We conducted a manual case study to find out what types of Google posts performed the best by manually analyzing over 600 posts from different of dentists and healthcare practitioners listed on Google My Business.
In this study, we studied both GMB profiles and also reviewed analytics data from 600 dentists profiles we had access, at the time of writing this case study. According to Google My Business (GMB), and clicks and conversions inside Google Analytics (by using UTM codes), we found some posts perform better and some of them were not able to get even few clicks.
Table of Contents
What Are Google Posts?
Google Posts are a way to market to patients & prospective patients (people searching for you on Google) through your Google My Business listing.
Google Posts are offers, content, events, or highlights about your practice published – via Google My Business – which post directly to Google Search & Google Maps.
According to Google, posting through Google My Business lets you publish your events, products, and services directly to Google Search and Maps.
By creating posts, you can place timely, action-oriented content in front of patients & prospective patients when they find your business listing on Google or Google Maps.
Why Would A Dentist Use Google My Business Posts?
Because you’re reaching people when they are searching for you on Google & Google Maps!
Google My Business Posts can help you engage patients – and more importantly, prospective patients – in a few different ways.
GMB Posts will be effective for dentists because Posts allow you to maximize more real estate on Google’s search results page. You can showcase important updates about your practice, help promote local events (schools, sports, charity…etc.), and drive more clicks to your website, and landing pages.
When people in your area (trusting you have good enough Local SEO) search for & find your Google My Business (GMB) listing, your Posts will be prominently displayed.
4 more benefits all dentists (with verified, optimized GMB listings) will realize with effective Google My Business Posts:
- Captivating posts will make your Google My Business listing stand out from the competition.
- Posts appear more prominent on mobile devices…where MOST of your traffic comes from.
- People can share your Posts on their social media profiles, improving your engagement.
- People can click-to-call your office to make appointments or even online purchases. (whitening kits, fundraising, event promotion…etc.)
Lets explore main type of Google posts
Every post can include a short blurb (only the first 80 characters show up in search results), photos or even videos to help increase your practices relevance online.
Live Event Posts
Are you looking to promote an event that your practice is hosting or sponsoring? Look no further! Whether you are giving a presentation at a local school about the importance of oral health or volunteering at a food bank, showcase how your practice gives back to your local community!
Special Offer Posts
An offer post is a great way to expand your outreach for limited-time offers or promotional sales within your office. Special offers also include a call to action button that directs the patient to your website for more information. Every post can include the terms and conditions of the offer, a coupon code or link to an offers and promotions page within your website. This practice is offering a free Phillips Sonicare Electric Toothbrush for every new patient who joins the practice!
Product Posts
Show off your newest or most popular products in the office! All you have to do is choose a compelling title and a photo or video that promotes the product. Tell your potential patients about the additional features and added benefits. Have you recently gotten an Itero scanner or started to offer in-office teeth whitening solutions? This example practice recently got new and improved online scheduling software. This lets potential patients know that scheduling with them is a breeze!
Results from Case Study – What works best?
When we measured the performance of the 4 different post types, the two types that performed the best were Product posts and offer posts. The worst-performing type was the update post type.
| Post Type | # of Posts | Clicks (GMB) | Clicks (GA) | Conversions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offer | 299 | 3.06 | 0.51 | 0.08 |
| Product Posts | 33 | 2.48 | 1.6 | 0.27 |
| Events | 182 | 1.46 | 1.42 | 0.14 |
| Update | 523 | 0.76 | 1.13 | 0.06 |
We decided to calculate a click-through rate by dividing clicks by views. Doing this showed that update posts & event posts were still the worst performing post in terms of click-through rate.
| Post Type | # of Posts | Clicks (GMB) | Views | CTR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offer | 299 | 3.06 | 512 | 0.6% |
| Product Posts | 33 | 2.48 | 570 | 0.4% |
| Events | 182 | 1.46 | 636 | 0.2% |
| Update | 523 | 0.76 | 277 | 0.3% |
When we looked at posts with titles compared to posts without titles, we found that posts with titles got almost twice the clicks and double the conversions.
| Title | # of Posts | Clicks (GMB) | Clicks (GA) | Conversions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | 343 | 0.99 | 0.97 | 0.05 |
| Yes | 697 | 1.90 | 0.84 | 0.10 |
Photos that contained text in them got almost 4x the clicks compared to photos with no text.
| All Caps Title | # of Posts | Clicks (GMB) |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 688 | 2.03 |
| No | 306 | 0.59 |
The orther GMB Post types that got the most activity were:
- Posts about specials or discounts.
- Posts containing a call-to-action. For example, including “contact us today” in the image or post title.
- Posts containing a sense of urgency. For example, highlighting that you offer same-day appointments for a dentist.
The full list of categories is listed below. Posts could fall into multiple categories if they applied.
| Type | # of Posts | Clicks (GMB) |
|---|---|---|
| Specials/Discounts | 53 | 6.04 |
| Calls-to-Action | 363 | 2.71 |
| Sense of Urgency | 25 | 2.68 |
| We are Open | 98 | 1.93 |
| Awards or USP | 47 | 1.36 |
| Questions | 234 | 1.23 |
| Products/Services | 215 | 1.04 |
| Who we Are | 106 | 1.03 |
| Seasonal | 37 | 0.75 |
| Reviews | 15 | 0.71 |
Building signals of relevance and prominence around your practice is crucial for your online success. However, different types of posts can bring different conversions to your practice. These results were admittedly at the bottom of the GMB Profile, but look how the content differs from the previous results brings value to your practice.
