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Hey Practice Builders — it's Steve with Healthcare Marketing Vitals!

Last week, we explored 3 hidden HIPAA compliance risks that could cost your practice big. This week, I'm diving into Google's Local Service Ads (LSAs) for healthcare practices—a topic that's generating lots of questions, since I’ve talked more about Google Search Ads than LSAs in the past.

Are LSAs the patient acquisition goldmine everyone's talking about, or just another shiny object that drains your marketing budget? And how reliable are they?

The answer depends on your practice type, market, how you approach them…and to some extent Google’s fickle whims.

In This Week’s Email:

• [30 sec] Best Links: LSAs + an Ideal Patient Persona GPT I made for you

• [4 min] Spotlight: When LSAs work (and when they don't) for healthcare practices

• [30 sec] By the Numbers: The case for LSAs

• [30 sec] Quote for the Week: On making better ads

TOGETHER WITH KERAGON

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BEST LINKS

LSAs & Performance Marketing

Healthcare LSA Categories Expanding - Google now has LSAs for the following: Allergist, Chiropractor, Dentist, Dermatologist, Dietitian, Ophthalmologist, Optometrist, Orthodontist, Physical therapist, Podiatrist, Primary care, and Weight loss center. See the full list

Tracking Your LSAs & Marketing - If you’re not tracking where your patients are actually coming from, you’re wasting money. I recommend CallRail for this: you can use different phone numbers across different marketing channels to trace what’s working for you. Track your marketing

Google LSA Success for Dental Practices - Dental practices using LSAs are seeing solid results, with pay-per-lead pricing allowing for precise ROI tracking. The approval process is rigorous but worth it for qualified practices. Read the case study

🤖 I Made an IPP GPT for You - The Ideal Patient Persona (IPP) workbook I made seem to be pretty popular, so I made a GPT that does the same thing for you, but much more easily—let me know what you think. Create your IPPs with my GPT

SPOTLIGHT

LSAs for Healthcare: Hit or Miss?

4 min. read

Local Service Ads (LSAs) in a Nutshell

LSAs operate differently than traditional Google Ads, and frankly they’re much simpler to run.

In fact, I just throw in LSA management for free for most of our clients because there’s generally* not too much to do beyond the initial setup.

Once you set up your LSA profile, connect it to your Google Business Profile, and add your budget you’re good to go and Google can show your ads.

You pay per lead (not per click), and you appear at the very top of search results with a "Google Screened" or "Verified by Google" badge (the badges vary). 

Sounds perfect, right?

Not always.

When LSAs Are a Hit

LSAs work best for healthcare practices that fit specific criteria (you don’t need to meet all of these):

High-Intent Services: Practices offering urgent or immediate-need services see the strongest LSA performance. Emergency dental, urgent care, and pain management practices often excel because patients are actively seeking help now.

Local Competition: If you're competing against larger healthcare systems or well-established practices, the "Google Screened" badge levels the playing field. One important reason for Google's approval process is that they don't want non-healthcare companies running LSAs, unlike traditional PPC where lead generation companies (ZocDoc, for example) often compete directly with practices.

Service-Specific Searches: LSAs excel when patients search for specific treatments. "Root canal near me" or "physical therapy for back pain" convert well because the patient intent is crystal clear.

Strong Review Profile: Since reviews are used as a metric in your LSA lead score and play a part in how often your ads run, practices with solid review generation systems see better LSA performance. Aim for a 4.6 average rating or higher.

Consistent Availability: You need to have someone who can pick up the phone whenever you’re running LSAs. Your responsiveness factors into how often you’ll show, and your LSAs can tank if you aren’t responsive.

Practices New to LSAs: There seems to be a bias toward LSAs working for a practice that just set them up better than for a practice that has been running them for a time. Sometimes, after a while your ads will just stop showing out of the blue. We usually only have one option when that occurs.

When LSAs Miss the Mark

However, LSAs aren't a magic bullet. Several factors can make them less effective:

Limited Differentiation: All LSAs look essentially the same. Unlike traditional ads where you can highlight your unique positioning, patient testimonials, or specific expertise, LSAs offer minimal customization. This makes it harder to stand out based on your Ideal Patient Personas' specific concerns.

No Control: Google currently only offers 3 performance metrics for LSAs: Ad impressions, top impression rate, and absolute top impression rate. You can't control when your ads show or optimize for specific patient behaviors like you can with traditional PPC. You’ll show for searches Google deems a fit for the categories you place your practice in.

