Clinics
Google Ads for physio, chiro, massage and dental clinics
Patient acquisition for Ottawa clinics, from the searches that fill your calendar to tracking that respects patient privacy.
Clinic marketing has a specific shape. Patients search by treatment and by neighbourhood, they decide quickly, and the first thing they want to know is how soon they can be seen. That makes local search a better fit than most channels: it reaches people who have already decided to get treated and are choosing who to book with.
This page covers how we build campaigns for Ottawa clinics: the treatments worth advertising, what a patient is worth, what happens between the click and the booked appointment, and how tracking works under Canadian privacy law.
Where clinic campaigns usually lose money
The leak between the click and the booked appointment
This is where clinic campaigns usually leak. A booking flow a patient can finish on a phone in under a minute, with hours, location and insurance information visible, closes more of that gap than a bigger budget does.
One campaign for the whole clinic
A single campaign produces general ads and a blended report. Sports injury and post-surgical rehab for physio, back pain and maintenance for massage, implants and emergencies for dental: each has its own intent, its own click price and its own landing page.
A budget built on a guess rather than on patient value
One visit is not the number that matters. A physiotherapy plan runs several weeks, a massage client often returns monthly, and a dental patient can be worth years of hygiene visits. That value sets a sensible cost per new patient, and it is different for every clinic.
Urgent searches handled like routine ones
Somebody searching for an emergency dentist or a clinic open now is not comparing five options. Those ads should lead with the phone number and run when your clinic can answer, with after-hours coverage pointed at the line that picks up, if you offer it.
What your customers search for
What patients type before they book at an Ottawa clinic:
- physiotherapy near me
- chiropractor Kanata
- emergency dentist Ottawa
- RMT downtown
- massage near me
- dental implants Ottawa
- sports injury physio
- clinic open now
How we track the leads that come in
Clinics ask about this early, and the answer is straightforward. In Canada it is PIPEDA that governs personal health information, and HIPAA is American law that does not apply to an Ottawa practice. For advertising, the practical rule points the same way in both countries: track what happened, not who it happened to.
What we track is that a call, a form or a booking occurred, when it occurred, and which search led to it. No patient names, no symptoms, no treatment details, and nothing about a health condition goes to Google or stays in the campaign. The patient's record stays in your practice management system, where it belongs. Where your website collects information through a form, the clinic's own privacy notice covers it, and we keep that form to the minimum needed to book.
- Calls credited to the search that produced them, with answer and duration.
- Booking confirmations counted separately from form submissions.
- Cost per new patient, by treatment rather than blended across the clinic.
- No patient names, symptoms or treatment details in the ad platform.
Campaigns built around treatments, not around the clinic
One campaign for the whole clinic produces general ads and a blended report. We separate treatments, because each has its own intent, its own click price and its own landing page: sports injury and post-surgical rehab for physio; back pain, pregnancy and maintenance for massage; implants, Invisalign and emergencies for dental.
Clinics with more than one location get a campaign per location, with its own service radius, hours and report, so you can see which site is producing patients instead of averaging them together.
The first month at a clinic
Days one and two we agree the treatments to advertise, the service area, and what counts as a new patient for your clinic. Days three and four come keyword research, ad copy, and tracking wired into your booking flow or phone line. Day five we review the campaign with you before it spends anything. Day six it launches on a conservative budget, and on day seven you get a first read on impressions, clicks and the searches that triggered your ads.
After that it is weekly: what came in, what each new patient cost, which treatments deserve more budget, and which searches to stop paying for.
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