Posted on February 18, 2025

Rising Ad Costs & Declining Engagement: How to Adapt Your Ophthalmology Marketing Strategy

Patients are clicking your ads, visiting your website, and filling out your forms, but they’re not booking appointments. Why?

Medical practices are facing unprecedented challenges in converting online interest into appointments. Rising acquisition costs have forced practices to spend more per website visitor, but those visitors are engaging less once they arrive. On top of that, increasing medical skepticism and ineffective lead response systems are creating the perfect storm for today’s conversion crisis.

Despite rising traffic and increased marketing efforts, many practices are struggling to convert initial interest into actual appointments. In 2025, ophthalmology marketing isn’t just about attracting leads—it’s about closing the gap between interest and action. With traffic costs rising, engagement dropping, and conversion rates declining, marketing teams must rethink their strategies. The downward trend in digital marketing performance is pushing medical practices to adapt and implement stronger, multi-faceted strategies to stay competitive.

Key Challenges Facing Ophthalmology Marketing in 2025

Rising Traffic Costs & Declining Engagement

An article published by Search Engine Journal explored Contentsquare’s Digital Experience Benchmark Report, which highlighted the scope of this issue:

• Increasing Traffic Costs: Global website traffic dropped by 3.3% year-over-year (YoY), forcing brands to depend more on paid ads.
• New Visitors Leave Quickly: User engagement metrics are declining globally, with time spent on-site, page views, and scroll depth falling by 6.5%.
• Conversion Rates Decline: Global conversion rates dropped by 6.1%, worsened by the lower yield of paid traffic. 

“A study of 90 billion sessions shows organic traffic is down from last year, pushing more brands toward paid channels to make up the difference.” (Search Engine Journal)

Beyond increasing traffic costs, a fundamental shift in how users interact with search results is also impacting organic marketing efforts. While much of the conversation around declining engagement focuses on paid traffic, organic search strategies are also evolving. Practices must now consider how to maintain visibility even when users aren’t clicking through to their websites.

Recent data shows that nearly 60% of Google searches now end without a click to any website, as users find their answers directly in search results or through AI-powered overviews. This shift has given rise to the term “zero-click marketing,” a strategy that focuses on providing value directly on the platforms where potential patients already spend their time.

For medical practices, when combined with the 3.3% drop in global website traffic and 6.5% decline in content engagement, this trend means that traditional strategies focused solely on driving website traffic may become less effective. Still, educational content on your website remains essential for establishing authority and nurturing potential patients throughout their research phase. 

By strategically sharing your expertise and experience, you create opportunities to engage patients with accurate, accessible information at every stage of their decision-making journey.

Lead Response & Management Issues

This data highlights the importance of timely, personalized engagement to maximize conversion rates. Practices that fail to respond quickly are leaving significant revenue opportunities untapped. This gap in lead management directly impacts conversion potential.

The Rise of LASIK Misinformation

Another challenge affecting conversion rates in the medical industry, particularly in the vision sector, is the increasing spread of LASIK misinformation. According to the Refractive Surgery Council (RSC), the dark web of LASIK complainers contributed to a spike in anti-LASIK activity in 2024. This included the circulation of various media content, publications from former industry professionals, and increased social media activism that raised concerns about potential complications. These different channels have worked together to amplify anti-LASIK messaging across multiple platforms.

The refractive surgery industry must take a proactive approach to counter misinformation through transparent education and clear, fact-based marketing content. Practices need to develop comprehensive strategies that address patient concerns while maintaining trust and credibility.

What This Means for Your Ophthalmology Marketing Strategy

To bridge the gap between interest and action, practices must refine their approach to lead management, advertising, and patient engagement. The following strategies will help address declining conversion rates, improve response times, and attract higher-quality leads.

Creating a Sense of Urgency Around Lead Responses

One of the most crucial elements of ophthalmology marketing success is response time. Data shows that practices should aim to respond to leads within five minutes to maximize their chances of conversion.

• Implement a CRM or lead management system to track patient inquiries, automate follow-ups, and manage drip campaigns.
• Monitor the lead-to-appointment lifecycle to optimize marketing investments and improve conversion tracking.
• Consider strategic outsourcing to call solutions to fill gaps in administrative or marketing support, ensuring no leads slip through the cracks.

Diversify Traffic Strategies

To combat recent trends, practices need to diversify their traffic sources and avoid relying on ineffective lead-generation methods. This means avoiding common pitfalls in current advertising platforms:

META Platform Issues: First, eliminate the use of Facebook’s Advantage Plus feature, which typically generates high volumes of low-quality leads that rarely convert. Next, stop using Facebook intake forms – many users don’t recall completing them, leading to wasted follow-up efforts on non-viable leads. These poor-quality leads waste valuable time for both refractive coordinators and call center staff.

Google Advertising Considerations: Avoid relying on Broad Match and AI-driven algorithms that prioritize Google’s revenue over lead quality. Instead, focus on Quality Score – Google’s diagnostic tool that rates your ads from 1-10 based on ad relevance to search terms and intent, landing page experience matching search intent, and expected click-through rates (CTR).

Instead of using outdated strategies that produce poor-quality leads, consider these updated approaches:

• Test new campaigns, such as Local Service Ads, to attract more qualified leads.
• Avoid over-reliance on AI-driven advertising settings, which can sometimes prioritize impressions over conversions.
• Audit existing landing pages to ensure a seamless user experience with clear calls-to-action, such as scheduling appointments, self-tests, pricing requests, or direct phone numbers.

Implement Essential Software Systems 

To successfully execute these strategies, practices need several key systems in place:

• Website analytics for tracking user behavior and conversion paths
• CRM system with robust drip campaign capabilities
• Call recording systems (such as LIINE) for quality monitoring
• Conclusn at the administrative level for comprehensive practice analytics
• Digital Marketing integration platforms for unified data analysis

The Gen X Opportunity: A Market Worth Targeting

One critical marketing opportunity heading into 2025 is Generation X. According to Oberlo, Gen X makes up 30.4% of U.S. households and holds significant purchasing power.

The Gen X demographic presents a valuable opportunity for medical practices, as they control significant wealth and prioritize high-quality healthcare. Services like EVO ICL, RLE, premium cataract treatments, and dry eye solutions are all gaining traction, with RLE showing particular promise for future patient acquisition. Gen X consumers are financially equipped and seek procedures that improve their quality of life, such as vision correction. By focusing on these procedures, convenience, trust, and flexible payment options, practices can effectively engage with this group, addressing their desire for better vision and an overall enhanced quality of life.

Top Recommendations for Medical Practices in 2025

To overcome the issues with conversion, ophthalmology marketing teams must take a proactive, data-driven approach. Here’s what practices should focus on:

• Test new campaigns, such as Local Service Ads, and avoid relying solely on AI-driven ad settings.
• Audit existing landing pages to make it easier for users to contact your practice.
• Create a sense of urgency for lead responses: contact inquiries within five minutes.
• Track the lead-to-appointment lifecycle with CRM tools to optimize marketing ROI.
• Address LASIK misinformation through transparent education and fact-based content.
• Leverage the purchasing power of Gen X by tailoring marketing strategies to their preferences.
• Implement strategic outsourcing based on practice needs: Find partners that can fill in the missing areas your practice may need additional support with.

Take the Next Step: Secret Shop Your Practice

If your practice is struggling with lead conversion, Glacial Multimedia offers a secret shop assessment to evaluate response times, engagement quality, and marketing effectiveness. Contact us today to find out how you can improve your patient acquisition strategy and maximize your marketing investment.