Google Ads · Podiatry
Google Ads forPodiatrists
Built by clinic owners, for podiatrists. Targeting the podiatry patients you can actually win on Google. Measured in real bookings, not clicks.
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.
google.com
heel pain podiatrist near me
Newcastle Podiatry · Heel Pain Specialists
Plantar fasciitis. Ingrown toenails. Diabetic foot care. Same-week appointments.
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 actually 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.
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
Most agencies don't know the difference between what podiatrists do and what patients search for.
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 actually 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.
The translation gap
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 actually 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 actually 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 actually lives.
The numbers nobody publishes
What a new patient enquiry costs a podiatry clinic.
Off the accounts we run, July 2026. An enquiry only counts when it is genuine: a phone call over 60 seconds, or a real booking or contact form submission. No link taps, no button clicks, no page views.
$85
median cost of one new patient enquiry, July 2026
$60 to $135
lower quarter to upper quarter
$705
what one new patient is typically worth, at $141 across 5 visits
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
Simple, honest pricing.
No hidden fees. No long contracts. Pay for the work, pay for the spend, get the results.
ROI calculator
See your return before you spend a cent.
What the patient pays you per visit
Average number of visits per patient
Your media budget, separate from management fees
Select your specialty above to see your numbers.
Google Ads
Monthly management
$525/mo
+ GST + 15% of ad spend
One off setup
$795
+ GST
What's in the setup
- Strategy session
- A clear, defined Google Ads marketing strategy
- Conversion tracking installed
- Keyword research
- Full campaign build
- Everything wired up and working before launch
Ongoing, every week
- In your account every 24 to 48 hours
- Measuring, refining, optimising
- Constant split testing. Always trying to beat our best ad.
- Monthly reporting in plain English
- Pete in the account, not a junior or overseas VA
Min. ad budget: $500/mo
Get my free Google Ads audit
Written by
Pete Flynn
Co-owner, Clinic Mastery. Co-founder, Physio Fit Adelaide.
Two-time Telstra Business Awards winner (2019, 2022). Five-time Telstra Awards judge. South Australia Top 40 Under 40 (2019).
Read more about Pete →Common questions
The questions clinic owners ask us.
How much do Google Ads cost for podiatrists?
Do Google Ads work for podiatry clinics?
Should I run Google Ads for orthotics specifically?
Will Google Ads bring in CDMP and chronic disease patients?
How fast will I see results?
I'm already running ads. Can I keep them?
What's a realistic monthly ad budget?
Do you lock me in?
Why are you better than a generic marketing agency?
Will Pete actually run my ads, or a junior?
Ready when you are
We'll show you exactly which podiatry patients you can win on Google.
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.
Related
We work with healthcare clinics across Australia.
Google Ads for other specialties
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- Google Ads for Exercise Physiology Clinics
- Google Ads for Osteopathy Clinics
- Google Ads for Remedial Massage Clinics
- Google Ads for Myotherapy Clinics
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Other services for Podiatry clinics
Looking for our general approach? See how we run Google Ads for healthcare clinics.
Where we work
We run Google Ads for clinics in every major Australian city. Each city guide covers local cost per booking ranges, catchment patterns, and the specialty mix we see there: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Canberra, Hobart. Or browse every city we cover.
Related reading
- What a podiatry client should cost you on Google in 2026
- Google Ads don't just go live. They learn. Here's what that looks like.
- Two clinics. Same Google. One pays $80 per booking. The other pays $220.
- Conversion vs conversion action in clinic Google Ads
- What you can afford to spend on a new patient
- Stop bidding on your own brand name
- Your Google Ads will only be as good as the website behind them
- Doing your own marketing isn't free
- Paid marketing is a microphone: what it can't fix
