Facebook ads for dentists: get results and grow your business
10-second summary:
- There’s a well-publicised shortage of availability for new patients at dental clinics across the UK.
- Pay per click advertising on Facebook is a cost-effective way to tap in to the demand and drive revenue.
- Facebook makes it easy to be incisor-sharp with audience targeting – identifying leads based on age, location, browsing activity and much more.
- Focus on ads for specific treatments rather than promoting your clinic in general.
- Think about what happens after your ad is clicked. Create targeted landing pages for each ad that expands on your proposition and is optimised for driving enquiries.
Facebook ads for dentists can be a powerful vehicle for acquiring new leads. Used correctly, it’s no overstatement to say that Facebook ads can drive tens of thousands of pounds in revenue for your clinic.
There’s a well-publicised shortage of availability for new patients at dental clinics across the UK. Demand is there – and many people are willing to pay a premium for a regular slot in the dentist’s chair.
To reap the rewards, you need to get your healthcare lead generation activities spot on. With Facebook ads, you can help to make sure your share of this demand finds its way to you. And when you get your ads working correctly, they can sit in the background bringing a predictable flow of leads to your business – as and when you need them – helping you to scale your business and grow sustainably.
Maybe we could cover your ad spend…
When you run a dental practice, time is a precious commodity. And you don’t necessarily want to spend it learning the nuances of Facebook advertising. Let us take care of it for you. We are a pay per click advertising specialist that regularly generates transformative ROI for our dental clients. In fact we’re so confident in our expertise that we may even be able to cover your ad spend – completing derisking your financial outlay. Sounds interesting? Come and find out more.
“Adbetter handled everything from creative strategy to a full funnel media buying plan across Facebook & Google Ads. They were able to design & build a full digital marketing campaign including all ads, copy & landing pages that has been delivering a consistent stream of new customers at a significantly cheaper cost than in previous testing.”
– Aqib Hassan, CCO, CPIC | Gwadar Click
The benefits of Facebook ads for dentists
Facebook is a fantastic place to promote your dental services. According to Facebook’s own data, 80% of people use social media to find health information. And one-in-four internet users turn to social to research healthcare decisions. Those numbers signal the potential for a huge captive audience.
And that’s not in the only thing in Facebook’s favour.
Facebook ads for dentists are accountable
Pay per click is one of the most accountable forms of advertising on the planet. You only pay when someone clicks your ad. And why would they click unless they were at least partially interested in becoming your next customer?
Precise audience targeting
With over three billion users, advertising on Facebook puts a vast audience at your fingertips. But what’s really great about Facebook advertising isn’t the size of the audience, but the tools you can use to find the right audience.
Facebook makes it easy to be incisor-sharp with your targeting – identifying potential leads based on their online browsing activity, their age, their occupation and an awful lot more. We’ll expand on that shortly.
How to create your Facebook ad
You don’t need any experience to begin experimenting and getting results with Facebook ads for your dental practice. Follow a few simple steps and you can have your first campaign up and running faster than you can scale and polish your next patient.
Choose a goal that works for your practice
When you create a new ad, you will be prompted to define a goal. This will help to guide the creation of your campaign and measure its efficacy.
Goals include:
- Building awareness of your dental clinic
- Reaching out to new patients interested in finding a dentist
- Driving new visitors to your website
- Generating enquiries from new potential patients
Finesse your targeting
Successful pay per click campaigns are based on careful audience targeting. And when it comes to Facebook ads for dental dentists, there are two audience targeting capabilities that spring to mind.
1. Location-based targeting
The world isn’t fully digital just yet – and for now dental appointments take place in the physical realm. That means it’s a good idea to make sure your ad is served only to people within a short journey of your clinic
2. Utilise lookalike audiences
You can also feed your existing customer data into Facebook and it will recommend a new audience to target that shares certain attributes with your seed data.
Choose an ad type
There are several ad types to choose from on Facebook, including:
- Image ads. Consist of a single photo. They’re perhaps the most common type of Facebook ad and are often used for Facebook ads for dental practices.
- Videos. Similar to image ads, video ads appear in a user’s timeline and are a relatively non-intrusive way of including moving images in your ad.
- Stories. Full-screen vertical video ads designed to enhance engagement.
