Generating 19.75% More In Results For TMS Therapy Through Strategic Healthcare Advertising

The Challenge

Healthcare advertising comes with high costs. We were facing CPCs in the $16-17 range from launch. Mental health-related searches are some of the most expensive clicks you can buy on Google.

Like most clinics, Advantage TMS knew they couldn’t waste money on irrelevant clicks or pay $500+ per lead as larger networks do. Every dollar had to count toward bringing in qualified patient contacts – not just website traffic.

That meant we needed a cost-efficient system that would consistently deliver results without runaway spending.

We started with the landing page. Instead of sending paid traffic to their main website, we built a dedicated landing page just for ads. This made it easier to track performance and optimize quickly based on what was actually converting. This has come in handy for making ongoing tweaks to the landing page copy when necessary to improve the landing page experience score for our paid ads in Google Ads to help the platform see our ads overall as relevant and push them more to the searcher.

Next, we separated brand terms from non-branded terms into distinct campaigns. The non-branded campaign focused on high-intent searches: location-based terms (Clearwater, Tampa), service-specific queries (TMS therapy, TMS for depression), and cost-related searches (TMS cost). This separation kept campaigns organized and made it easy to measure what was actually working.

We also deployed the full suite of ad extensions – image assets, structured snippets, callouts – but tailored everything specifically to TMS therapy. No generic healthcare language. Everything spoke directly to what makes Advantage TMS different.

Finally, we made a deliberate choice to keep all bidding manual rather than automated. Google’s automated bidding can drive costs up quickly, and with healthcare CPCs already in the $16-17 range, we needed to maintain strict control over every dollar spent.

CAMPAIGN TIMELINE

1. September 2024: Campaign launch
2. October 2024: 5.56% conversion rate
3. December 2024: Conversion rate improves to 9.70%
4. March 2025: Hit 17.67% conversion rate
5. June 2025: Geographic expansion
6. August 2025: Continued geographic expansion + CPC adjustments
7. October 2025: 17.92% conversion rate

Geographic Expansion

Once we cleaned up irrelevant search terms and tightened targeting, we found budget breathing room to expand geographic reach. We started conservatively, then gradually opened up to more areas around Clearwater and Tampa as performance data justified the expansion.

Turning Around the August Slump

When August showed another dip, we didn’t just wait it out. We expanded geo-targeting further and raised our max CPC to maintain competitive positioning in the auction.

Performance recovered dramatically. Comparing September 2024 to October 2025, the conversion rate more than doubled from 7.88% to 17.92% – a 222% increase. Cost per conversion dropped by more than half, from  $522.73 down to $86.20.

Some agencies get discouraged by low performance periods. We see them as opportunities to test, adjust, and prove what strategic optimization can actually accomplish.

Year-Over-Year Lead Growth

Through strategic optimizations and geographic expansion, we delivered 19.75% more qualified leads for Advantage TMS compared to the same period last year – all while keeping costs under control.

The Bottom Line

Healthcare marketing doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive – but it does require precision and the willingness to stay aggressive during slow periods.

By building dedicated landing pages, separating campaign structures for clean measurement, maintaining manual bid control, and relentlessly optimizing based on performance data, we took Advantage TMS from struggling to generate leads to consistently hitting their qualified patient contacts per week.

If your healthcare practice is looking to improve lead generation while controlling advertising costs, we’d be happy to discuss how we can help.