Google Ads for Multi-Location Clinics: The Suburb Split Playbook

Multi-location healthcare groups often inherit a Google Ads account that looks neat at first glance: one Search campaign, a handful of suburbs in the keywords, one shared daily budget and a Performance Max campaign switched on in the background. The problem is that patients do not book healthcare that way. They search by suburb, urgency, distance, availability and trust. A clinic in one suburb can be full while another needs bookings. One location may win phone calls, another may need online bookings. If the account is blended, the budget follows the loudest auction rather than the location with the best appointment opportunity.

In one Hype Insight healthcare account, a four-clinic group generated 423 booked appointments in six weeks from $10,100 in media spend. The cost per booked appointment was $23.88, with a conversion rate above 13 per cent. The important lesson was not that Google Ads magically worked. The result came from treating each clinic as its own local business, then layering automation only after the account had clean booking and call signals.

This is the operating model we recommend for practice managers and healthcare marketers who need predictable appointment volume across suburbs. It fits inside a broader digital marketing for healthcare strategy, but the focus here is deliberately practical: how to structure Google Ads so each location can fill its book without wasting spend on irrelevant searches.

The LBR framework: Location, Booking, Radius

For multi-location clinics, we use a simple framework called LBR: Location, Booking, Radius. Location means each clinic gets its own campaign economics. Booking means the account optimises towards real appointments, not soft signals. Radius means geography is controlled tightly enough that the ads match real patient behaviour.

The order matters. If location structure is wrong, conversion data becomes misleading. If booking data is weak, Google optimises for people who click but do not attend. If radius control is loose, the account pays for patients who are too far away or looking for a different clinic type. Performance Max can be valuable, but only once these foundations are in place.

Split each clinic into its own Search campaign

A four-location healthcare group should usually have four core Search campaigns, one per clinic. Each campaign should contain suburb-specific ad groups and service-specific ad groups. For example, a clinic in an inner suburb may need ad groups for the clinic suburb, adjacent suburbs and high-intent service searches. A clinic further out may need a wider catchment, but only if patients genuinely travel that far for the service.

The structure is not just administrative. It allows each location to have its own daily budget, location targeting, call extension, landing page, appointment link, ad copy and negative keyword list. That matters when one clinic has spare appointment capacity on weekdays, another has a clinician away, and another is fully booked for the next three days. A blended campaign cannot make those decisions cleanly.

A practical starting budget is to assign a base amount to each clinic, then hold back a flexible growth pool. For example, a $10,100 six-week budget is roughly $240 per day. Instead of placing all of that into one campaign, a four-clinic group might start with $45 to $55 per day per location, then keep $30 to $50 per day available for the clinics with the strongest cost per booked appointment and available capacity. The budget should not automatically go to the clinic with the most clicks. It should go to the clinic turning local searches into attended appointments.

Build campaigns around appointment intent, not keyword volume

Healthcare keyword research can tempt marketers into broad, high-volume terms. That is where waste starts. A practice manager does not need traffic from someone researching symptoms for a school assignment, looking for Medicare rules in another state or searching for jobs. The campaign should prioritise searches that imply a patient is ready to choose a provider.

The strongest Search campaigns usually separate four types of intent: suburb plus service, near me queries, urgent appointment queries and brand or clinic-name protection. Each location should have ads that speak to that suburb and the booking action. Copy should mention availability only if the clinic can honour it. If same-day appointments are inconsistent, do not promise them. Use phrases such as online bookings available, call the clinic, or appointments available this week only when they are operationally true.

Landing pages should also be location-specific. A patient who searches for a clinic in a suburb should not land on a generic group homepage and have to choose from four addresses. The page should show the suburb, address, parking or transport notes, opening hours, practitioner availability, booking button, phone number and relevant trust elements. In healthcare, small friction points cost bookings because patients are often comparing three providers at once.

Track calls and bookings as the account's source of truth

The biggest performance jump usually comes from fixing conversion tracking. Many healthcare accounts still optimise for contact page visits, click-to-call taps or form submissions without knowing whether those actions became bookings. Those signals are better than nothing, but they are not enough once spend scales.

The account should track online booking confirmations, qualified phone calls, form submissions and, where systems allow it, attended appointments. At minimum, online bookings should fire on a thank-you page or completed booking event. Phone calls should use call tracking with location-level numbers, minimum call duration thresholds and source attribution. A 10-second call should not carry the same value as a three-minute booking conversation.

This is where the healthcare market is moving more broadly. Marketing platforms are increasingly connecting ad activity to patient outcomes, not just clicks and leads. That is a useful direction, but the principle is simple: if the clinic wants appointments, the ad account must be trained on appointments. Google cannot optimise for the business outcome if the only signal it receives is a page view.