- Carousels. Showcase up to ten images in one ad.
- Promoted posts. Also called boosted posts, this ad type allows you to promote one of your organic posts to non-followers.
Facebook ads for dentists: 9 tips for success
1. Think about what happens after the click
It’s easy to become preoccupied with your pay per click ads. But don’t forget they are just the start of the journey. Your ads should drive your audience to a campaign-specific landing page that expands on your ad and attempts to capture data on your audience.
Landing pages are a science all of their own. But here’s a super-speedy run through best practice.
- Design and copywriting. Your landing page should feel like a continuation of your ad. That means using similar images and colours, making sure your logo is prominent and so on. Make sure it’s optimised for mobile and create a compelling proposition above the fold.
- Create a closed journey. Single-mindedness is a strength when it comes to landing pages. Limit navigation options and stay focused on one clear call to action.
- Utilise social proof and trust signals. Customer testimonials are a great way to build credibility and establish trust in your company. Ideally, take your customer reviews from a verifiable source such as Trustpilot or Google Reviews. If applicable, utilise trust signals such as industry accreditations, qualifications or awards.
- Gather data. The main aim of a landing page is to gather information on your lead. Create a form that allows you to start the marketing conversation – perhaps by gamifying diagnostic paths so you can funnel your leads towards different treatments.
- Remember your GDPR obligations. For your forms that means having a tick box that forces people to actively opt in to your comms, the name of the person or business that will be contacting them and the method that they will be contacted by. You must also include a link to your full privacy policy.
2. Niche down
You might think that promoting your full portfolio of treatments and services in each of your ads allows you to hedge your bets. But it’s almost always better to run separate campaigns for each of the dental treatments that you want to promote.
When you are targeted with your focus, it’s easier to create ads that resonate with the right audience. And when you resonate with your audience, you’re more likely to get conversions and find your next patients. Specificity usually trumps generality.
3. Watch out for red tape
Facebook – quite rightly – can be strict on the promotion of healthcare/medical products or services. For instance, promoting prescription treatments requires written permission from Facebook. You should also avoid any slight hint that you might be exploiting people’s insecurities – for instance, about their smile – for commercial gain. As for photography, before and after shots are banned on Facebook. Not just in your ads themselves, but any landing pages they link to.
Facebook has more info on regulations for healthcare ads here and here.
4. Professional branding
If people perceive your branding to look shabby and inconsistent, don’t be surprised if they conflate that with the standard of your dentistry. The look and feel of your campaign must look professional, credible and trustworthy.
Of course, the need for a professional brand needn’t come at the cost of differentiation. Lots of healthcare branding is practically identical. Shaking things up a little and injecting some personality can be a good way to stand out in a competitive market.
5. Establish your credibility
When it comes to dentistry, people want expertise. Reassure your audience that you have it by alluding to industry accreditations, memberships, awards and certifications. Genuine testimonials from previous customers can also go a long way to enhancing your brand perception.
6. Remember your reader
Regardless of the importance of your working in keeping people healthy, few people would say they actively enjoy going to the dentist. Recognise that your reader is looking for reassurance and make sure your ads strike the right tone.
7. Test, test, test
Facebook will give you the option to test multiple variants of the same ad – uploading multiple images, headlines, descriptions and so on. This is an opportunity you should take. Facebook will algorithmically test the ad variants before preferentially serving what it determines are the most likely variants to drive you towards your campaign objectives.
8. Get the right tracking in place
The unsung hero of most successful pay per click campaigns is the tracking that’s in place. When you have the ability to monitor, measure and interpret customer behaviour, you can begin identifying trends in the adverts that are driving results, and those that aren’t. This intel is gold dust – and the starting point from which you can continually optimise the efficiency and performance of your campaign over time.
Multiply that level of attention to detail across every ad and the results can be transformative.
9. Work with an expert
Just like teeth need regular care and maintenance, so too do your pay per click ad campaigns. That’s how you get to the performance that can have a seismic impact on your business.
Yet being a dentist, it’s almost impossible to find time. So let us help. Day in, day out we drive transformative ROI for brands across many sectors – including private healthcare. Ask us for a free proposal and we will outline what you can expect from us within three months of working together.
Want to dive deeper?
This is our most expansive article on getting results for healthcare brands through Facebook ads.
