Planning for the Rising Costs of Google Adwords

Marketing on the internet follows the same rules of increasing costs, but there is hope for Addiction Treatment Centers. With effective marketing portfolio management, an addiction treatment facility can:

• Win the marketing game
• Fill its beds
• Help people kick addiction

At the end of the day, the center can make money while at the same time treating all patients with the respect and dignity they deserve that will enable them to live better lives.

Should I Include the Internet/Digital in My Marketing Budget?

Absolutely! The most successful addiction treatment facilities utilize multiple marketing channels, optimizing each channel to obtain the lowest cost per admission, at the highest quality and lowest risk. The five primary channels used are:

1. Direct Sales Force – Salespeople are very expensive but can be extremely effective. Facilities can best leverage this channel by focusing efforts on channel partners such as hospitals, other treatment facilities, interventionists, psychiatrists, employers and unions.
2. Alumni – Even for new facilities that are just welcoming their first patients, the need to nurture this low-cost, high-conversion channel is critical to a facility’s long-term success. Studies have shown that after a stay with an addiction treatment center, 49% recommend family, friends and colleagues to the same facility, 16% posted social media reviews and 19% posted a review on a website.
3. Television and Print Advertising – This channel can take many forms, from running TV or radio commercials, print ads in newspapers and magazines to the use of outside billboards.
4. Paid Leads (Calls/referrals) – This channel involves some ethical dimensions that are beyond the scope of this paper. Nevertheless, many facilities choose to purchase leads via intermediaries or directly from providers that forward calls or submissions garnered from their own non-branded marketing initiatives.
5. Internet/Digital – This channel includes all types of online and digital marketing, including websites, mobile apps, e-mail, tweets, social media ads and posting, videos, podcasts and anything that can be provided via electronic means.

With the first four channels sounding so robust, who needs to worry about the internet/digital channel anyways? Everyone! A whopping 86% of patients use the internet to research and/or find the addiction treatment facility they chose to go to.

What does this mean for search engine marketing in addiction treatment at your rehab facility? Essentially, two things…

This is an excerpt from Dreamscape Marketing’s Whitepaper, “Search Engine Marketing in Addiction Treatment: Planning for the Rising Costs of Google Adwords.”

To download your own personal copy, click here.