You have probably been told you need to "run PPC" or "invest in paid search." Maybe an agency has quoted you £1,000 a month for Google Ads management and you are not sure what you would actually be paying for. This guide explains PPC from scratch, in plain English, with real cost ranges specific to UK clinic keywords.
No jargon. No filler. Just what you need to know before you spend a penny.
Table of Contents
- What PPC actually means
- How Google Ads works in 60 seconds
- What UK clinic keywords actually cost per click
- The maths behind a PPC campaign for a clinic
- When PPC makes sense for a clinic
- When PPC is premature
- PPC vs SEO: which should you do first
- The common mistakes clinics make with PPC
- What to have in place before you start
- How to know if your PPC is working
What PPC actually means
PPC stands for pay-per-click. It is a type of online advertising where you pay a fee every time someone clicks on your ad. You are not paying for the ad to appear. You are paying only when someone actually clicks it.
The most common form of PPC is Google Ads. When a patient searches "travel vaccines near me" and clicks one of the sponsored results at the top, the clinic behind that result pays Google for that click.
That is the entire concept. You bid on search terms. Your ad appears when people search those terms. You pay when they click.
How Google Ads works in 60 seconds
Here is what happens between a patient typing a search and your ad appearing:
- A patient searches something like "weight loss clinic Manchester."
- Google checks which advertisers are bidding on that keyword.
- Google scores each advertiser on two things: how much they are willing to pay per click, and how relevant their ad and landing page are.
- Google picks the winners and decides the order.
- The winning ads appear at the top of the search results, labelled "Sponsored."
- If the patient clicks your ad, you pay. If they do not click, you pay nothing.
The entire process takes milliseconds. Google runs this auction every single time someone searches.
You only pay when someone clicks. Not when they see your ad. Not when they scroll past it. Only when they click through to your website.
What UK clinic keywords actually cost per click
Costs vary by keyword, location, and competition. But here are realistic ranges for UK healthcare terms in 2026:
| Keyword | Typical cost per click |
|---|---|
| Ear wax removal + location | £2 to £5 |
| Travel vaccines + location | £3 to £6 |
| Weight loss clinic + location | £4 to £8 |
| Private GP + location | £5 to £10 |
| Botox + location | £3 to £7 |
| ADHD assessment private + location | £6 to £12 |
| Hair transplant + location | £8 to £15 |
| Dermal fillers + location | £3 to £7 |
| Private blood test + location | £2 to £5 |
| GLP-1 / Mounjaro + location | £4 to £9 |
These are per-click costs. Not per-booking. Not per-patient. Per click.
If you pay £6 per click and it takes 15 clicks to get one booking, that booking cost you £90 in ad spend. Whether that is worth it depends entirely on what that patient is worth to your clinic.
The maths behind a PPC campaign for a clinic
Here is how to work out whether PPC makes financial sense for your specific services.
Step 1: Know your cost per click. Check Google Keyword Planner for your service plus your location. It gives estimated ranges. Use the mid-point.
Step 2: Know your conversion rate. This is the percentage of people who click your ad and then book. For a good clinic landing page, expect 5 to 10%. For a bad one, expect 1 to 2%.
Step 3: Calculate cost per booking.
Cost per click divided by conversion rate equals cost per booking.
Example: £6 per click with a 7% conversion rate means roughly £86 per booked patient.
Step 4: Compare against patient value. If an ear wax appointment is worth £65, spending £86 to acquire that patient loses money. If a weight loss programme is worth £1,200 over 6 months, spending £86 to acquire that patient is a strong return.
This is the calculation that decides everything. Not impressions, not clicks, not click-through rate. Cost per booking versus patient lifetime value.
When PPC makes sense for a clinic
PPC works well when all of these are true:
Patients are actively searching for your service. Services like ear wax removal, travel vaccines, and weight loss have high search volumes. Patients type these into Google with intent to book.
Your average patient value justifies the cost. A service worth £200 or more per patient can absorb the cost per acquisition comfortably. A service worth £50 needs an extremely high conversion rate to break even.
Your website converts visitors into bookings. If your landing page has a booking button above the fold, shows real availability, and loads in under 2 seconds on mobile, PPC will produce bookings. If your page says "call us during opening hours," PPC will produce wasted spend.
You have diary capacity to fill. PPC is a tap you can turn on and off. If your diary has empty slots this month and you have a page that converts, ads fill those slots faster than any other channel.
You want results this week, not this quarter. SEO takes months. PPC produces clicks the same day you launch. If you need patients now, paid search delivers speed that organic cannot match.
When PPC is premature
PPC is the wrong move if any of these apply:
Your website does not convert. Running ads to a page that does not let patients book is paying to send people to a dead end. Fix the site first, then turn on ads.
Your service has low search volume. Check Google Keyword Planner. If "your service + your town" gets fewer than 50 searches a month, there is not enough demand to justify a campaign. You cannot advertise to searches that do not exist.
You do not have a dedicated landing page. Sending ad clicks to your homepage wastes money. The ad promises a specific service. The page needs to deliver that specific service with a booking button. If you do not have that page, build it before you spend on ads.
