Should you pause PPC campaigns for the holidays? As the holidays approach, there are many industries that need to consider pay-per-click advertisement budgets during the holiday season, and whether to pause this marketing effort. However, there is one crucial industry that should not consider pausing its PPC campaigns, and that would be recovery centers. You may be wondering why recovery centers shouldn’t pause PPC for the holidays.

Many Americans associate the end of the year with warm and fuzzy thoughts of spending time with loved ones in front of a Christmas tree, eating a feast of turkey and fixings, listening to festive music, and snuggling up next to a crackling fire. This does not apply to everyone. Some people have a much more difficult and upsetting holiday experience due to problems like family strife, alcohol or drug addiction, financial hardship, isolation, loss, and seasonal affective disorder. The holiday season is the ideal time for recovery centers to reach full census, as many of those afflicted with substance use and mental health issues suffer greatly this time of year.

In this article, we will explain why PPC campaigns should be always left on, even during major holidays, especially for Addiction Treatment Centers.

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Why Recovery Centers Should not Pause PPC for The Holidays

During December and January, the CDC reports an increase in deaths due to alcohol and drugs, likely because of the financial stress of the holidays and the cold weather.

They surveyed over 2,000 people about their emotional state during the holidays to better understand the emotional toll of the season and how it affects those who are struggling with drug or alcohol addiction. Their findings suggest that most Americans experience significant to moderate levels of stress during the holiday season. For someone who is fighting drug or alcohol dependency, the holidays can be a particularly challenging time to stay clean.

If you pause your Addiction Treatment Center PPC campaigns, it will affect your center’s ability to acquire leads and reach full census during the busiest and most vulnerable time of year for these individuals. Pausing retargeting campaigns, lead magnets, or landing page funnels are much more detrimental, as it could be costing you thousands in patient sales.

If you’re looking to mind your budget for the holidays, Google AdWords Automate rules feature helps you to manage features that keep your budget, bid, and status changes to what you prefer. However, this will affect your ability to reach full census for your Recovery Center.

Recovery Centers Should Always Leave their PPC Campaigns On

Managing a PPC Campaign is difficult as Google is constantly changing. Just recently, Google updated its tracking system from UA to GA4, implementing a whole new set of rules that would make it a challenge for an in-house team to manage. Manually optimizing your marketing strategy is no longer effective, and it takes a team of professional marketers to understand and produce results for your Recovery Center ad campaigns. Regardless of your objectives, enabling and re-enabling campaigns greatly affects your data collection, and Lead to Recovery has worked with many Addiction Treatment centers. We can help you run successful PPC campaigns quickly due to our historical data and competitive strategies.

PPC leverages the power of a search engine, most notably Google, with the Meta platform coming in a close second. When you first launch a campaign, you must establish your daily budget and ad schedule to ensure that your ads run continuously.

Even during the holiday season, the algorithm continues to learn, and LTC continues to improve your campaigns by optimizing the data streams your leads come through. People searching for your recovery center services can occur at any time of day, as sleep issues affect their schedules and make their search predictions a 24-hour instance.

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If you’re looking for a cost-effective way to fill your census, look no further than Lead to Recovery’s PPC marketing services! Contact us today to learn more!

Why You Should Let an Agency Run Your Ads During the Holidays

Although the holidays are a time to come together, it is extremely important to remember that they may also amplify the depressive feelings of those who have undergone traumatic experiences, or who deal with substance abuse.

There are various triggers that someone who has a history of substance abuse undergoes during these times, which include:

  •         The expectation to be happy
  •         Reconnecting with family members that may feel toxic or judgmental
  •         The expectation to overindulge in food and drink may trigger overindulgence in other substances

If you own a recovery clinic, this is the best time to let an ad agency handle your rehab PPC and drug rehab SEO marketing. Those who are in the middle of a substance abuse episode will have increased search intent, and so will the family members that want to help them.

Re-Marketing Strategy for Leads

An effective AdWords campaign requires consistency, numerous goals and strategic efforts created in tandem to increase brand awareness and lead generation. One marketing strategy clients particularly enjoy is retargeting ads, which focuses on people who’ve already engaged with your platform in some manner.

By retargeting to people who have taken specific actions, you can move them farther along the customer journey, using lead magnets to incentivize them to convert.

