Using Facebook Ads is one of the best ways to achieve affordable advertising for your dental practice. Facebook and Instagram reach a wide range of ages, making this strategy ideal for all practices, including general, restorative and pediatric dentistry. Before you begin, though, there are some essentials to learn.
This guide will help you build your first campaign so you can reach new potential patients on social media.
Use the Right Objective
The right objective makes all the difference for Facebook Ads. Objectives shape your Facebook Ads campaign to achieve the results you desire. If the main goal is to have more people visiting your website, you’ll use the Traffic objective. If you want to build awareness and reach as many potential patients as possible, you’ll want to use the Reach objective.
Once you choose your objective, Facebook will serve your ad to those in your target audience who are most likely to click or engage with the ad. This is based on their Facebook activity; if someone who typically clicks on ads is in your audience, they will likely see your Traffic ads. However, this does not guarantee they will see your Reach ads.
There are a number of objectives available to choose from, which helps narrow down the audience you want to reach.
Use Location-Based Targeting
One of the best features of Facebook Ads is the specific targeting measures you may put into place. Because you’re a local business, this gives you the chance to effectively spend your advertising budget in the area you desire.
When creating an ad set, you’ll see an area where you can add cities along with a radius. Your chosen radius depends on your treatment area. If your patients drive 15 miles to see you, then set the radius to 15 miles around your practice’s location. If you live in an urban area and typically see people traveling less than 10 miles, test out 5 and 10 miles to see how far new patients are willing to travel.
By combining the geographic radius and characteristics, you can create a Facebook audience ripe with potential.
Use Creative Imagery
To maximize your ad’s potential, it’s essential to use creative imagery. This means a combination of engaging images or a video with text that makes your audience want to engage with the ad. If you’re promoting a specific product like Botox or mouth guards, make the image and copy about the product.
Using apps like Legend and Canva can help you make quality video or images without expensive software. Consider high-quality stock images of people laughing, showing the quality of life that a healthy smile can bring.
Remember: Facebook has strict advertising policies for health-related ads, so make sure you review their guidelines thoroughly to ensure your ads are approved.
Use Multiple Ads per Campaign
Creating multiple ads per campaign allows you to test which versions of text and imagery perform the best with your audience. Once your ads have completed their “Learning Phase” (the length of time depends on a number of factors, but it’s typically one week), you can turn off the ads that aren’t performing well.
What does that mean? Look at the relevance score on each ad, which affects your cost per click or impression. The relevance score looks at how relevant your ad is to your audience, and is viewed in the Ad level of Ads Manager. If an ad is targeted well and has engaging imagery, then you’ll see a higher relevance score.
On a scale of 1 to 10, try to aim for a 6. A brand new ad may start at a 2 or 3, and increase as it gains traction. The converse is true as well. If your ads have been running for a month and the cost is increasing, then ad fatigue is beginning and the relevance score may decrease. If you begin to see the relevance score drop, consider changing the image and text or adjust your audience.
Facebook Ads for dentists offer an accessible way to reach new potential patients and can be highly customized to meet your needs. By focusing on the right objective, a targeted audience, and engaging content for each campaign, you can help grow your practice at an affordable cost.