You cannot track bookings. Without conversion tracking, you are spending money with no way to measure what it produced. You will never know which keywords work, which times of day convert, or when to stop. Set up tracking before you launch.
Your patient value is low and your margins are tight. If your service is worth £40 per appointment and your cost per click is £5, the maths rarely works. You would need a 15% conversion rate just to break even on the first appointment.
PPC vs SEO: which should you do first
They do different jobs. Here is the honest comparison:
| PPC | SEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Results in days | Results in 3 to 6 months |
| Cost model | Pay per click, ongoing | Investment in content and build, compounds over time |
| When it stops | Traffic stops the day you stop paying | Traffic continues indefinitely |
| Best for | Filling gaps now, testing demand, seasonal pushes | Long-term visibility, building authority |
| Requires | Budget and a converting landing page | Time, content, and a well-built site |
For most clinics, the right answer is SEO first, PPC second.
Here is why. A well-built website with service pages, fast load times, and good booking UX converts organic traffic and paid traffic. If you build the website properly for SEO, you already have the landing pages PPC needs. The reverse is not true. Running PPC on a site that was never built for conversion wastes money regardless of budget.
The exception is when you need patients urgently. A new service launch, a quiet month, or a seasonal spike are all good reasons to use PPC for short-term demand while your SEO compounds in the background.
The common mistakes clinics make with PPC
Sending ads to the homepage
Your homepage talks about everything. An ad for "travel vaccines Leeds" needs to land on a page about travel vaccines in Leeds. With a booking button. Nothing else.
No negative keywords
Without negative keywords, your ad for "weight loss clinic" shows to people searching "weight loss diet plan free" or "weight loss clinic jobs." You pay for every one of those irrelevant clicks.
Add these on day one: NHS, free, jobs, training, courses, salary, volunteer, complaints, DIY, home, Reddit.
Tracking clicks instead of bookings
An agency reporting "you got 200 clicks this month" is telling you nothing useful. The question is how many of those clicks became booked appointments. Without conversion tracking, you cannot answer it.
Running broad match keywords
Broad match means Google shows your ad for anything it considers related. "Ear wax removal" on broad match might trigger for "ear infection symptoms" or "how to clean ears at home." Neither of those people will book. Use phrase match or exact match to protect your budget.
Bidding on too many keywords at once
Start with one service, one location, and 5 to 10 tightly focused keywords. Prove it works. Then expand. Clinics that launch with 50 keywords across 8 services cannot tell what is working and what is wasting money.
Running ads outside your catchment
A patient will travel 10 minutes for ear wax removal and 45 minutes for a hair transplant. Set your location targeting radius based on the service, not a default 25-mile circle.
What to have in place before you start
Before you spend anything on PPC, make sure these five things are ready:
1. A dedicated landing page for the service you are advertising. Not your homepage. A page that mentions the exact service, includes your location, shows availability, and has a booking button above the fold.
2. A booking system that works on mobile. Over 70% of ad clicks come from phones. If your booking form is clunky on mobile or requires a phone call, those clicks are wasted.
3. Conversion tracking. This tells Google (and you) which clicks resulted in a booking. Without it, you are flying blind. Google Tag Manager and a "booking confirmed" page are all you need.
4. A negative keyword list. Block the irrelevant searches before you spend a penny on them. This takes 10 minutes and saves hundreds of pounds a month.
5. A realistic monthly budget. For a single-service, single-location campaign, £300 to £500 a month is enough to generate meaningful data. Less than that takes too long to learn from. More than that is premature until you have proven the page converts.
How to know if your PPC is working
Ignore impressions. Ignore click-through rate. Ignore cost per click as an isolated number. These are vanity metrics for clinics.
The only three numbers that matter:
1. Cost per booked appointment. Total ad spend divided by total bookings from ads. If this number is lower than the lifetime value of a patient for that service, PPC is profitable. If it is higher, something needs fixing.
2. Conversion rate. What percentage of people who click your ad actually book? Below 3% means your landing page is the problem, not your ads. Above 7% means your page is doing its job and you can consider increasing budget.
3. Return on ad spend (ROAS). Total revenue from PPC patients divided by total ad spend. A ROAS of 3:1 means every £1 spent produced £3 of revenue. For clinic services with high lifetime value, aim for 5:1 or higher.
If your agency cannot report these three numbers, they are reporting activity, not results.
A quick checklist before you commit
Before you say yes to a PPC agency or set up Google Ads yourself, answer these:
- Does your service get at least 100 monthly searches in your area?
- Do you have a dedicated page for that service with a booking button?
- Does that page load in under 3 seconds on a phone?
- Can you track which ad clicks become actual bookings?
- Is the lifetime value of one patient higher than 10 times your cost per click?
If you answered yes to all five, PPC will likely produce a positive return. If you answered no to any of them, fix that gap first. The ad spend will still be there when you are ready.
Book a discovery call
If you are unsure whether PPC is right for your clinic, or you have been running ads without knowing whether they are actually producing bookings, book a free 20-minute discovery call. We will look at your current setup, check whether your landing page is ready for paid traffic, and tell you honestly whether you should be spending on ads today or fixing something else first.
