Instagram ads for dentists: a complete guide

Instagram ads: for dentists they are a powerful tool for gathering leads, attracting new patients and growing your clinic. Used correctly, it’s no overstatement to say that Instagram ads can drive tens of thousands of pounds in revenue for your clinic. Month after month.

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.

With Instagram ads for dentists, you can help to make sure your share of this demand finds its way to you. Get your ads working correctly and they can sit in the background, quietly bringing you a predictable flow of new patient enquiries.

Ready to find out how?

Okay, open up nice and wide. Let’s dive in.

High quality leads, guaranteed

You’re busy, right? So here’s a quick introduction. We’re Adbetter – an award-winning performance marketing expert that specialises in helping SMEs get more value from pay per click advertising. We specialise in lead generation for dentists. And not just any leads. Leads who are actively searching for the treatments that you provide and are ready to buy. Intrigued? Find out how we do it. Or get in touch to arrange a strategy call.

“After two paid media campaign tests with other agencies failed to deliver results, I was hesitant to test again with Adbetter. But I am glad we did – we are now generating a steady flow of new customers which continues to grow as we increase the budget each month.”

– Francesco N., Founder, Primo

Instagram ads for dentists: are they worth the effort?

In a word, yes.

There are many arguments for promoting your dental clinic on Instagram.

Here are two of the most compelling.

Instagram ads for dentists are accountable

We say it every day. 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 patient?

Get super precise with your audience targeting

With over three billion users, advertising on Instagram puts a vast audience at your fingertips. But what’s really great about Instagram advertising isn’t the size of the audience you can reach, but the tools you can use to find the right audience.

Instagram makes it easy to get smart with your targeting – identifying potential leads based on their online browsing activity, their age, their occupation, their location and an awful lot more.

More on this later in the article. 

Instagram ads for dentists: how to create your first ad

You don’t need any prior experience to begin getting results with Instagram ads for dentists. Follow a few simple steps and you’ll 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
• …and more

Finesse your targeting

Successful pay per click campaigns are based on careful audience targeting. And when it comes to Instagram ads for dentists, there are two 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.

So it’s useful that Instagram allows you to make sure your ad is served only to people within a set geographic radius of your clinic.

2. Utilise lookalike audiences

Feed your existing customer data into Instagram and it will recommend a new audience to target that shares certain characteristics with your existing patients and are therefore more likely to convert.  

Choose an ad type

There are several ad types to choose from on Instagram, including:

• Image ads. Consist of a single photo. They’re perhaps the most common type of Instagram ads.
• 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.

Instagram is highly aesthetic-first. We would recommend creating in-feed video ads for promoting your dental expertise. 

Instagram 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 quick 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.
• Gather data. The main aim of a landing page is to gather information on your lead. Create a multi-step patient enquiry form that allows you to start the marketing conversation – perhaps by gamifying diagnostic paths or asking questions about the reasons your lead is considering a certain cosmetic treatment. That way you can gather crucial information on your leads, identifying which are worth following up with first.
• 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. If applicable, utilise trust signals such as industry accreditations, qualifications or awards.
• 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.

The aesthetic nature of Instagram lends itself well to the promotion of cosmetic treatments – such as Invisalign. Create video shorts that educate your audience about the treatment process. Share a brief tour of your clinic. Interview your dental experts.

It’s all about setting expectations, providing reassurance and establishing yourself as an expert.

3. Be patient

Deciding whether or not to have cosmetic treatment takes time. It’s not like seeing an ad for a tshirt and buying it straight away. There’s lots of consideration required. You need to prepare to gently nurture your leads with follow-up marketing once you’ve acquired them.

4. Watch out for red tape

Instagram – quite rightly – can be strict on the promotion of healthcare/medical products or services. For instance, promoting prescription treatments requires written permission from Meta.

You should also avoid any 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 Instagram. Not just in your ads themselves, but any landing pages they link to.

5. Professional branding is non-negotiable

The blunt truth is that many people are scared of the dentist.

Your branding has to provide a level of reassurance. And project a certain credibility.

If people perceive your branding to look shabby and inconsistent, don’t be surprised if they conflate that with the standard of your dentistry.

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.

6. Establish your credibility

When it comes to dentistry, people rightly want expertise. Reassure your audience that you have it by providing the necessary nods to relevant accreditations, memberships, awards and qualifications.

Again, genuine testimonials from previous customers can also go a long, long way to enhancing your brand perception.  

7. Test, test, test

Instagram will give you the option to test multiple variants of the same ad – utilising different images, headlines, descriptions and so on. This is an opportunity you should take.

The platform 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 accurately, you can start picking out 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 do your pay per click ad campaigns. 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 dentistry.

Take a look at some of our customer success stories. Or arrange a strategy call and we will outline the results you can expect within three months of working with us. Let’s get started.

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You may also be interested in:

>> The most effective lead generation strategies for dentists
>> Facebook ads for dentists: get results and grow your business
>> Facebook ads for orthodontists: a complete guide to success
>> Orthodontist ads: finding your best route to revenue
>> Google ads for dental clinics: a guide to getting started
>> TikTok vs Instagram: which is best for paid media advertising?