Connecting People to Health Information They Can Trust

Helping Consumers Find Trusted Health Information Online

familydoctor.org, the American Academy of Family Physicians’ consumer-facing website, provides health information that is vetted by physicians. This reliable information is crucial in a time when people are often confused about which sources to trust online. familydoctor.org’s Symptom Checker is a revolutionary tool that combines the ease of a mobile-friendly website with the trust of a doctor. Users select their symptoms and are given potential causes for their health issues. The Symptom Checker was already widely recognized as a trusted source of health information and had the lowest bounce rate on the site. But many consumers go straight to Google and miss familydoctor.org’s Symptom Checker tool.

Question-Based Ad Targeting Drove Users From Google Searches to Doctor-Backed Health Information

Social Driver launched a Google Ad campaign designed to target users in their search journey as it relates to common ailments and symptoms. Running a Google Ad campaign and focusing on ad copy that was question-based, such as “Cold or Flu?,” made the most sense for reaching our target audiences, as it aligned with how people were already searching for health information. Throughout the campaign, our ads focused on common symptoms of illnesses that were geared toward providing helpful information for users about possible causes.

Consumers Embrace Trustworthy, Relevant Health Information

The familydoctor.org interactive Symptom Checker has helped millions of users access physician-vetted health resources they need. This specific Google campaign achieved a 24% click-through-rate, which is 12 times the industry average, generating more conversions than any of familydoctor.org’s other previous efforts on Google Ads. The campaign also pushed the Symptom Checker to become the second-most visited landing page on familydoctor.org, increasing overall site retention.

Website Traffic

The Symptom Checker Google Ad campaign, in addition to keyword research, content updates, and website optimization, has led to a significant increase in web traffic to familydoctor.org. From December 2017 to December 2018, the total number of users increased by 32%. From December 2018 to December 2019, the total number of users increased by 33%. The number of sessions that have taken place on the Symptom Checker have also seen a 516% increase from 2017 to 2019. This represents a 76% overall increase in website traffic from 2017 to 2019 that is expected to grow with continued SEO and SEM optimization.