seeing the advert. The results, displayed in the graph below, were obvious.
The conversions and phone calls soared up, whilst the cost of each conversion fell significantly. This all happened within the first month of us taking over the account.
The end result?
Over a two-year average, the monthly Travel Clinic bookings went from 19 to 190, and the profitability of each booking was also increased.
And a nice bonus, they’ve collected 240 Google Reviews, averaging 4.9 stars, reflecting well across the whole pharmacy for any future services and prescription nominations.
A Snapshot from the Google Ads dashboard
What’s next for this pharmacy?
The next steps for this pharmacy would be refining their website, as the user journey is solid for Travel Clinics but less so for the other clinics. Once that’s complete, there’s no reason they can’t replicate this success for their other clinics.
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https://www.pharmacymentor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Case-Study-Around-19-to-190-Travel-Clinic-Bookings-in-30-Days-1.png10801920Saam Alihttps://www.pharmacymentor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Pharmacy-Mentor-Logo-Header-Website-1030x193.pngSaam Ali2023-02-14 10:34:502023-02-14 10:34:50Case Study: Around 19 to 190 Travel Clinic Bookings in 30 Days
This Case Study shows how we used Local SEO to rank a Pharmacy high on Google, and integrated a Booking Calendar into their existing website.
About this Pharmacy
This pharmacy is a chain of Community Pharmacies across a wide area in the UK. They already had a good website, but there was no integrated Booking Calendar, which meant any visitors to the site were still calling various branches for appointment bookings.
The Challenge
Because of the size of the organisation, there was a decision to be made – National SEO or Local SEO.
National SEO means less work, but it also means you compete against the real big players in the UK pharmacy industry, who almost certainly have more resources, and higher domain authority. (Essentially, you’d show up nationally for searches, but pretty much always below the big guys.)
So we opted to target the main areas the Pharmacy wanted to focus on driving Flu Bookings, and created localised blogs targeting the keywords and locations. You can see below what this meant for local flu jab searches (the location has been removed from the search to protect anonymity.)
This was achieved through a combination of Search Engine Optimisation work, making sure they appeared on Local Google Searches when patients searched for Flu vaccines, and optimising their website by adding an optimised Booking Calendar, making booking an appointment a breeze for patients.
The size of the Pharmacy team across many pharmacies also meant the teams needed training on the new booking system. There’s no point having software that makes your teams’ lives easier if your team don’t know how to use it!
The Results
The Return on Investment with this project was significant – between 720% and 1,008% return on the £5k investment.
Installation and optimisation of a popular booking calendar
Online recorded training provided to the entire team
Cost of implementation across entire organisation = £5000 one off
Average gross profit of flu jab = around £5 to £7. Therefore, gross profit generated = £36,000 – £50,400.
ROI = 7x to 10x.
The online booking calendar is now being used for many services. No subscription fees paid or commission taken.
We also trained their teams across the UK on using the Booking Calendar. This meant the patient experience was consistently smooth wherever they were based.
Though this is a large chain of Community Pharmacies, the approach was exactly the same we use for Pharmacy Singles and Small Multiples. It’s the same formula of targeting the local area with the relevant keywords. Which means these results (in proportion) are possible for any pharmacy.
Want your Flu Clinic ranking highly on Google? Book in a consultation call with our Diagnose and Prescribe team.
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https://www.pharmacymentor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/7200-Flu-Bookings-by-Ranking-High-on-Google.png10801920Saam Alihttps://www.pharmacymentor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Pharmacy-Mentor-Logo-Header-Website-1030x193.pngSaam Ali2023-02-12 21:00:382023-02-16 13:54:087,200+ Flu Bookings by Ranking High on Google
A successful Travel Clinic is one of the most profitable private services for Community Pharmacies. But how is success achieved? How are those profits unlocked? Let’s go through the Top 5 ways any community pharmacy can boost their Travel Clinic bookings.
Is running a Travel Clinic worth it?
By now, most pharmacists in the UK understand the opportunity of Travel Clinics. But that’s the drawback for a lot of people. “Everyone’s doing it,” you think. It’s not worth doing when it’s so competitive, right?
Wrong.
Making your Travel Clinic successful
Despite the fact that a lot of pharmacies now run Travel Clinics, unless your local competitor happens to be dominating the space, it’s absolutely worth your pharmacy running one too. Even if they are dominating the space, it’s likely because there is no competition.
1. A Travel Clinic Website
Travel Clinics have huge revenue potential. Some of our clients make enough money from their Travel Clinic alone, it is its own business. Any successful Travel Clinic should have its own website. Just in the same way that Argos is owned by Sainsbury’s. You’ll often find Argos stores within Sainsbury’s stores, and yet the websites are kept completely separate.
Why?
