Google Ads · Podiatry

Google Ads forpodiatrists

Google Ads for podiatrists, built around the conditions patients type rather than the services you list. Heel pain, ingrown toenails and kids' feet, measured in bookings.

Most podiatry clinics that try Google Ads stop trying. The campaign goes live, the budget disappears, and bookings don't follow. The reason is almost always the same. The campaign was built around the words podiatrists use, not the words a patient with sore feet would type. Patients don't search for 'orthotics'. They search for 'heel pain'. Get that one thing wrong and the whole campaign suffers, no matter how good the podiatrists behind it are.

Free Google Ads audit Apply Now Pricing

See our approach →

google.com

heel pain podiatrist near me

↵

Sponsoredyourpodiatry.com.au

Newcastle Podiatry · Heel Pain Specialists

Plantar fasciitis. Ingrown toenails. Diabetic foot care. Same-week appointments.

4.9 · 312 reviews

another-podiatry.com.au

Another Podiatry Clinic

Welcome to our practice. Comprehensive foot care services.

city-foot-clinic.com.au

City Foot Clinic

When patients search, you win the click.

What podiatry patients search

Patients don't search 'orthotics'. They search what's hurting their feet.

If you optimise for the word 'orthotics', you're paying Google for traffic from very few patients. Almost no one Googles a treatment they haven't been told they need yet. They Google the symptom that woke them up that morning.

heel pain treatment [suburb]

plantar fasciitis podiatrist

podiatrist [suburb]

ingrown toenail surgery near me

diabetic foot care [city]

podiatrist for kids

Patients Google the problem, not the solution. They feel the pain in their heel. They don't know whether they need orthotics, a podiatrist, a physio, or a sports doctor. They search 'heel pain'. We build campaigns that meet them at that exact moment, then guide them to the booking. The patient who came in for heel pain often leaves with orthotics. They just didn't know that's what they were searching for.

See the thinking behind one ad

Pick your specialty and the search a patient runs

You will get one real ad, written the way I write them, and the method I used to get there. No campaign structure, no keyword list, no budgets. That part is the work I do with you.

Where agencies go wrong

Podiatrists describe what they do. Patients describe what hurts.

Sit inside enough Google Ads accounts run by podiatrists and the same mistake stops looking like coincidence.

The campaign is built around treatments. Orthotics. Custom orthotics. Foot mobilisation. Shockwave therapy. Nail surgery. Beautiful keywords for a podiatrist. Almost nobody Googles them. The campaign generates impressions and very few clicks, because the patient never knew those terms in the first place.

Meanwhile, the patient is at home Googling 'heel pain that won't go away' or 'sore foot in the morning'. That's the search the budget needs to be on. The campaign that lands on that traffic and walks the patient through to a booking is the campaign that wins.

Every podiatry clinic also has avatars Google can't deliver. The diabetic chronic disease patient gets referred by a GP under a Chronic Disease Management plan. They don't Google. The post surgical foot patient gets sent by a surgeon. They don't Google either. Take those avatars off the list before you spend a cent on ads.

Patients don't Google orthotics. They Google the pain. Build the campaign for the search the patient is doing.

How we run it

How we run Google Ads for podiatry clinics.

Same four steps every clinic gets, sharpened for podiatry.

Audit your ideal client list against Google reality.

Every podiatry clinic has a mix of clients. Sports injuries. Chronic foot pain. Diabetic patients. Children. Older Australians with toe and nail issues. Some of these patients are on Google in droves. Others arrive through a GP, a surgeon, or a CDMP referral. We sort the list. The patients who search Google get the budget. The rest get a different strategy.

Build keyword groups around symptoms, not treatments.

Heel pain. Plantar fasciitis. Ingrown toenail. Foot pain. Bunions. Each of these is a real money search. Each gets its own ad group, its own ad copy, and its own landing page section that speaks to the symptom. The patient lands on a page about heel pain, not a page about orthotics. The booking follows.

Filter out the searches that don't pay.

Brand name competitors. Free public clinic queries. Pedicure and beauty searches. Generic foot health searches that lead nowhere. We negative keyword them out before launch and keep stripping them out every week.

We report on bookings. Not clicks.

The dashboard tells you what each new podiatry patient costs you, broken down by which symptom search brought them in. That's the only number that matters. Click through rate doesn't pay your rent. Bookings do.

Field notes

What we see in podiatry accounts

Podiatry splits into two businesses that share one front door. Heel pain, ingrown nails, biomechanics and diabetic foot care each attract a different patient with a different value, and the account only makes sense once the searches are split that way. Across the board a new patient costs $80 to $100 and returns around five times, but which foot problem you bought decides whether that patient was worth having.

The pattern that hurts most is bidding on orthotics. It feels like the premium service, and it attracts people pricing a product rather than booking a podiatrist. The accounts that work lead with pain and let orthotics follow in the room. Hurst Podiatry booked over 300 patients and doubled enquiries on a structure built that way.

Patients Google the pain. Podiatrists name the treatment.

If the campaign is built around what podiatrists do, it lands on a search planner that almost no patient is using. The actual money searches sit in the patient's own words: the symptom, not the procedure. The campaign meets them at the symptom. Your clinic does the work of recommending orthotics or surgery once they're in the room.

What the patient types

What you'd do

"heel pain that won't go away"
Plantar fasciitis assessment
"sore foot in the morning"
Biomechanical assessment + orthotic prescription
"ingrown toenail"
Nail surgery, partial nail avulsion
"my kid walks on their toes"
Paediatric gait assessment
"pain in the ball of my foot"
Metatarsal offloading + orthotic therapy
"diabetic, foot feels numb"
Diabetic foot screening + neurovascular assessment

Build the campaign for the search the patient does. The orthotic conversation happens in the consult, not in the headline.