Long-term Impact of Pausing PPC Campaigns

Pausing PPC campaigns can disrupt the data flow necessary for automated bidding strategies, hindering performance when the campaigns resume. Resuming paused campaigns may trigger a machine learning learning phase, initially causing inconsistent performance. Budget and bid adjustments may become misaligned after a campaign pause, leading to erratic costs and performance upon restart.

Budget Considerations for Holiday PPC Campaigns

Budget considerations are crucial during the holiday season. Adjusting your ad spend and targeting to align with consumer behavior can make a significant difference in your campaign’s success. Monitoring ad performance in real-time allows for adjustments that can improve leads and overall ROI.

This section will explore how to manage your daily budget and overall ad spend effectively, taking into account your financial goals.

Daily Budget Adjustments

Adjusting your daily budget ahead of the holiday season is crucial. It’s recommended to start these adjustments 4-6 weeks in advance based on demand forecasts. Tools like Performance Planner can help advertisers forecast demand and adjust ad schedules accordingly.

Analyzing past performance data is also key. Identifying when your ads yield the highest conversions can help you allocate your budget more efficiently. Monitoring daily performance metrics and making real-time adjustments capitalizes on high-traffic periods and maximizes campaign effectiveness.

Managing Ad Spend

Automated bidding strategies help control ad spending during the holiday season. These strategies adjust bids in real-time based on competition and traffic changes, ensuring budget control. Breaking top-performing products into separate campaigns allows for better budget control and maximizes their exposure.

Strategically allocating ad spend during high-traffic days can optimize your returns on investment. Effective budget management during the holiday period avoids overspending and ensures a good ROI.

Competition Analysis

Analyzing your competitors’ actions can provide valuable insights into how to adjust your PPC strategies. For addiction treatment centers, keeping ads running can leverage reduced competition and increased demand during the holidays.

Pausing PPC campaigns can benefit competitors who continue their ads, potentially increasing their market share. A comprehensive PPC strategy should consider historical data, competitor actions, and market dynamics to plan effectively. Planning an increased budget secures competitive ad exposure during heightened holiday competition.

Effective budget management requires allocating more funds towards peak interest days to maximize visibility and returns. Historical campaign budgets should be analyzed to inform spending decisions for upcoming holiday seasons.

Traditional Marketing vs Organic Search and PPC Campaigns

Finally, there is an enormous contrast in the way that paid search marketing works when compared to more traditional marketing methods, especially during the holiday season.

Though there are still some advantages to print advertising and marketing, they mostly apply to retail and contractor services. Recovery centers are verticals that need to be found quickly by the customer, who will often perform a Google search when seeking addiction treatment.

Both PPC Campaigns and Google Organic Search using SEO best practices are great ways to reach your clientele, but a PPC campaign will always put you at the top of the search. When aiming for a full census, you want to be seen before your competitors. It’s advisable to discuss budgets and expectations with your digital marketing agency. Lead to Recovery has extensive historical data to help your recovery center be the first to reach full census in your location.

Combining the paid search element with organic search can create an evergreen funnel that fills to the brim with people that require your treatment for addiction. Pausing your paid campaigns for the holiday season will prevent the customer from finding you and prevent your center from achieving full census.

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Lead to Recovery – Your Addiction Treatment Center’s Paid Media Team

The holiday season is a time for family, and it may also be a time when people look inwards. Therefore it is imperative that paid search campaigns are always kept on, to connect people with the help they need.

This is the best time to capture all the leads necessary to establish a continuous full census, as many people who are struggling with substance abuse may identify that this is the time to do something about it. If they don’t, reconnecting with their loved ones will achieve the same search intent, since family always looks out for each other.

Lead to Recovery is the best addiction treatment marketing agency and we are your holistic approach to paid search, as our media team is specialized in getting you the influx of patients necessary that are looking to kick their bad habits. Contact us today!

co-founder at lead to recovery matthew travers

Content written by rehab marketing expert Matthew Travers

Co-Founder

Matthew Travers is a seasoned Digital Marketing Professional with a distinguished career spanning 21 years, dedicating the last decade to the specialized fields of addiction treatment and mental health marketing. He brings a deep passion for creating powerful marketing strategies, with a distinctive proficiency in SEO and conversion rate optimization, aligning business objectives with innovative solutions to drive success.