Because they’re two separate businesses, with different services and products on offer, trying to jam everything into one website dilutes the message and dilutes the brand.
Some of main benefits of a separate Travel Clinic website:
A more intuitive patient journey with specific online booking calendars
Doesn’t confuse your pharmacy website
Focused Travel Clinic content
Google Adverts for your Travel Clinic
What do you do when you know what you need but you don’t know where to get it? It certainly isn’t flicking through the yellow pages anymore. You do what everyone does. You Google it.
I’ve heard people judge Google Ads before they’ve tried it. “I don’t click on ads,” they said. They presupposed that because they didn’t click on Ads, nobody does.
Do people click on ads?
The reality is, people do. Without getting too bogged down with the hows and the wherefores, most searches don’t have commercial intent. Around 93% of searches on Google are either informational or navigational, according to a survey. And those people do not click on adverts, in general. Of course they don’t. If you’re looking up how to cook fish, it’s unlikely you’re clicking on an advert selling fish, no matter how low the low prices are. Because if you’re looking up how to cook it, the chances are you already have the fish.
But if you’re searching for cheap fish, then the odds of you clicking that ad leap like a salmon.
A 2021 study carried out by GroupM UK and Nielsen reported that 94% of total search engine clicks go to organic results, with just 6% of click share left for paid search ads.
The stats for searches with commercial intent (7%) matching up with the overall click share of searches being (6%) shows that, contrary to popular opinion, searches with commercial intent do get clicks. Which is great, because those are the clicks you’re after. Paying for people to click on your ad when they aren’t booking an appointment is a waste of money.
2. Google Maps Ads
Google Maps advertising is a recent addition to the marketing arsenal available to pharmacies. Just in the same way you would advertise anywhere else, Google Maps advertises…well, in Google Maps. When people search on Google Maps for “Travel Vaccines”, “Travel Clinic” and other related searches, that is a HUGE signal of intent. You don’t ask generally for directions unless you’re on the way.
Appearing at the top of the results on Google Maps is a great way of increasing walk-ins for your Travel Clinic. And because it’s new, there isn’t a lot of competition on the platform.
3. Google Search Ads
If you want any proof that Google Search Ads work, you only need look at who’s currently running them in your area when you Google “Travel Clinic”. More often than not, it’s the big boys.
“I can’t compete with them,” you say. The reason the top results on Google win is convenience. Shopping around takes time. But community pharmacies win at convenience. The likelihood is that people will pick the option closest to them, and that’s you. (For example, my nearest Clinic by clicking on a big supplier was in a neighbouring town, over 30 minutes drive away.) If there was a rivalling community pharmacy with an option close to the top on Google, I’d 100% go there instead.
Search Engines – Get found for “Travel Clinic” in your area
A common misunderstanding with websites is that just having one is enough. Without understanding the intricacies of the Internet, it’s a fair assumption. But having a website is just like having a pharmacy. If it isn’t listed on the map, how can people find it?
How do search engines work?
Search Engines like Google help Internet users navigate the world wide web. You almost certainly know that already. Like you know that when you put your foot down on the accelerator, your car goes forward. And you can know that, but not understand how the engine works. The same is true for how Search Engines work. You understand what they do, but not how they work.
Every website is designed, just like every car is assembled. But just like a Mini Metro is built differently to a Ferrari Enzo, website design varies too.
Search Engines regularly run what are essentially MOT’s across all websites, assessing them for suitability for users.
4. Optimising your Website for Search Engines
Optimising your Website for Search Engines is like letting an engineer fine-tune your car before it goes in for its MOT. Without it, you probably won’t check all the boxes, and you’ll be ranked lower. With it, you’ll tick every box and have a much higher chance of ranking amongst the top results on Google.
5. Optimised Travel Clinic Content helps your website get found
Search engines will only point people in the direction of your website if it thinks your website has what they’re looking for.
How do the search engines know if your website has what they’re looking for? You write content for it.
For instance, if you want to be found for Yellow Fever Vaccines? Create a page specifically for Yellow Fever. Answer some FAQ’s and away you go.
Read our Complete Guide to Winning Google for…a Complete Guide to Winning Google. It breaks down SEO, how people use Google and how combining the knowledge of those two things gets your pharmacy higher up that results page.
Combining these three tactics is a winner
How do we know? Every Travel Clinic we’ve helped market using all three of these tactics in their strategy is a successful business. (Website/Ads/SEO).
https://www.pharmacymentor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/The-Top-5-ways-to-boost-Travel-Clinic-bookings-in-your-Pharmacy-1.png10801920Saam Alihttps://www.pharmacymentor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Pharmacy-Mentor-Logo-Header-Website-1030x193.pngSaam Ali2022-06-25 08:00:402022-07-12 11:08:26The Top 5 ways to boost Travel Clinic bookings in your Pharmacy
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