The economics

Not every podiatry search is worth the same money.

Podiatry is the specialty where the headline acquisition cost hides the most. Two patients can cost you the same $90 to acquire and be worth ten times different amounts. The search term is what tells you which one you just bought.

Cost to acquire a new patient

$80 to $100

The band a healthy podiatry account runs at across a tight catchment.

Typical initial consult

$141

The default we use in our own calculators for an Australian podiatry first appointment.

Visits per patient

Around 5

Averaged across the podiatry clinics we work with, before orthotics are counted.

Heel pain and plantar fasciitis are the searches worth building the account around. They come in at the lower end of the $80 to $100 band because the intent is unmistakable, and they carry the highest lifetime value in podiatry. That patient has a biomechanical problem, they come back, and the treatment plan has somewhere to go.

Ingrown toenail is a different animal. It converts beautifully and it's perfectly fine business, but it's one or two visits and then the patient is gone. Nothing wrong with that. It just means an account that looks cheap because it's full of nail work is not the same account as one full of heel pain, even when the number at the top is identical.

And orthotics are not a search. Almost nobody Googles orthotics before a podiatrist has told them they might need some. Orthotics get recommended in the consult room, after the heel pain appointment, once you've done the assessment and explained why. So the campaign's job is to buy the heel pain appointment. Your clinical conversation does the rest, and that's where the real return in a podiatry account lives.

The numbers nobody publishes

What a new patient enquiry costs a podiatry clinic.

Off the accounts we run, September 2026. An enquiry only counts when it is genuine: a website call past 30 seconds, an ad call past 60, or a real booking or contact form submission. No link taps, no button clicks, no page views.

$61

median cost of one new patient enquiry, September 2026

$51 to $83

lower quarter to upper quarter

$705

what one new patient is typically worth, at $141 across 5 visits

See where podiatry sits against every other discipline

What good looks like

What a healthy podiatry Google Ads account looks like.

A healthy podiatry Google Ads account in Australia costs $80 to $100 per new patient booking. That assumes a tight catchment, a booking page that lets the patient book straight in, and clean keyword segmentation. We've seen it lower with sharper symptom targeting. We've also seen agencies push it past $200 by chasing treatment keywords instead of symptom keywords. The number on the screen doesn't matter on its own. What matters is what each new podiatry patient is worth to your clinic over the next 12 months, including orthotics and follow up. That's the lens we run the account through.

Pricing

Management is $525 a month plus GST and 15 percent of ad spend, with a one off setup of $795 plus GST. No lock in, and the account is yours. See the full pricing breakdown.

Written by Pete Flynn, physiotherapist. One of the owners of Clinic Mastery and Physio Fit Adelaide.

About Pete

Common questions

The questions clinic owners ask us.

How much do Google Ads cost for podiatrists?

Ad spend starts at $500 a month for a suburb catchment, plus our management fee. The number to hold us to is the cost to acquire a new patient, which should sit at $80 to $100 in a healthy Australian podiatry account. With a typical initial around $95, the first appointment covers the acquisition and everything after it is margin. Ask any agency what your acquisition cost is by search term, not just overall. Most podiatrists have never been shown that split, and it's where the real answer sits.

Do Google Ads work for podiatry clinics?

Very well, as long as the campaign chases symptoms. Heel pain, plantar fasciitis, ingrown toenail and bunions are all high volume searches with clear intent, and podiatrists compete for them in a much less crowded auction than physio. Where it stops working is the CDM and diabetic chronic disease pipeline. Those patients come from a GP, not a search bar. If that's most of your book, ads aren't your lever and we'll tell you so before you spend anything.

Should I run Google Ads for orthotics specifically?

Probably not as a primary keyword. Patients almost never search for 'orthotics' before they've been to a podiatrist. They search for the pain that brings them in. Once you're treating them, orthotics is a recommendation you make in the consult. So the campaign should be built to capture the patient at the heel pain or foot pain stage. Then your clinical conversation does the work of explaining when orthotics is the right next step.

Will Google Ads bring in CDMP and chronic disease patients?

Rarely. Patients on Chronic Disease Management plans are referred by their GP, not by their own Google search. If most of your patient pipeline is CDMP driven, your strategy is GP relationships, not paid ads. We'll tell you straight if that's where your real growth is. We'd rather tell you the truth than sell you a campaign that's pointing at the wrong audience.

Do you lock me in?

No. We have a 30 day notice period and that's it. We don't believe in 12 month contracts. Clinics work with us because they see value, they get results, and they enjoy working with healthcare professionals who understand them. Not because they're trapped. If we're not earning our keep, we don't deserve to keep your business.

How fast will I see results?

Typically, most clinics start seeing results inside the first four to six weeks. We're not promising overnight miracles. Anyone who does is lying. We are promising that your campaign will be live, optimised, and bringing in genuine new patient bookings within that window.

Ready when you are

Know which foot searches are worth paying for.

Tell us about your podiatry clinic. We'll come back with a one page plan: which symptom keywords we'd target, which patient avatars Google can't help with, and what 90 days of Google Ads should realistically deliver for a clinic your size. No pitch deck. No one hour discovery calls that add no value whatsoever.

Get my free Google Ads audit Apply Now

We work with healthcare clinics across Australia.

Google Ads for other specialties

Other services for Podiatry clinics

This page is the podiatry playbook. The general approach is on the Google Ads for healthcare clinics page.

Cities