Chapter 8: Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Mismanaging Negative Keywords

Negative keywords are a crucial element of a successful Google Ads strategy, yet many orthodontists fail to manage them properly. Negative keywords allow you to exclude certain search terms from triggering your ads, ensuring that your ads only show up for highly relevant searches. Without negative keywords, you risk wasting your ad budget on irrelevant traffic, such as users looking for dental implants or other unrelated dental services.

Why It Happens

When setting up campaigns, many orthodontists either forget to add negative keywords or don't fully understand their importance. This can result in ads being triggered for searches that have nothing to do with orthodontic services, such as “cheap dental implants” or “dentist near me.” Since these users are likely not interested in orthodontic treatment, they are unlikely to convert, leading to wasted spend.

How to Avoid It

• Identify Common Irrelevant Searches: Look at your search term report in Google Ads to identify irrelevant queries that triggered your ads. Common irrelevant searches for orthodontists include terms like “dental implants,” “dentist,” or “tooth whitening.” By identifying these irrelevant terms, you can exclude them as negative keywords.
• Add Negative Keywords Proactively: As part of your ongoing campaign management, regularly review and update your list of negative keywords. For example, if someone searches for “dentist” instead of “orthodontist,” they may be looking for general dental care, not orthodontic services. Add terms like “dentist,” “implants,” or “teeth whitening” as negative keywords to ensure your ads don’t show up for these irrelevant searches.
• Use Broad Negative Keywords: For instance, including “dentist” as a broad negative keyword will prevent your ads from showing to users searching for “dentist near me” or “emergency dentist.” You can also use exact match negative keywords to exclude specific terms that are irrelevant to your services.
• Refine Location-Based Negative Keywords: If you operate in multiple locations or cities, you may want to add negative keywords related to locations you don’t serve. For example, if you don’t operate in a certain city, add the name of that city as a negative keyword to avoid spending money on people searching for orthodontists in that area.
• Keep Negative Keywords Organized: Maintain an updated and organized list of negative keywords, and review them periodically to ensure they still align with your campaign goals. Google Ads allows you to group your negative keywords into lists, making it easier to manage them across multiple campaigns.