Have you ever thought of investing in Facebook ads for doctors when scrolling through social media? Or have you thought of using Facebook ad campaigns to drive conversions? If you are not paying attention to social media this year, you are losing a significant opportunity to attract new patients and boost the revenue of your practice!
Did you know that there are 2.11 active users on Facebook? Such impressive figures show that Facebook advertisements offer a massive opportunity for doctors and medical services. Moreover, advertisements on social media also have higher returns on investment as compared to other forms of healthcare advertising.
What can you do to kickstart your Facebook ad campaign? What strategies work best? How can your practice comply with HIPAA regulations?
If you don’t know the answers to the above questions, you’ve come to the right place! Keep reading to learn about the best strategies on Facebook ads for doctors that are sure to get you more leads and expand your practice online.
What are Facebook Ads for Doctors?
These are focused digital advertisements that enable healthcare services to reach their target audience on social media platforms. These medical ads can be used to promote your practice as a doctor and engage new patients.
Doctors can create targeted advertisements for specific patient interests, behaviors, and demographics. For example, this could include diabetic patients looking for an endocrinologist in their neighborhood. By implementing a comprehensive Facebook ads strategy, doctors can grow their online visibility and build a large patient community. This is especially essential for small medical practices or healthcare professionals operating individually.
Why are Facebook Ads Important for Doctors?
Doctors often rely on organic, free social media rather than paid Facebook advertising. Unfortunately, such posts reach a very small fraction of your target audience.
Paid social media advertising in the form of healthcare Facebook ads will boost your ability to attract more patients and new leads. Having said that, here are a few reasons why you should consider implementing Instagram ads and Facebook ads for doctors.
1. Most Patients are on Facebook
Patients tend to reach out to people whom they trust – like their friends or family – before making a medical decision. But that is not all! Facebook claims that almost 80% of consumers visit social media for health information. This means that many of your potential patients use Facebook to regulate their health. That’s a huge community for doctors to tap into!
2. Broad Audience Targeting and Scaling
Facebook ads also offer large conversion rates. The mean healthcare conversion rate for Facebook ads is 11%.
Moreover, Facebook also provides Meta Business Suite. This is a free resource that includes Instagram and Facebook messaging tools. This helps practitioners create Facebook ads that are targeted to reach diverse audience demographics and placements.
3. Generational Marketing Opportunities
Facebook offers extensive opportunities for doctors to retain existing patients and acquire new ones from communities unaware of their services. Facebook ads for doctors will enable you to target these communities based on their preferences and attitudes that differentiate them from other groups.
4. Supports the Healthcare Marketing Funnel
Facebook ads can help you drive potential patients deep into your practice’s marketing funnel. This happens in the following ways:
- Awareness: Healthcare Facebook ads allow you to introduce yourself to new patients. They also help you position yourself as an industry leader by creating ads on public health issues and clinical education.
- Interest: You can also build interest among existing and new patients by consistently producing educational ads that link to relevant medical content. For example, this could be videos, infographics, and shareable posts on popular healthcare topics.
- Desire: You can also foster desire in decision-making patients via Facebook ad campaigns that trigger conversions and help them find solutions for their medical concerns.
- Action: Facebook can also empower high-intent patients to convert to loyal ones via ads that show testimonials and success stories.
Steps to Follow While Creating Facebook Ads for Doctors
Still confused about how you can create profitable Facebook ads to attract new patients and boost your digital image? Follow our detailed step-by-step guidelines to effectively grow your medical practice online.
1. Ad Campaign and Copy Creation
The first step is to create a convincing ad copy and an engaging ad campaign that aligns with your target audience. Consider the following strategies:
- Target: Think about the interests and demographics of your target audience. For example, are you targeting young mothers, teenagers, or elderly people for your practice?
- Ad Copy: Create strong descriptions and headlines that showcase the advantages of your services. For example, “Trusted Doctor Near You” or “Expert Medical Advice”.
- Visuals: Include attractive images of your staff and expertise. For example, add images of you working in your clinic or videos of patient testimonials.
- CTA: Craft a robust call to action. For example, “Book Now” or “Click here to know more”.
- Landing Page: Prompt patients to a landing page from your website with important information about your services.
2. Budget Forecasting and Recommendations
Now it’s time to financially plan your ad copy and campaigns. You can implement these steps to do so:
- Think of a daily budget or overall total budget for your copy.
- Select a bidding strategy. This could be cost per click or cost per thousand impressions.
- Facebook also offers tools to estimate the budget as per the goals of your ad. For example, an ad targeting more engagement will need a minimum budget of $60 as compared to $70 for an ad targeting lead generation.
- Next, select the type of budget you want to allocate for your ad. For example, a daily budget strategy estimates the money you want to spend daily on an ad campaign.
- In contrast, a lifetime budget plan calculates the money you can spend on the complete lifecycle of a campaign.
- Choose different budgets for different ad copies. This is helpful if you have different target audiences for diverse ads.
