Start with the appointment you want
A fuller diary is a useful ambition, but it is too broad to guide a campaign. Decide which appointments you want more of, whether the team has capacity, and what would make the campaign commercially worthwhile.
An eye examination, contact lens appointment and dry-eye assessment answer different patient needs. Choose one service you genuinely provide, then agree how its availability, pricing and booking process will be explained. Avoid advertising an appointment your team cannot currently offer.
Check the area you can realistically serve
Look at where your patients come from and how far someone is likely to travel for that particular service. A specialist appointment may attract a wider catchment than a routine visit.
Google distinguishes between people in an area and people who show interest in it. Review the location options rather than assuming a town or radius excludes everyone elsewhere. Location targeting is approximate, so check actual enquiry locations as the campaign runs.
Match the page to the promise
Open your proposed landing page on your phone. Can a new patient understand the service, see where you are, and find how to book without hunting through menus?
A service-specific advert should usually lead to a page about that service. Explain what happens next, show relevant practice information, and make the booking or enquiry action easy to spot. Test the form, phone link and booking provider yourself.
Decide what success will mean
An advert click, a phone-button tap, a genuine enquiry and an attended appointment are different events. Keep them separate in your reporting. Ask the team how enquiries will be recorded and how bookings can be reconciled with the campaign.
Agree a test budget, a review date and the outcomes you will examine. Cost per booked appointment is more informative than cost per click, although the right acquisition cost depends on your own service economics. There is no universal budget or guaranteed patient return.
Make someone responsible for follow-up
Check who handles calls and forms, including enquiries that arrive when the practice is closed. Review the callback process and how someone can reschedule. More advertising cannot repair a broken form or an enquiry that nobody sees.
Before spending more, walk through the whole route from search to booking. Fix the weakest step, run a controlled test and review the evidence before increasing the budget.