Summary of this blog
- Google Ads vs SEO for clinics is a question about timing rather than loyalty. Ads book patients this month and stop the day the budget stops. Search takes months to start. Then it books patients for years without a charge per click.
- The next ten thousand dollars goes where it brings the most booked patients. That depends on the gap in the diary, the revenue stage, and whether the website can book anyone at all.
- Six rules, in order. Let ads win the first ninety days. Let search win the next three years. Fix the page both channels land on. Count every patient by source. Set the split from the stage and the gap. Plan both channels as one.
- The outcome is a diary that fills this month and keeps filling next year. The cost per new patient falls as search takes over the work the ads were paid to do.
Google Ads vs SEO for clinics is the wrong fight and the right question. The owner with ten thousand dollars to spend wants three things from it. She wants the most booked patients the money can buy, and a diary that fills this month and next year. She also wants a cost per new patient that falls instead of rising. Ads deliver the first two within weeks and the third never. Search delivers the third and the second, and takes months to begin. The money goes to both, in an order a plan decides. This article sets out six rules for that order.
Picture the owner of a med spa, a dental practice or a private clinic with one to three sites. She has paid one agency for ads that filled the diary until the budget stopped. She has paid another for search that promised rankings and reported traffic. Each told her the other channel was the waste. Both were wrong in the same way, because neither tied its invoice to a booked patient. The Google Ads vs SEO for clinics question is where the next ten thousand dollars brings the most patients, this month and over three years. The arithmetic answers it, and the arithmetic changes with the clinic.
This guide is written for the owner of a clinic in the US or the UK who has been burned by at least one of those agencies. Our pillar on health and wellness marketing covers the wider plan the Google Ads vs SEO for clinics decision sits inside. What follows is what each rule looks like when it is applied well. Then what it changes in the diary, and what ignoring it costs over a year.
Google Ads vs SEO for clinics is a question of when, never of which. Ads book the patient this month. Search books her for three years. The clinic that funds both in the right order stops paying twice for the same patient.
The two-column test
Open last month’s bank statement and write two columns: what the clinic paid for ads and what it paid for search. Then open the diary and write, beside each new patient, where she came from. If the second list cannot be written, the first list is a guess. The next ten thousand dollars will then follow whichever agency argued best. A clinic with its Google Ads vs SEO for clinics plan in order fills both columns in ten minutes. From them it reads what a new patient cost from each channel. Ten minutes, one statement, and the owner knows whether she is deciding or guessing.
1. Google Ads vs SEO for clinics: ads win the first ninety days
The first rule is that ads win the first ninety days outright. A campaign switched on today shows the clinic’s ad by tomorrow to a patient searching for a treatment a few miles away. She taps, rings or books, and the clinic pays either way. What paid buys is patients this month. The price is that the ad needs a page that books, a phone that answers and a radius that matches how far patients travel. Our guide to Google Ads for clinics covers the campaign in full. In the Google Ads vs SEO for clinics decision, paid is the fastest way to a booked patient and the dearest way to keep one coming.
What good looks like: a diary that fills in three weeks
Picture a clinic with a new treatment and a quiet Tuesday. The campaign goes live on the first of the month with one page for the treatment and a call button in the hours reception answers. The radius is drawn around where patients already come from. By the third week, the Tuesday is booked. A plan uses ads for exactly that: a new site, a new treatment, a seasonal gap. What changes is how fast the owner learns which treatment and which words bring the patient who books. The ad shows the answer in days, and the search half of the Google Ads vs SEO for clinics plan then builds on it.
What ads alone cost by month four
Now picture month four. The budget is the same and the bookings have settled. Every patient still costs the same toll, or more as competitors bid on the same treatment. The day the owner pauses the campaign, the diary goes quiet within a week. That is the cost of treating Google Ads vs SEO for clinics as a choice and choosing ads: rent paid monthly on a diary the clinic never owns. At Healthora, we have seen that clinics which run ads alone for a year tend to reach the second year with the same cost per patient and no second channel. The ninety days were the right call. Staying there was the expensive one.
2. Search wins the next three years
The second rule is that search wins the next three years, and nobody can buy its place. Google’s own page on how Google Search works says the company does not accept payment to crawl a site more often or to rank it higher. Ranking is done programmatically. For a clinic, that means treatment pages and a profile that appear when a patient nearby searches, with no toll on the click. Pew’s 2013 report on health online found that 77% of online health seekers began at a search engine. Our guide to local SEO for clinics covers the signals. The search half of Google Ads vs SEO for clinics starts slowly and then stops costing per patient.
