PPC for physical therapy clinics
A patient who has to attend three times a week will not drive twenty minutes to do it. In this category geography is not a setting; it is the entire strategy.
Patients attending three times a week will not drive twenty minutes
Physical therapy is bought in courses, not in visits, and a course means repeated trips during working hours. That makes the realistic catchment much smaller than the map most clinics advertise across, and it makes distance the single strongest predictor of whether a booked evaluation turns into completed care. Accounts that widen their radius to increase volume reliably increase cancellations instead, and the cost per completed course goes up while the cost per lead goes down — which is exactly the sort of improvement that hides a problem.
The other leak is intent. Physical therapy terms attract students, job seekers, people looking for exercises to do at home, and patients whose insurance will not cover you. Layered on top is a timing problem: post-operative searches happen weeks before the surgery, so a campaign judged on same-month conversions will conclude the best traffic in the account is worthless and remove it.
- ZoneA radius drawn to a drive somebody will make three times a week
- 1stNegatives first — exercises, stretches, school, degree, jobs, salary, as patterns
- TimePost-operative campaigns judged over months, not weeks
- PlanMeasured on completed courses of care, not on evaluations booked
From our audit playbook. Client results on the case studies page.
How we run Google Ads for physical therapy clinics
Geography treated as the primary variable
Tight bidding around the clinic, with expansion tested rather than assumed. If a wider radius produces patients who attend, the data will show it within a quarter; in most markets it shows the opposite, and clinics have been paying for that difference for years.
Condition and post-operative campaigns kept separate
A sciatica search and a knee replacement search sit at different points in the timeline and convert on different schedules. Splitting them lets the post-operative campaign be judged over the period it operates in, rather than being canceled during its third week.
The direct-access question used as the ad
Most patients believe they need a referral. An ad that answers that question, sent to a page explaining the rules in your state accurately and with the caveats intact, reaches people who are currently waiting instead of booking. It is the strongest angle available in the category and almost nobody uses it.
Measured to completed care
Evaluations tracked to attendance, and attendance tracked through the plan of care, by campaign. Cost per evaluation is a useful early signal and a poor final measure, because the evaluations that never return are the expensive ones.
Ads for the scheduled surgery; pages for the referral question
Some searches here are dated and urgent — an operation on the fourteenth, an athlete mid-season — and paid search reaches them the same week at a cost that can be checked against evaluations attended. The referral question and the condition library are the slow half, producing patients for years without further spend. Run both, keep the paid geography tight, and judge everything on cost per completed course of care.
SEO for physical therapy clinics, explained the same way Or read the plain SEO vs PPC comparison
Physical therapy PPC, answered plainly
How wide should we target?
Tighter than instinct suggests. Test outward from the clinic and watch attendance rather than bookings. In most markets the useful radius is a fraction of what clinics advertise across, and cutting it improves the cost of a completed course of care even as the number of inquiries falls.
Should we advertise the direct-access message?
It is the strongest angle in the category, provided the page it leads to is accurate about your state’s rules and honest that a particular plan may still require physician involvement. Overstating it creates a difficult first phone call and can create a compliance problem.
Why do post-operative campaigns look like they are failing?
Because the search happens before the surgery and the appointment happens weeks after it. A campaign measured on the same month it spends in will always look poor, and it is usually the highest-value traffic in the account.
What are the main sources of waste?
Home exercise searches, students, job seekers, and patients whose plans you are not in network with. Most can be excluded before launch, and doing so typically improves account economics more than any bidding adjustment.
How should we measure results?
Evaluations attended, and then courses of care completed, by campaign. A clinic that optimizes for the cheapest evaluation will find patients who book, attend once and disappear, which is more expensive than it looks.
Find out what a completed course of care costs you
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