Use Performance Max as a coverage layer, not the driver

Performance Max has a role in multi-location healthcare, but it should not be asked to do the job of Search. Search captures declared intent. Someone typing a suburb and service into Google is raising their hand. Performance Max is better used as a coverage and reinforcement layer, especially across Maps, YouTube, Display, Gmail and remarketing inventory.

For a four-location group, a sensible setup is one Performance Max campaign using location assets, clean audience signals, strong creative assets and booking-based conversions. In some cases, separate Performance Max campaigns by region or service line make sense, but only if there is enough conversion volume to support learning. Too many low-data campaigns can fragment the algorithm and slow results.

The creative role is also different. Search ads need to be direct, local and intent-matched. Performance Max assets need to build confidence before the patient clicks. Use short videos, exterior clinic images, practitioner-neutral service visuals, simple benefit-led copy, reviews where compliant, and clear calls to book. Do not rely on generic stock imagery that could belong to any clinic in Australia. Patients are choosing a real place, not an abstract healthcare category.

Apply negative-keyword and radius discipline every week

Healthcare search terms get messy quickly. A clinic can spend on jobs, courses, free advice, definitions, government forms, unrelated treatments, competitor research and suburbs it does not serve. Negative keywords are not a once-off setup task. They are weekly hygiene, especially in the first month.

Start with a shared negative list for obvious waste: jobs, salary, training, course, free, PDF, template, meaning, definition, at home, DIY and irrelevant services. Then build location-specific negatives. If the northern clinic should not show for the southern catchment, exclude those suburbs from the northern campaign. If one clinic does not offer a service that another clinic does, keep that negative list separate.

Radius targeting needs the same discipline. Many accounts target an entire city because it feels safer. It is usually not safer. It gives Google permission to chase cheaper clicks from patients who are unlikely to travel. For routine healthcare, start tight. A three to eight kilometre radius may be enough in dense metro areas. Outer suburbs may justify 10 to 15 kilometres if the service is scarce or the clinic has strong reputation pull. The right radius is not theoretical. It should be checked against booking addresses, call quality and suburb-level conversion rates.

A worked funnel for a four-clinic group

Here is what a realistic six-week funnel can look like when structure and tracking are working. The account spends $10,100. At an average cost per click of about $3.15, that produces roughly 3,200 ad clicks. With booking and qualified call conversions above 13 per cent, the group records 423 booked appointments. That gives a cost per booked appointment of $23.88.

The next layer is operational. If 82 per cent of those patients attend, the clinics see about 347 attended appointments. If each attended appointment has an average first-visit value of $95, that is $32,965 in first-visit revenue before follow-up appointments or longer-term patient value. If the clinic has strong rebooking behaviour, the real commercial value is higher. If no-show rates are high, the ad account may still look good while the business outcome suffers. That is why practice managers should review media numbers and appointment outcomes together.

This funnel also shows why a lower cost per lead can be misleading. A campaign that generates $12 enquiry forms but few booked appointments may be worse than a campaign generating $24 confirmed bookings. The conversion action should reflect what reception teams and clinicians actually need.

Do and do-not rules for practice managers

• Do split campaigns by clinic location. Give each suburb its own budget, ads, landing page and reporting so strong and weak locations are visible.
• Do optimise for bookings, not curiosity. Use confirmed booking events and qualified call thresholds as primary conversions once volume allows.
• Do review search terms weekly. Add negatives for jobs, research, irrelevant services and suburbs outside the real catchment.
• Do connect ads to capacity. Increase budgets where appointments are available and reduce spend where clinicians are fully booked.
• Do use Performance Max after Search has clean data. Feed it real booking signals, location assets and creative that builds trust.
• Do not run one shared campaign for all suburbs. It hides location-level economics and lets Google average out problems.
• Do not target the whole city by default. Wider reach often means weaker patient intent and poorer booking quality.
• Do not treat every call as equal. Short calls, missed calls and existing-patient administration should be separated where possible.
• Do not promise appointment availability the clinic cannot deliver. Misaligned ads create wasted calls, frustrated patients and weaker conversion data.

When to scale and when to hold

Scale only when the clinic can handle the extra demand and the data shows bookings are real. A good rule is to increase location budgets by 15 to 25 per cent when a campaign has at least two stable weeks of acceptable cost per booked appointment, clean search terms and available diary capacity. If a campaign's cost rises suddenly, do not immediately blame Google. Check appointment availability, reception answer rates, landing page errors, tracking changes, local competitors and search-term drift.

The strongest multi-location healthcare accounts are not set and forget. They are managed like local operating systems. Search captures urgent suburb-level demand. Performance Max extends reach and reinforces trust. Call tracking and booking data tell the algorithm what a real appointment looks like. Radius and negatives keep the account honest. When those pieces work together, Google Ads becomes less of a traffic channel and more of a repeatable appointment engine.