What good looks like: the page that books without a bill
By month six, the treatment page written in month one appears when a patient searches for the treatment and the town. She reads it and books. The clinic paid once to write the page and pays nothing for her. By month twelve, five such pages carry a share of the diary the ads used to carry alone. The owner sees it in one number: cost per new patient, falling. That is what good looks like in the Google Ads vs SEO for clinics decision. What changes is ownership. The ad rents a patient and the page owns the search, for as long as it stays the best answer.
What waiting costs
Search started in month one begins to book in month six and carries the diary by year two. Search never started never books. The owner who waits a year has paid the ad toll on every patient for a year. She still faces six months before the first organic booking. The waiting compounds, because the competitor who started earlier holds the page the patient finds. Search is cheap to begin and dear to delay. A plan begins it the same week the ads switch on, with the treatment the ads have just proven. The two halves of Google Ads vs SEO for clinics then spend the same ten thousand dollars in turn.
3. The page decides both
The third rule is that the page decides both channels. An ad and a search result each deliver a patient to a page, and the page decides. Nielsen Norman Group’s research on how little readers read found that about 28% of a page’s words are read on an average visit. She scans for the treatment, the price and a way to book, and a page that buries them loses the ad’s patient and the search’s patient at the same rate. Our guide to health clinic landing pages covers it in detail. In the Google Ads vs SEO for clinics decision the page comes before either channel, because money sent to a page that cannot book is spent twice.
A worked example: the page the ad and the search both land on
At Healthora, we have seen this hold in a longevity programme whose website strategy we directed. The programme has a page of its own, headed with the programme and the city. On it, a patient reads who it suits, what the first visit involves and what it costs, beside a booking button and the clinician’s name. The ad lands there. So does the search result, and both patients book the same way. A specialist checks every claim and image before a page like that goes live, because it touches a patient’s care. This article is marketing guidance and never medical advice. In the Google Ads vs SEO for clinics plan the owner fixes one funnel, and both channels improve.
The two-tab test
Open two tabs on your phone. In the first, search for your main treatment and town, and tap your ad. In the second, tap your own page beneath the ads. Good looks like both tabs opening the same treatment page, price and booking button on the first screen. Many clinics find the ad lands on the homepage and the search on a blog post, neither showing a price. Each tab is a channel paid for, in cash or in months, landing a patient where she cannot book. A Google Ads vs SEO for clinics plan fixes the page before spending another dollar on either. Ten minutes, and the owner knows whether the next ten thousand dollars can land.
What a specialist sees in your two channels
Paying a toll on every patient with no road being built beside it?
Stop paying for marketing that does not work. Book a Growth Diagnostic: two to three weeks, one document, one recommendation. The Diagnostic is a paid, fixed-scope piece of work. We read your ads account, your search presence and the page they both land on, the way a patient does. We name the point where patients are being lost. Then we tell you how the Google Ads vs SEO for clinics split should run for your clinic, and where the next ten thousand dollars goes first. We say what it will change and what another year of one channel would cost. The document is yours to keep whether you work with us or not. Healthora specialises in health.
Book a Growth Diagnostic4. Count by source or you will never know
The fourth rule is that every new patient is counted by source, or the first three rules are guesses. Google Ads includes a conversion tracking tool, free inside the account, that measures how clicks on ads lead to a call, a form or a booking. The search side is counted by landing page and booking. Reception adds the third count by asking every new patient how she found the clinic. From those three counts the owner reads five numbers. New patients by source. Cost per new patient by source. Revenue per new patient. Enquiries that became bookings. The share of the diary each channel filled. Without them, Google Ads vs SEO for clinics is argued on feelings and invoices.
What good looks like: one sheet, two columns
On the first of each month the owner opens one sheet. Channels run down the left and the five numbers across the top. The ads column shows the patients booked this month and what each one cost. The search column shows the patients booked from the pages and the profile, at no cost per click, and rising. A third line shows each patient’s worth over the year, so the owner sees which channel brings the returning patient. Good looks like a sheet read in five minutes and one decision made from it: move money towards the column whose cost per patient is falling. That is the whole of Google Ads vs SEO for clinics on one page.
What not counting costs
A clinic that does not count by source pays for both channels. The ads agency reports clicks and the search agency reports rankings. No number joins either to the diary, so budget moves on who argued best in the last meeting. At Healthora, we have seen that clinics which cannot say where last month’s new patients came from tend to keep paying the channel that reports loudest, rarely the one that books most. Counting takes an afternoon to set up and ten minutes a month to read. A Google Ads vs SEO for clinics plan sets it up in week one, before a dollar of the ten thousand is spent.
