How Northwest Aviation Medicine became the local destination for pilot exams
A clinic with real authority and no way to show it, repositioned around a niche it was already qualified to own.
Northwest Aviation Medicine
Credibility was the constraint, not traffic
In mid-2024 Northwest Aviation Medicine asked us to move their medical examination business into a new niche and build awareness inside it. The clinic was led by Dr. Lemmon, who had the reputation and the credentials. None of that was visible to someone deciding where to book.
We designed a clean, minimal site built to convert rather than to decorate. A full rebrand was not the goal, so we stayed inside their existing palette and added a custom mascot as a visual anchor to carry the story through the experience.
Then we addressed the actual constraint. We ran a professional shoot covering the clinic, the staff, and Dr. Lemmon himself, so the reputation that existed offline finally existed on the page. A patient choosing an examiner is buying trust, and trust is easier to show than to claim.
Combined with sharper messaging and a promotional offer, the campaign delivered a 40 percent conversion rate and a tenfold return. We continue to support the expansion into Oregon and Eastern Washington.
Meet Dr. Keith Lemmon
Dr. Lemmon is a Senior Aviation Medical Examiner in Gig Harbor, Washington. Pilots do not choose an examiner casually. A failed or mishandled medical can ground a career, so the decision runs on trust, and trust in this field is built over years through reputation and referral.
He had all of it. Credentials, standing in the aviation community, a real understanding of what is at stake for the person in the chair. What he did not have was any way for a pilot searching at eleven at night to know that.
The starting point
The clinic was competent and largely invisible. Nothing online carried the authority that existed in the room, and the exams worth the most were the hardest to find.
- A site that listed services but never established credibility
- No visual identity beyond a stock medical palette
- Aviation, DOT and CDL exams buried in one generic services page
- No photography of the clinic, the staff or the founder
- No local search presence for the highest-value exams
- A referral business with no way to capture demand it had already earned
How it unfolded
Nobody planned a three-year programme at the start. Each phase earned the next one.
01
A website built to convert
They came to us wanting to grow, and the site was the bottleneck. We rebuilt it as a conversion tool rather than a brochure: clean, fast, and organised around the decision a pilot or driver is actually making. Everything after this depended on having somewhere worth sending traffic.
02
More exam types, each with its own path
With the foundation working, the clinic expanded what it offered. FAA medicals, DOT and CDL physicals, commissioning and pre-placement exams. We gave each one its own page and its own search presence instead of burying them in a single services list.
03
Google Ads, once the site could hold them
Only then did we turn on paid search. Running ads into the old site would have wasted the budget, so the sequence mattered: build the destination, then buy the traffic. Campaigns were structured by exam type so spend followed the highest-value work.
04
Scale the new services at the main office
Gig Harbor became the proof. We scaled the newer exam types until they were carrying real volume, tightening keywords and landing pages against what was actually converting rather than what looked good in a report.
05
Open a second state
When the clinic decided to expand, we helped launch it: local search presence, service pages, and campaigns live in the new market before the doors opened, so the location did not spend its first year invisible.
06
Compound it with SEO
Paid search bought immediate volume; organic made it durable. We built visibility across every key service in both markets so the clinic was not renting all of its demand.
Results
40%
conversion rate on the rebuilt site
10x
return on ad spend
2 states
markets launched and scaled
All key services
ranking in both markets
Ten times return on ad spend is the number that gets quoted. The one Dr. Lemmon notices is simpler: pilots arrive already knowing who he is, which changes the first two minutes of every appointment.
What comes next
The clinic is expanding into Oregon and Eastern Washington. The work now is making sure the search presence exists in those markets before the doors open rather than after.
The goal has not changed since 2024: be the obvious choice for aviation medical exams in the Pacific Northwest. That reads more like a description than a target now.
more work
Mr. Fridge
