Pay-Per-Click FAQs

  • Why are my ads not showing online now?
  • Main reason: your budget has expired for the day. Because your budgets are small and locally budgeted, you’re usually only getting a few clicks per day. If you get two to four clicks each day, that’s all your budget allows. If you would like more, speak to your Specialist about increasing your budget.

  • Why is another person’s ad showing up all the time?
  • Primarily because that person has a larger budget. Not everyone knows that budgets can be managed daily, so he or she might be front loaded quite a bit in the first half of the month. It’s better to focus on pacing throughout the whole month. If your ads are showing up lower on the page, as a strategy to maximize your budgets, we target position 3 or 4. The cost per click (CPC) is higher to get into the 1st spot.

  • How can I tell which geographic areas we’re currently targeting?
  • We set up targeting based on the information the build team received from the Jedi after the start of your project. We recommend not targeting farther than a ten-mile (16-kilometer) radius of your physical location. We can target farther upon request.

  • What if I want to be #1? Can you increase my budget and communicate that to me?
  • We’ll definitely need to increase the budget, but we still can’t guarantee you will achieve the rank of #1.

  • Should I target different services rather than focus on high-volume keywords?
  • Focus on narrow, high-profile, high-value keywords (e.g., Invisalign) in addition to the general (dentistry). We do not recommend choosing high-volume, high-competition keywords, because that will result in large numbers of irrelevant traffic and low conversion rates.

  • How long can I expect my ads to be displayed?
  • As long as your budget is high enough, your ad will continue to show. Quality score is determined by relevancy of the ad copy and the landing page to the search term. We optimize for this score by targeting specific calls to action.

  • What is the average cost per click (CPC)?
  • CPC varies widely, especially depending on geography. Think about how competitive your market or your focus is (as a practice, you probably have a sense of this ... or as an SEO, you probably have a sense of it). Broad keyword terms (e.g., only “dentist”) aren’t useful for conversion. Longer relevant keyword phrases, such as three to five words, typically cost less and result in higher conversions. We set a maximum CPC, so we are monitoring it case by case based on your budget. We also set a separate CPC that is based on how lucrative we think that keyword is for you (i.e., we’ll pay more for “cosmetic dentistry” than we would for “dental checkup”).

  • How do you make sure your CPC rates are typically lower than your competition?
  • We’re only going to bid on relevant keywords that focus on converting users into patients. We can get you large volumes of traffic, but that’s not what you want. We’ll separate out ad groups based on the specific services you provide and focus on improving the quality scores of your ads. Finally, we bid across Google and Bing. Bing generally brings in a lower CPC. The advantage of using us for your ad campaign is that we can offer a lower cost because you have trained professionals continually monitoring the performance of your ads. We have the time, experience, and ability to group, test, and pull data on negative keywords, target geo-specific IP addresses, refine ad copy, and analyze and select long-tail keywords. We target ads low on the page, which increases your online visibility while focusing on more cost-effective goals.

  • Once a campaign is built and launched, what are the next steps?
  • First, we visit the website and review the page content, sometimes making recommendations on how to improve a site. We create ad copy relevant to the market, determine which keywords to use (based on our feedback and review of site), and refine ad copy until we have a good keyword set and quality score. We consistently monitor ad copy for quality scores. These might change over time as search engine algorithms and processes change.

  • What do you look at to determine if the budget is running out too fast?
  • Pacing, generally. Lower ad budgets (under $500) run out early in the day and often. It’s generally easier to get high-quality leads if the ad budget is $500+.

  • What happens if I go over or under my budget?
  • You should overcompensate the following month. If your campaign spends less than your budget one month, that amount will be added to the next month’s budget. If you go over your budget, the amount in excess will be subtracted from the next month’s budget.

  • What is the difference between SEO and Pay-Per-Click?
  • Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a webpage in a search engine’s “natural” or un-paid search results. Search engine marketing (SEM), also called Pay-Per-Click (PPC), involves bidding on keywords in your target market and placing ads on a search engine results page used to direct traffic to websites. Advertisers pay when a user clicks on their ad via a search engine.

    Still have questions?

    Our Search Team is available Monday through Friday, from 8:00 AM until 4:00 PM Pacific. You can reach the Social team at 866.856.2050 ext. 1 and the SEO team at 866.856.2050 ext. 2 or send us an email at