5. The split a plan makes, by revenue stage and diary gap
The fifth rule is that the split is decided by the clinic, never by an average. Two things set it: the revenue stage and the diary gap. Empty chairs this month mean the larger share goes to ads first. A full diary and a second site coming mean search leads, to own the new town’s searches by opening day. Take, for illustration, a clinic with $10,000 (about £7,800) and a diary a third empty. A Google Ads vs SEO for clinics plan would put the larger share into ads for the first ninety days. The smaller share writes the treatment pages search will rank by month six. The money then moves across as the pages begin to book.
What the split looks like at three stages
A single-site clinic in its first two years needs patients faster than pages, so ads lead and search follows a step behind. Between the second and fifth year, with a diary that fills most weeks, the clinic can afford search’s patience. The split moves towards pages and the profile; ads are kept for new treatments and quiet months. A group decides per site: the newest runs like a first-year clinic. None of these is a benchmark. Each is what a Google Ads vs SEO for clinics plan decides for that clinic from its own revenue, treatment value and diary. The owner stops asking which channel is better and asks which one the clinic needs next.
What the wrong split costs
The wrong split costs in one of two ways. Empty chairs and everything into search means six months of waiting for the first organic patient. A full diary and everything into ads means a toll on patients the clinic would have had for nothing, and no search when the ads stop. Both ask one channel to do the other’s job. Google Ads vs SEO for clinics is settled by matching each channel to the time it is good at. The split is where that match is written down, and a plan revisits it every quarter. The clinic that sets a split in January and never looks again is guessing by June.
6. What a combined Google Ads vs SEO for clinics plan changes in a year
The sixth rule is that both channels are planned as one. We call the order the Ninety Days and Three Years rule. Ads take the first ninety days, search the next three years, and the page and the counting serve both. A combined Google Ads vs SEO for clinics plan writes the treatment pages in the order the ads prove, and moves the money across as each page starts to book. Ads fill the diary this spring, search fills it the next, and the owner sees the handover in the sheet. Our services page describes what a plan like that contains. The outcome is a diary that fills now and keeps filling, at a falling cost per patient.
What month twelve looks like
By month twelve the ads budget is smaller than in month one and the diary is fuller. The treatment pages the ads proved in the first quarter now appear for their searches, and the profile takes the map-pack call. Ads still run, pointed at the new treatment and the quiet weeks, and every patient they bring is counted. The sheet shows cost per new patient down on the year. The owner knows where the next ten thousand dollars goes, because the sheet says which column is falling. That is what a combined Google Ads vs SEO for clinics plan changes in a year: the money follows the patient rather than the loudest report.
What picking one channel costs
Picking one channel costs the other channel’s patients. Ads alone cost a toll on every patient and a diary that empties when the budget pauses. Search alone costs six months of empty chairs and a clinic that cannot react to a quiet month. Either choice also costs a lesson. The ads tell search which treatment to write for, and search tells the ads which words the patient uses. A clinic that picks one side of Google Ads vs SEO for clinics learns half as fast and pays full price for it. The next ten thousand dollars, put into one channel, buys one kind of patient; put into both, it buys this month’s and next year’s.
Google Ads vs SEO for clinics in practice: the six rules
Google Ads vs SEO for clinics in practice begins with the two-column test and the two-tab test. Then comes a count: how many new patients last month, from which source, at what cost each. Next, the page is fixed, because both channels land on it. Ads are switched on for the treatment with the largest diary gap, and the treatment pages are written the same week. Then the split is set from the revenue stage and the diary gap, and the money moves across as the pages begin to book. Each month the sheet is read and the split revisited. A single-site clinic and a five-site group get the same six rules; only the split differs.
The six rules, in order
- Let ads win the first ninety days. Patients this month for the treatment with the largest gap in the diary, pointed at a page that books and a phone that answers: the fast half of Google Ads vs SEO for clinics.
- Let search win the next three years. Treatment pages, a location page and the profile, started in month one and carrying the diary by year two without a toll per click: the long half of Google Ads vs SEO for clinics.
- Fix the page both channels land on. The treatment, the price and a booking button on the first screen, with every claim and image checked by a specialist before it goes live.
- Count every patient by source. Conversion tracking on the ads, the landing page on the search and reception asking, read as five numbers on one sheet each month.
- Set the split from the stage and the gap. Ads lead when chairs are empty and search leads when the diary is full and the next site is coming: the Google Ads vs SEO for clinics split a plan writes down.
