Google Ads vs Psychology Today: How PPC Levels the Playing Field for Counselors

A strong online reputation and network are critical for helping potential clients find your therapy services. With online therapy driving strong growth among people searching for mental health care, the field is currently dominated by large firms. In one recent survey, 66% of respondents used either BetterHelp, Doctor on Demand, or Talkspace to receive counseling online.

This makes it hard for smaller private practices to stand out and build trust with potential clients. That’s where professional digital marketing for therapists can help you make the most of your paid advertising strategies to reach new patients more effectively. 

Which is Better — Psychology Today Listing or Paid Ads?

Psychology Today hosts hundreds of thousands of professional listings in their directory, making it a helpful tool for therapists. It costs a small fee to be listed, and your practice can receive a “verified” badge when its staff completes a background check of your licenses and credentials. 

It’s just common sense that when trying to grow your therapy practice with a strong online presence, you list your practice in as many directories as possible. This is a fundamental strategy of local SEO, which is crucial to therapist marketing because it addresses geographically specific searches, like “near me” and “city name” searches.  In fact, you should have your practice information consistently updated across all directories, including Google Business Profile, Yelp, WebMD, local Chambers of Commerce, and more. 

Unfortunately, just having your individual or group practice passively listed online doesn’t tend to generate enough leads all on its own to sustain a practice. People seeking therapy may not know to check there, or there may be too many listings to sort through.

That’s why we recommend a customized marketing plan to help you grow your practice that involves long-term, organic SEO strategies like online directories and paid marketing strategies for therapists that give you a quick boost to online visibility. 

We custom-quote each online advertising package to fit your budget and goals, so that you can make the most of your marketing budget and expand your therapy practice sustainably. If you’re ready to get started, get in touch with our expert marketing team to get your customized plan.

We’ve analyzed the latest marketing trends to determine which marketing efforts are the most effective for local therapists hoping to grow their online presence and expand their practice. 

PPC Management Services for Mental Health Companies

Pay-per-click advertising gives immediate results for modern therapists looking to expand their practice online. As the name suggests, you are only charged when someone clicks on your ad, which makes it more closely tied to your actual ROI. 

This makes it a better investment than paying for a Psychology Today listing or other paid directories, since the cost for those remains the same regardless of how many leads they generate for you — or if they never generate a single one! 

That said, we still recommend keeping your practice listed on as many online platforms as possible. This improves your name recognition in the digital world, which in turn boosts your rankings in organic search results. PPC is your best bet for immediate lead generation; however, while you wait for organic strategies to take effect. 

PPC specifically addresses a defined group of potential patients. This means that when we design your PPC strategy, we’ll work directly with you to understand your approach to therapy, your key service groups, and your region as a whole. By designing effective campaigns around your specific needs, we help you level the playing field when it comes to digital advertising.

One of the best things about working with a full-service digital marketing agency like SEO Design Chicago is that we will make sure all of your marketing efforts work together holistically. Along with PPC Management, we can incorporate:

• Email marketing 
• Content marketing 
• Social media marketing
• Technical optimization
• Conversion-focused web design

Request a free call to discuss your marketing needs with us. 

Google Ads Paid Search for Therapists and Counselors

Google Ads are the juggernaut of online digital marketing services. There are over 16 billion searches conducted on Google every day. A specifically targeted, customized Google Ad plan can be among your most effective marketing strategies as a therapist or counselor, because it makes your listing show up where patients are already spending significant time — on Google. 

The key with Google Ads is clear, trackable reporting and campaign segmentation. You could throw a lot of marketing spend at generic search terms like “therapist near me,” but if your campaigns aren’t carefully designed, those ads will still be buried under larger advertisers.

At SEO Design Chicago, we create specific ad campaigns that display to your target audience. We use competitor and geographic analysis to determine which search terms have the best ROI and CTR, and determine your bid rate based on that. Even better, we set up a customizable analytics dashboard that you have access to at any time, so you can see exactly how your Google Ad campaigns are performing and driving leads to your website.  

