The ad never mentioned the robot.
How a pain-first Google Ads campaign helped Mukesh Arthro Care reach full occupancy in 40 days, and why we reported knee replacements done, not leads collected.
In shortMukesh Arthro Care (MAC) is a single-specialty orthopaedic hospital in Trichy, founded and led by Dr. Mukesh Mohan, the first robotic orthopaedic surgeon in Tamil Nadu. In September 2025 STYL ran a 40-day Google Search Ads campaign for total knee replacement (TKR) across the Trichy region. The ads spoke only to the patient's pain, and every lead was tracked with the hospital's telecalling team until surgery. On ₹55,000 of ad spend, 30 TKR surgeries were completed, in-patients rose 15% and bed occupancy moved from 85% to 100%.
A hospital with the capability, and beds still empty.
MAC already had what most hospitals would put on a billboard: Tamil Nadu's first robotic orthopaedic surgeon, robotic knee replacement, and modern facilities. Occupancy sat around 85%.
The people who needed a knee replacement were out there. Many of them were living with knee pain, putting off a decision, and scrolling past hospital ads that talked about the hospital.
Two leaks: the message, and the measurement.
The message leak (Visibility). Most orthopaedic ads lead with the machine, the facility or the surgeon's experience. That is what the hospital is proud of. A patient with knee pain is thinking about the stairs at home, the walk to the temple, the grandchild they can't pick up. An ad that does not name that problem does not get noticed.
The measurement leak (Leakage). A report that says "1,000 leads" tells a hospital nothing about how many people reached the operating theatre. If you only count leads, you optimise for cheap clicks, not for patients.
Advanced robotic knee replacement by an expert surgeon.
Talks about what the hospital has.
Do you hold the railing on every step?
Asks what the patient already feels.
Being the first in Tamil Nadu with robotic orthopaedic surgery is a strong fact, and it still mattered. It moved to the landing page and the phone call, where a patient who is already interested looks for proof.
How the campaign was built, step by step.
- 01
Keyword and competitor research
We mapped how people around Trichy search at each stage, from first symptom to choosing a hospital, and checked search volume and which hospitals were already bidding on each term.
- Symptom searches: knee pain, pain while climbing stairs, swelling in the knee. Large volume, early stage.
- Treatment searches: knee replacement surgery, TKR, knee replacement cost. Smaller volume, high intent.
- Hospital searches: knee replacement hospital near me, best ortho hospital in Trichy. Ready to act.
Google AdsVisibility - 02
Search campaigns, not Performance Max
Performance Max is built mainly for products: it runs from a product feed, spreads budget across YouTube, Display, Gmail and Discover, and shows very little about which searches triggered the ads. A hospital needs the opposite. We used Google Search campaigns so every rupee was spent on someone who had just typed a knee problem into Google.
Why it matters: a person searching "knee replacement in Trichy" has already decided to act. Search captures that intent. Performance Max mostly interrupts people who weren't looking. - 03
Geography set by travel, not city limits
A knee replacement is a planned surgery. Patients will travel for it. Location targeting covered Trichy and the surrounding districts, set to people physically in or regularly in those areas, not people merely showing interest in them. During the campaign, patients came from as far as Chidambaram and Namakkal.
- 04
Pain-point ads and creatives in every size
Responsive search ads carried several headline and description options, each built around a pain point. Image assets were produced in multiple sizes so the ads showed with a visual on the results page, alongside call, location and sitelink assets that let a patient call or find the hospital in one tap. Google tests the combinations and shows the best performers more often.
The rule: the right question, to the right audience, about the right problem. - 05
Daily monitoring
Every day we read the search terms report to see the actual words that triggered the ads. Irrelevant searches were added as negative keywords, budgets moved towards the ad groups producing real enquiries, and weak creatives were paused.
- 06
Follow-up with the telecalling team
STYL stayed in regular contact with MAC's telecalling team to check each lead: was it a genuine knee replacement case, did they book a consultation, did they come in, did they have surgery. That feedback went straight back into the keywords and the creatives.
LeakageIntake - 07
Report surgeries, not leads
The final report did not say how many leads came in. It said 30 TKR surgeries were completed.
Search vs Performance Max, for a hospital
Campaign choice| Search (what we used) | Performance Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | People actively looking for a service | Selling products from a feed |
| Who sees the ad | Someone who just searched a knee problem | Anyone Google predicts might convert, across YouTube, Display, Gmail |
| Search terms visible | Full search terms report, checked daily | Limited insight |
| Control | Keywords, negatives, ad copy and location set by us | Mostly automated by Google |
| Fit for TKR | High intent, planned surgery | Spends on reach the hospital doesn't need |
- Campaign type
- Google Search
- Ad format
- Responsive search ads + image, call, location and sitelink assets
- Targeting
- Trichy and surrounding districts, people in or regularly in the area
- Optimised for
- Calls and enquiries, judged on surgeries
Every lead is followed to the operating theatre
Campaign system- SearchPatient types a symptom or treatment
- AdAd asks about their pain
- Call / formEnquiry reaches the hospital
- TelecallerHospital team calls back
- ConsultationPatient meets the surgeon
- SurgeryThe number STYL reports
Patients travelled to Trichy for this surgery.
Where TKR patients came from during the campaign
Tamil Nadu · Sept 2025Distances are straight-line and approximate. Map outline is simplified.
Bed occupancy
Hospital recordsIn-patient numbers rose 15% over the same period.
Ad spend per surgery
₹55,000 ÷ 30Ad spend for each completed knee replacement. The number a hospital owner can compare with the value of one surgery.
What a hospital should be told at month end
ReportingSays nothing about who picked up the phone, who came in, or who had surgery.
Tracked lead by lead with the hospital's telecalling team.
Partnering with STYL transformed our patient outreach. By focusing on patient mobility and real clinical outcomes, our knee replacement surgeries filled to 100% capacity within 40 days.
A patient in pain saw their own question in an ad, then got a call from someone who knew why they had enquired. Full beds followed from that experience, not the other way round.
When the ad asks the right question of the right person, it doesn't need to describe the hospital.
Questions this case answers
- Should our ads mention our new equipment?
- Lead with the patient's problem. Equipment is proof, and proof works best on the landing page and in the call, once the patient is already interested.
- How do we know if our leads are good?
- Track every lead with your telecalling team: reached, consultation booked, consultation done, procedure done. Judge the campaign on the last number.
- How far will patients travel for a planned surgery?
- In this campaign, from Chidambaram and Namakkal to Trichy. Set ad geography by how far patients travel for that procedure, not by city limits.
- Should we use Performance Max for our hospital?
- Usually not for procedures. Performance Max is designed for products and hides which searches you paid for. Search campaigns put your budget in front of people already looking for the treatment.
- Why does Quality Score matter to a hospital?
- Google charges less per click when the ad closely matches the search. Tight ad groups with matching ads stretch the same budget further.
Try this at your hospital
- Write one ad that names a symptom your patients feel, without mentioning your hospital's facilities.
- Read your search terms report this week and add irrelevant searches as negative keywords.
- Share a lead sheet with your telecalling team with a column for "procedure done".
- Ask your agency for procedures completed, not leads received.