- Plan both channels as one. The handover from ads to search written into the Google Ads vs SEO for clinics year, and the money moved across as each page starts to book.
Why a specialist gets there faster
The six rules can be followed by the owner, by a specialist, or both. The difference is the order and the counting. A specialist has watched enough Google Ads vs SEO for clinics decisions to know the order. She knows which treatment the ads should prove first and which pages search will rank soonest, and runs both while the owner sees patients. A specialist also reads the sheet without a stake in either column. Our services and case studies show what the work looks like in engagements we have run.
A specialist in health understands that the patient searching for a treatment is choosing someone to trust. She neither knows nor cares whether she arrived from an ad or a search result. She reads the page, checks the price and books with the clinic that made it easy. Let ads win the first ninety days and search the next three years. Fix the page, count by source, set the split and plan both as one. Then Google Ads vs SEO for clinics stops being a fight between two agencies. The next ten thousand dollars books patients, in order.
Ready to put the next ten thousand dollars where it books patients?
HEALTHORA SPECIALISES IN HEALTH
One channel paid for a year is a year of patients the other channel would have brought. Stop paying for marketing that does not work. Book a Growth Diagnostic: two to three weeks, one document, one recommendation. The Diagnostic is paid and fixed in scope. We will read your ads, your search presence and the page both land on, the way a patient does. We will name where patients are being lost and tell you which side of Google Ads vs SEO for clinics the next ten thousand dollars goes to first. The document is yours whether you work with us or not. Healthora specialises in health.
Book a Growth DiagnosticFrequently asked questions
Google Ads vs SEO for clinics: which one is better?
Neither wins outright, because each is good at a different time. Google Ads books patients within days and stops the day the budget stops. SEO takes months to begin and then brings patients for years at no cost per click. Google Ads vs SEO for clinics is settled by the diary. Ads cover the gap this month, search covers the next three years, and both are planned as one so the money moves across as the pages begin to book.
How long does SEO take to bring a clinic new patients?
A treatment page written in month one tends to begin booking around month six and to carry a share of the diary by year two. Google’s own page on how Search works says ranking is done programmatically and that the company does not accept payment to rank a site higher. The time cannot be bought. A Google Ads vs SEO for clinics plan starts the search work the same week the ads switch on, so the waiting is covered by ads rather than by empty chairs.
Should a clinic stop Google Ads once SEO is working?
Rarely all of it. By month twelve a combined plan has moved most of the money towards search and keeps a smaller ads budget for new treatments, a new site and quiet weeks. The ads also keep teaching. They show within days which treatment and which words bring the patient who books, and search then writes for that. The split is revisited each quarter from the monthly sheet, which is where the Google Ads vs SEO for clinics decision is made from then on.
How should a clinic split ten thousand dollars between Google Ads and SEO?
By the revenue stage and the gap in the diary, never by an average. A clinic with empty chairs this month puts the larger share into ads for the first ninety days and the smaller share into the treatment pages search will rank. A clinic with a full diary and a second site coming does the reverse. The split is the plan’s job, and a Google Ads vs SEO for clinics plan revisits it every quarter as the pages begin to book.
Does the landing page matter more for ads or for SEO?
Equally, because both channels deliver the patient to the same place. Nielsen Norman Group found that about 28% of the words on a page are read on an average visit. The treatment, the price and the booking button need to sit on the first screen. A page that cannot book loses the patient the ad paid for and the patient the search earned at the same rate. That is why a Google Ads vs SEO for clinics plan fixes the page before funding either channel.
How does a clinic know which channel booked a patient?
Three counts. Conversion tracking inside Google Ads ties a click to a call, a form or a booking. The search side is read from which page the patient landed on and whether she booked. Reception asks every new patient how she found the clinic and writes it down. Read together each month as new patients by source and cost per new patient by source, the three counts settle Google Ads vs SEO for clinics with numbers rather than invoices.
What does a Google Ads vs SEO for clinics plan cost with Healthora?
Fees depend on scope. A single-site clinic with one treatment to fill needs a different plan from a group with four sites and twenty treatment pages to write. Your ad budget stays with the clinic. The scope is set after a Growth Diagnostic: two to three weeks, one document, one recommendation. The document is yours whether or not you decide to work with us. Healthora specialises in health.
Keep reading
The six Google Ads vs SEO for clinics rules above apply to any clinic with a diary and a website. The guides below cover search for a longevity clinic whose patients research for weeks, local search for a med spa whose patients come back, and the local fundamentals a dental practice tends to skip.