Case study
Travel clinics · Greater Manchester and Cheshire
How a three-branch travel clinic won4x the patients from Google Ads
- Bookings and calls from ads
- 997
- Conversions a month (23 to 91)
- 4x
- Lower cost per conversion
- 36%
- Online bookings a month, up from 8
- 35
At a glance
A three-branch pharmacy and travel clinic in Greater Manchester and Cheshire was running just two travel campaigns, averaging 23 conversions a month. Kyoto Digital rebuilt the Google Ads account around every service and branch, then kept it growing through a seven-week suspension caused by the website, not the ads. Over 12 months the clinic gained 997 patient bookings and calls, with cost per conversion down 36% to £17.93.
About the client
The client is an independent pharmacy and travel clinic with three branches across Greater Manchester and Cheshire. Alongside everyday pharmacy work, it is known locally for travel vaccinations and specialist vaccines, and also offers private flu and covid jabs and ear wax removal. Patients book online or call the branch. This case study covers twelve months of Google Ads management, from November 2025 to October 2026. The business and its team remain anonymous.
The challenge
Before we started, the clinic's Google Ads ran only two campaigns, both for travel vaccinations, covering two of its three branches. From January to October 2025 they averaged 23 conversions a month at £27.82 each, and only around eight of those were online bookings. The rest were phone calls.
That left a lot of demand untouched. Flu and covid, ear wax removal and the specialist vaccines the clinic is best known for had no dedicated campaigns at all, so people searching for those services were either seeing a generic travel ad or nothing. The third branch was not advertised. With one campaign trying to cover everything, there was no way to send budget to the services and locations where patients were ready to book.
The goal was clear: more bookings at a lower cost, spread across every service the clinic offers, without simply spending more money on the same two campaigns.
Our approach
One campaign per service and per branch
We rebuilt the account around what patients actually search for. Private flu and covid search campaigns went live in November 2025, in time for the seasonal rush. An ear wax removal campaign covering every branch followed in December. In January 2026 we added dedicated campaigns for Hajj and Umrah vaccinations and yellow fever, two high-value specialist services where searchers are close to booking. Splitting campaigns this way means each service has its own budget, its own ads and its own keywords, so spend follows demand instead of being shared by whichever term happens to be cheapest.
Testing new services and adding the third branch
Once the core services were performing, we kept expanding. MenB vaccination campaigns were tested for each branch in May 2026. In June we added Performance Max alongside Search for travel vaccinations at the two original branches, reaching patients across Google's wider network. In July the third branch was brought into the account for travel and flu, so all three locations were finally competing for local searches.
Weekly search term reviews
Every week we reviewed the search terms triggering ads, added negative keywords to cut wasted spend, and adjusted bid strategies based on cost per booking rather than cost per click. This is unglamorous work, but in a competitive local market it is what keeps the budget on people ready to book a vaccination, not people researching symptoms or looking for NHS information.
Getting the ads back after a suspension
Around 25 January 2026, Google disapproved every ad in the account, flagging a compromised site. The ads themselves were fine; the problem was on the website. We stayed on it with Google Support until we traced the cause to an outdated website plugin. Once it was fixed, the ads were back live by 15 March. February had no ads running at all.
The results
Between November 2025 and October 2026, Google Ads delivered 997 patient bookings and calls from £17,879 of ad spend. Of those, 385 were online bookings and 612 were phone calls. Monthly conversions rose from an average of 23 before we started to 91 with us, four times as many, while cost per conversion fell 36% from £27.82 to £17.93. Online bookings grew from around eight a month to 35.
Travel vaccinations remained the biggest service, with 735 conversions at £18.14 each. Flu and covid brought in 164 at £10.50, the lowest cost in the account, and ear wax removal added 98 at £28.84. The suspension did not stall growth: the first month back, March 2026, produced 135 conversions and 75 online bookings, the strongest month at the time. Comparing October 2026 with October 2025, conversions rose 3.8 times from 37 to 139, online bookings rose 5.5 times from 10 to 55, and cost per conversion fell 37% from £24.24 to £15.37.
Bookings and calls by service
997
- Travel clinic
- 735
- Cost per conversion* £18.14
- Flu and covid
- 164
- Cost per conversion* £10.50
- Ear wax removal
- 98
- Cost per conversion* £28.84
*Conversions are online bookings, calls from ads and click to call, tracked the same way before and after November 2025. General local pharmacy campaigns are excluded. Results may vary depending on location, competition and market conditions.
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What other travel clinics can learn
- Give every service its own campaign. Flu, ear wax and specialist vaccines all found patients once they stopped sharing one travel budget.
- Advertise every branch. Local searches favour nearby clinics, so an unadvertised branch is missed demand.
- Keep your website secure. An outdated plugin took the ads offline for seven weeks, even though nothing was wrong with the ads.
- Judge campaigns on cost per booking, not clicks. Weekly search term reviews kept spend on patients ready to book.
Your questions, answered
How long did it take to see results?
New flu and covid campaigns produced bookings in the first month, November 2025. By March 2026, straight after the suspension was resolved, the account delivered 135 conversions in a single month. The full 997 were measured over 12 months.
How much was spent on Google Ads?
Ad spend over the 12 months was £17,879, an average cost of £17.93 per booking or call. Agency fees are not included in that figure.
Why were the ads suspended?
Google flagged the website as compromised. The cause was an outdated website plugin, not the ads. Once the plugin issue was fixed, the ads were approved and back live by 15 March 2026.
Does this only work for travel clinics with several branches?
No. The same principles, separate campaigns per service, local targeting and weekly search term reviews, work for a single clinic too. The right budget depends on your services, location and competition.
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