Case study — Local SEO, AI Search & Google Ads
The situation
Meridian Aesthetics had two well-reviewed locations and a loyal client base, but almost every new patient was coming from Google Ads. The campaigns worked, but cost per lead had crept up as competitors bid more aggressively on the same treatment keywords, and organic search wasn't picking up any of the slack — both locations sat on page two for their core treatments, and neither showed up consistently in the map pack.
The clinic was also completely absent from AI-generated answers. Patients researching treatments were increasingly asking ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews to compare providers, and Meridian was never part of that conversation, while a newer competitor with a fraction of the reviews was.
The owner didn't want to spend less on ads — she wanted every dollar to go further, and to stop being entirely dependent on paid traffic to fill the schedule.
"We were paying more every quarter for the same leads. I needed the other channels to start carrying weight."
The approach
The timeline
Technical SEO fixes alongside a full Google Ads campaign restructure and landing page rebuild.
Both Google Business Profiles overhauled, new treatment pages published, review system live in both locations.
Review volume compounding, GEO-focused comparison content and citations published across key sources.
Organic and map pack traffic overtake ads as the largest source of new patients; ad spend refocused on the gaps organic hasn't filled yet.
The results
By month nine, organic and map pack traffic had grown enough that Google Ads no longer had to carry the whole clinic on its own — freeing that budget to chase harder, higher-value treatments instead of competing for the keywords organic search was already winning.
Reporting & tracking
"Our ad costs used to climb every quarter no matter what we did. Now our phones ring from search and Google Maps before an ad ever gets clicked, and the leads that do come from ads cost half what they used to."
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