Google Ads for Optometrists
Google Ads for optometrists: more new-patient exams, not just clicks.
A new patient booking their first eye exam this year is worth more than that one visit, since exams recur annually and frames or contacts often come with them. Google Ads gets your practice in front of that search. It cannot fix a recall system that never reminds last year's patients to come back.
- 10% of your ad budget, $600/month minimum
- No contracts, month to month
- 30-day guarantee, you don't pay if it doesn't work
What runs, and why
Campaigns built around exams, insurance and eyewear.
Search ads for exam and insurance searches
We bid on searches like "eye exam near me" and "eye doctor that takes [insurance] near me," since insurance coverage is often the first thing a patient checks before booking anywhere.
Call-only ads for booking the exam
Many patients would rather call to confirm insurance and availability than fill out a form. Call-only ads take them straight to your front desk, with every call tracked back to the ad and the search that drove it.
Remarketing to patients who checked hours or insurance and left
A visitor who checked your accepted insurance plans or hours and didn't book is close to converting. We bring them back with a reminder ad, before they book with a practice down the street instead.
Performance Max for eyewear and specialty services
Frames, contacts and specialty services like dry eye and myopia control are where a lot of the margin lives. Performance Max runs visual, retail-style ads for those services across Search, Display and YouTube, alongside your exam-booking campaigns.
What Google Ads costs for optometrists.
The average cost per click
For the Physicians & Surgeons category, the average cost per click is $4.76 and the average click-through rate is 6.61%, per 2026 search advertising benchmarks published by LocaliQ with WordStream. That's a blended average across medical specialties, optometry included.
The average conversion rate and cost per lead
That same benchmark set shows a 12.43% conversion rate and a $40.04 cost per lead for Physicians & Surgeons. A lead here is usually a booked exam, and since exams recur yearly, one new patient is worth far more than that single visit over time.
The math at a $1,800 monthly budget
At the category average cost per click, $1,800 buys around 378 clicks a month. At the category average conversion rate, that's roughly 47 booked exams. Our fee is 10% of your ad budget or $600 a month, whichever is higher, so at $1,800 you'd pay the $600 minimum.
What healthcare rules and reality add to that
The benchmark is a category average, not a promise for your practice, and healthcare advertisers also have to follow Google's Healthcare and medicines policy alongside HIPAA rules on handling patient data. A specialty search like myopia control or LASIK co-management usually costs more per click but brings a higher-value, stickier patient.
How we set this up for an optometry practice.
01
Track every booked exam before launch
Before any ad runs, we set up HIPAA-aware tracking for calls and booked exams, so you can see exactly which search and which campaign brought in each new patient, not just website visits.
02
A page for exams and a page for eyewear and specialty care
A patient booking a routine annual exam and one searching for dry eye treatment or myopia control want different information. We build separate pages for each, instead of one page trying to cover every service at once.
03
Negatives and search terms, checked weekly
We review the exact searches triggering your ads every week and remove the ones with no booking intent, like job-seeker searches for optometry positions or searches for insurance plans your practice doesn't accept.
Google Ads for optometrists, answered.
Most independent practices start between $1,200 and $2,500 a month, enough to fill new-patient exam slots without overbooking a schedule that also has to serve recall patients returning for their annual exam.
It's worth it for most practices, since eye exam searches are frequent, local and often tied to a specific insurance plan. It matters less if your schedule is already full from recall reminders and referrals alone.
Search ads for exam and insurance-specific searches, call-only ads so patients can confirm coverage and book fast, remarketing to bring back people who checked your hours or insurance list, and Performance Max for eyewear and specialty services.
Booked exams can start within the first couple weeks of launch, since exam searches are frequent and local. Give it 4 to 6 weeks to see a reliable cost per new patient across your exam and specialty-service mix.
Ten percent of budget, a $600 monthly minimum, and no margin on media: that is the whole fee. No lock-in and no setup fee, plus a 30-day guarantee on the first month's results.
See what Google Ads could bring your practice.
Tell us your accepted insurance plans, your specialty services and your budget. We'll send back a free proposal within one business day, built around new-patient exams and eyewear revenue together.