Lead Quality Variations: While you pay per lead, not all leads are created equal. Unlike other industries, Google doesn't provide lead call recordings for healthcare due to HIPAA regulations, and you can’t dispute leads for the same reason.

Market Saturation: In highly competitive markets, LSA costs can escalate quickly as more practices join the platform. Google is essentially pitting everyone in your same category against you, and you can’t get clever like you can with Google Search Ads.

The Hybrid Approach I Recommend

Here's my take: treat LSAs like going to a casino with decent odds in your favor, not a guaranteed win.

Even if you use LSAs, I still recommend maintaining traditional Google Ads campaigns.

Here's why:

Complementary Coverage: LSAs handle high-intent, immediate-need searches while traditional ads can target educational content and build awareness for your unique positioning. You should also continue to bid on high-intent keywords in your PPC campaigns.

Message Control: Traditional ads let you speak directly to your Ideal Patient Personas' specific fears, concerns, and motivations—something LSAs can't do.

Performance Optimization: With traditional PPC, you can track the full patient journey, test different messages, and optimize based on actual patient behavior and lifetime value. For LSAs the variable is simply whether you show or not.

Budget Diversification: Don't put all your patient acquisition eggs in Google's LSA basket. Maintain control over your marketing mix. If your LSAs stop showing for any reason, this will ensure you still have some flow of new patients.

Getting Started The Smart Way

If you decide to test LSAs, here's our recommended approach:

1. Set a Budget Buffer: Allocate 20-30% (at least enough to get 25+ leads per month from your LSAs) of your current PPC budget to LSA testing. This gives you meaningful data without risking your core patient acquisition.
   

2. Monitor Lead Quality Closely: Track which LSA leads convert to appointments and become long-term patients. Some practices find LSA leads have lower lifetime value than traditional PPC leads. This is where HIPAA-compliant call tracking comes in handy, because you can use a phone number specific to your LSAs to track the quality and determine whether they’re a good investment for you.
   

3. Maintain Your Core Strategy: Keep your proven patient acquisition channels running while you test LSAs. Don't abandon what's working for the shiny new option. If you’re new to PPC (Pay-per-Click) and online ads, you can try LSAs first—just make sure you spend enough to actually test them before making a decision. A cosmetic surgeon in LA can’t spend only $500/month on ads and expect to know whether they’re working!
   

4. Track True ROI: LSAs use a pay-per-lead model where you only pay for actual leads, which means you're investing in potential patients who are ready to book an appointment. But track beyond the initial lead to appointment conversion and patient lifetime value. Again, I recommend CallRail here so you can see if you’re getting an equal or better return from your PPC vs LSAs.

The Bottom Line

LSAs can be effective for healthcare practices, especially those in competitive markets offering high-intent services. The "Google" badges provides credibility, and the pay-per-lead model offers transparent ROI tracking.

But they're not a replacement for achieving patient-practice alignment and speaking to your Ideal Patient Personas' specific needs and concerns.

Think of LSAs as one tool in your patient acquisition toolkit—potentially valuable, but not a standalone solution. Test them with a dedicated budget, monitor performance closely, and maintain your proven strategies while you evaluate their effectiveness for your specific practice and market.

BY THE NUMBERS

The Case for LSAs

1. 25.3% of all clicks go to paid ads when LSAs are present. When they’re not, this drops to 14.6%.

2. 92% of searchers choose a business that shows up on the first page of the search results.

3. LSAs are clicked 25% more than Google Search Ads.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

When you’re ready, here are 4 ways I can help

I help practices get more patients using our “Full Practice Protocol”, with dedicated patient reactivation and retention strategies.

1. Try my custom IPP builder - I built out a custom GPT that helps you develop your Ideal Patient Personas in minutes on ChatGPT. Check it out now and send me your feedback! Create Your IPPs →

2. Reply to any newsletter or send me an email at [email protected]. I read and respond to every email.

3. Get in front of our audience of healthcare leaders & professionals if you provide a service or product that could help them. I vet everyone carefully for this.

4. Book a free strategy call for precise steps you can take to market & grow your practice more effectively 👇

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That’s All for Now

Have a great week Practice Builders—and remember, the best patient acquisition strategy is the one that works consistently for YOUR practice!

See You Next Week,

Steve

P.S. If you're testing LSAs, I'd love to hear about your experience. Reply and let me know how they're performing for your practice—I might feature successful strategies in a future newsletter!