Google Ads for Podiatrists

Google Ads for podiatrists: match the ad to the urgency

Plenty of podiatry patients skip the word "podiatrist". They search for the problem: heel pain, an ingrown toenail, a bunion, a child who walks on their toes, a diabetic foot check their GP mentioned.

• Urgent. Ingrown and infected toenails, sudden pain after a fall or a run. The person wants a phone number and the next available time. The ad leads with availability and location, and the landing page puts the booking button and phone number first.
• Considered. Heel pain that has dragged on for weeks, bunions, orthotics. The person is comparing options. They need a page that explains how an assessment works and who it suits, then a clear way to book.
• Planned or referred. Diabetic foot assessments and children's foot checks. Often a parent or a carer is the one searching, and they want to know what happens at the appointment and what to bring.

Put all three into one campaign and the budget drifts toward whatever is cheapest to win. That often means the research searches, which rarely turn into a same-week appointment, while the urgent nail patient finds another clinic. Splitting them lets you fund each group on purpose and judge each one on its own measure.

Keep clinical services and retail products in separate campaigns

Many podiatry clinics also sell footwear, retail orthotics and foot care products. That is a different business from booking an assessment.

A retail campaign succeeds when someone buys a pair of shoes. A clinical campaign succeeds when someone books an appointment. If both share a budget and a conversion goal, the account cannot tell you which one is paying its way. Product searches can also soak up spend meant for appointments.

Separate campaigns give each side its own budget, its own reporting and its own landing pages. They also keep product discounts off clinical ads, which matters once offers appear.

Nail surgery photos on landing pages

Before-and-after images of nail surgery and other foot procedures are a common landing page request. They are covered by AHPRA's guidance on before and after photos, which applies to paid ads and the pages they lead to.

The guidance says these images can mislead and can lead someone to expect a successful outcome. A pair is less likely to mislead when both photos match in angle, framing, background and lighting, when the treatment is the only visible change, and when any alteration is explained. A potential breach arises when it is not clear how the treatment produced the change shown, or when the image is edited, enhanced, borrowed from another practice or not genuine. A patient comment placed beside the pair can turn it into a testimonial, which section 133 prohibits.

Before we send traffic to a page with nail photos, we check them against those conditions and flag anything that fails. Often a plain explanation of the procedure and recovery does the job without a photo pair. Our guide to before and after photos in health advertising covers the detail. The guidance can change, so check the current version before you publish.

Fix the booking pathway before buying more clicks

The Heel Centre, a podiatry practice we worked with, shows why the pathway comes first. To be clear, its result came from website, SEO and Google Business Profile work, not from Google Ads.

Over 18 months of conversion rate optimisation, SEO and profile management, online bookings grew 233%, the website conversion rate improved 169% in relative terms and organic traffic grew 177%. The practice already had visitors. Too many left before the booking step, so the work began there.

For paid search, the lesson is simple. Every click you pay for lands on the same booking pathway. If that pathway is leaking, a bigger budget mostly buys more leaks. Read the full Heel Centre case study to see what changed.

Local radius and suburb terms

Someone with a painful toe is unlikely to cross the city for an appointment. Someone looking for a podiatrist who works with children's feet may travel further. Location settings should reflect that, not one radius for every campaign.

We look at where your existing patients come from, using booking records where you can share them, and target those suburbs. Suburb terms such as "podiatrist" or "ingrown toenail" plus the suburb name get their own ad groups, so the ad text and landing page can name the location. Searches from well outside the area your patients actually travel from get excluded. Multi-site clinics get targeting per location, so one clinic's budget does not drain into another's suburbs.

Frequently Asked Questions