Before You Run Ads or Go All In on Social, Read This
Most of the health and wellness providers I talk to have the same instinct when they decide it's time to do something about their marketing: they think about social media, Google ads, SEO, or some combination of all three. They want to be more visible. They want more patients. They want to drive traffic.
That instinct makes sense. Those things are visible, they feel like action, and there's a whole industry built around selling them.
But there's a problem with leading with traffic before you've sorted out where that traffic is going.
What happens when the foundation isn't there
Imagine running a Google ad that gets someone to click. They land on your website. The homepage is generic — it could belong to any practice in any city. The about page lists your credentials but doesn't give any sense of who you actually are or how you approach your work. There's no clear explanation of what it's like to be your patient. The contact button is buried.
They leave. You paid for that click.
Or imagine you're posting consistently on Instagram. You're putting in real time and effort. People see it, some of them even follow you. But when they go to your website to learn more, the same thing happens. Nothing on the site confirms what they thought they were getting from your social presence. The connection breaks.
This is the mismatch that happens when marketing runs ahead of the foundation it needs to land on. The traffic gets there. The site loses it.
What the foundation actually is
Before ads, social, or SEO can do their job, a few things need to be in place:
Clarity about who you are and who you serve. Not a mission statement — something more specific than that. What kind of patient tends to do well with you. What makes your approach different from the practice down the street. What it actually feels like to be your patient. If you can't answer those questions clearly, your website can't answer them either, and a patient trying to figure out if you're the right fit will come up empty.
A website that reflects that clearly. Not just functional — clear. A site where someone who has never heard of you can land and quickly understand whether this is the right place for them. Where the copy sounds like a person wrote it, not a template. Where the photos show your actual space and your actual face, not stock images.
Branding that's consistent across everything. Not just a logo — the whole visual and written impression. So that when someone sees your Instagram post and then visits your website and then gets your confirmation email, everything feels like it came from the same place.
When those things are in place, marketing amplifies them. Ads drive people to a site that actually works. Social builds familiarity with a practice that already has a clear identity. SEO brings people to a site that gives them a reason to stay. The traffic has somewhere worthwhile to land.
When they're not in place, marketing just moves people faster through a process that still loses them at the end.
The order that actually works
Get the foundation right first. Branding and messaging, then website, then think seriously about what marketing on top of that looks like. Social media, ads, and SEO are all worth investing in, but they work best when they're amplifying something that's already clear, not trying to compensate for something that isn't.
That doesn't mean you can't do anything until everything is perfect. But it does mean that if you're considering spending real money on ads or real time on social, it's worth asking honestly: if someone clicks through right now, does what they find match the effort you're putting into getting them there?
If the answer is no, that's where to start.
What I actually do with clients
When someone comes to me thinking they primarily need Google ads or a social media strategy, the first thing I do is look at what they currently have. And more often than not, the conversation shifts, because the ads or social aren't going to do what they're hoping until the site and messaging underneath them are doing their job. That's not a bait-and-switch, it’s the honest sequence. Get the foundation right, and then we can talk about what to do with it.
If you're not sure where you are in that sequence, that's exactly what a first conversation is for. Let's figure out where to start.