Targeted Display Advertising for Private Practice Therapists

Targeted display advertising is a highly effective marketing tool for therapists. In one recent survey, 70% of Americans polled had used internet search engines to find information on mental health topics. 

Since Google records this search history into customer demographics, it can allow for highly specific advertising. This goes far beyond that pair of new sunglasses that keeps following you around the internet, though. Digital marketing experts can design targeted display ads to address people who are actively researching the kinds of mental health issues that you provide services for. Targeted advertising lets potential patients know that there are therapists in their area, ready to meet their needs.

Once your therapy website is optimized for organic search and ready to convert leads into patients, we can set up advertising that displays to your target audience on the platforms they use the most, whether that’s social media platforms, YouTube, or shopping sites. 

Bing Advertising — Bing Ads for the Mental Health Industry

Multi-channel advertising is one of the best digital marketing strategies for finding new therapy clients in a geographically specific area. Your therapy business needs to stand out in a marketing landscape dominated by large companies. Best practices show that personalizing your advertising for your niche audience across multiple marketing channels is the best way to boost your digital presence among your target audience.

Bing Ads work similarly to Google Ads, but there tends to be less competition for common keywords like “online therapist near me.” Furthermore, these ads are displayed across properties that Microsoft owns, including Yahoo, Bing, and Outlook. This captures a significant amount of desktop traffic, as people tend to use Microsoft for work. 

The bottom line: Bing Ads are a good investment for mental health professionals hoping to boost therapist SEO scores and short-term traffic.

Frequently Asked Questions

Not sure how paid search and directory listings work with your organic SEO efforts? Healthcare, especially mental healthcare, tends to have a higher cost-per-lead compared to some other fields, but matching the right patients with the right practice can result in a long-term, sustainable relationship that makes the effort well worthwhile. 

That’s why a strong website and social media presence are effective at boosting your organic traffic, while PPC makes strategic use of your marketing budget to specifically address the people who need the services you offer.

Here are some of the top questions we receive about how organic and paid marketing strategies work together. 

What is paid search, and how can it help therapists attract new clients?

Paid search helps direct prospective patients to your website by placing ads for your practice at the top of search results pages. This complements SEO for therapists, because it gives you a “boost” to the top of the organic search results that makes it more likely for patients to click on your listing.

Now, Google considers more than just the amount of money you paid for an ad spot when deciding whether or not to display your ad over a competitor’s. That’s why it’s important to have a solid website that stands out in the digital landscape.  

Are Google Ads worth it for therapy practices?

Google Ads give immediate results. These kinds of marketing campaigns are incredibly useful for therapy practices because they help to get you fully booked, quickly. Thanks to the integrated analytics and tracking dashboard that’s part of Google AdWords, you can also see how many leads are being sent to your booking pages from Google Ads and converting into long-term clients. 

Do Bing Ads and display advertising work for mental health services?

While Google Ads is the giant among search ads, there’s also more competition in this space. Multi-channel advertising, such as Bing Ads or display ads, can sometimes be a better investment than simply increasing your Google Ads budget. If you target your strategy around well-defined demographics, you can generate more clicks by focusing on lower cost-per-lead channels like Bing. 

Is PPC or SEO better for therapists?

Paid search is a great addition to your existing organic SEO efforts. We recommend establishing a solid, SEO-optimized website with a conversion-focused design. This ensures that your PPC efforts will direct leads back to a website that is designed to encourage them to schedule their first appointment or a free consultation with your therapy practice. 

How much should a therapy practice budget for paid search ads?

One of the best things about paid search ads is that they accommodate a flexible budget. These campaigns can be constantly adjusted to adapt to the click-through rate and optimize your ROI. Smaller practices often start with as little as $20/day, while larger online therapy practices can go around $2,500/month. 

 

Ready to grow your practice with personalized online marketing services? Request a free consultation today.