3. Landing Page Development
The next step is to create an informative webpage that reflects the tone of your ad and prompts consumers to take a clear CTA. Think of the following steps:
- Targeting: Remember to prioritize the demographics, interests, and age of your target audience. For example, your page can read, “Lose weight without losing out on taste” to target patients above 25 years interested in weight management.
- Ad Creative: Supplement attractive visuals with a clear and compelling CTA. For example, “Book Now to get 5% off on the first 3 appointments”.
- Mobile Optimization: Ensure that your landing page is optimized for mobile phones and clear messaging to match your ad’s tone.
- Monitoring: Use Facebook Pixel to track ad performance and implement data-oriented decisions for optimization.
4. A/B Optimization Testing
You also need to frequently test your ad campaigns for performance optimization. Here’s how you can do so:
- Split Testing: Compare two healthcare ads to check which performs better. This includes testing diverse headlines, images, and targeting for an ad copy. For example, you can test the following social media ads:
- Example Ad A: A lifestyle-based image of a doctor with headlines showcasing preventing care and targeting patients with general or acute health conditions.
- Example Ad B: A formal image of a doctor with headlines highlighting expertise and targeting patients with chronic or complex health conditions.
5. Monthly Campaign Optimization
How will you know whether your targeted ads are performing as they should? By frequently reviewing and adjusting your campaigns! Here’s how you can do so:
- Follow a Schedule: Fix a regular reviewing schedule for your ads. For example, in the beginning, middle, or by the end of the month.
- Establish Objectives: You cannot review your ads without clear goals! Think about what you want your ads to achieve. For example, you might want a 10% increase in monthly sales or a 50% increase in patient awareness and engagement rates.
- Fix a Practice Budget: Select a budget that aligns with the scale of the campaign.
- Generate Reports: Click on the “Create a Report” function from Facebook to produce a report on your campaign results.
- Evaluate your Performance: Look for trends and points for improvement. This is where you compare your results with your predetermined goals.
- Implement Adjustments: Experiment with different ad copy and targeting strategies. For example, your ad on weight loss services may perform better if you target consumers above the age of 50 instead of 25 years.
6. Remarketing Graphic Creation
Developing eye-catching visuals is crucial when it comes to Facebook Ads for doctors. Such pictures should target consumers who have engaged with or visited your website before. This will help you to retarget potential patients who left midway through completing a healthcare decision. Here’s how you can leverage this step:
- It’s important to use premium-quality pictures that are relevant to your medical practice. This makes you look more credible as a doctor. For example, this could be images of your clinic’s settings or before and after images of your patients undergoing treatment (with their consent).
- Make sure your Facebook graphics and Google ads reflect the benefits of your medical service. For example, use taglines like “Your One-Stop Solution to Skincare” or “Painless Dental Services that Bring a Smile”.
- Use Facebook’s features, like carousels to add a touch of creativity to your healthcare ads.
- Remember to add a logo and color palette that is unique to your medical practice. This will help patients recognize you as a verified doctor.
7. Analytics Tracking in Facebook Dashboards
There are lots of tools to evaluate the performance of your social media ads. Here are the steps to use them:
- Open your account on Facebook Ads Manager.
- Select “Add Ads” from the page.
- Choose the kind of metrics you wish to calculate. For example, you could measure the clicks, conversions, or spending of your advertisements.
- Demographics: Decide whether you want to target your audience based on their age, behaviors, or geography.
- Install Facebook Pixel to further improve your social media ads. It’s because this tool helps you to check the performance and conversions of your ad copy.
8. Monthly Meeting to Review Reports
You should also discuss frequently with your team about the results and performance of your Facebook ads. This will help you to improve your social media image and ad strategy. You can cover the following in such sessions:
- Did your ad effectively meet the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)? Can anything be improved?
- What were the strengths of your ad? Can you maintain them?
- Were there any problems? How can we solve them?
- How many patients saw your ads? Were they delivered effectively?
- How much did we invest? Did we exceed our budget?
- Did the ad motivate patients to take a strong call to action?
Top 5 Facebook Advertising Strategies to Grow Your Medical Practice Online
You might still be wondering, “How else can I expand my practice with Facebook ads? If the steps above were not enough, here are a few more tips and tricks on making effective Facebook Ads for doctors.
1. Use Lookalike Audiences and Web Traffic
You cannot upload patient lists for targeted Facebook ads because of HIPAA Regulations. However, Facebook enables you to use custom audience communities based on people who have engaged with your articles or Facebook page previously.
Installing Facebook Pixel on your page can help you monitor web traffic and retarget previous users. You can then redirect this traffic to your website or other landing pages of your medical practice.
2. Post Video Ads
Consider using videos for your Facebook ad strategy. For example, this could be videos showing the interiors of your practice or even videos of your staff explaining your services to the target audience. Such resources build trust by making patients feel that you are safe and credible to approach as a doctor.
Video ads can effectively convey a message and grab the attention of your consumers promptly in your Facebook feed. Compared to static graphics, audiovisual ads are likely to give you better conversions and click through rates.
3. Display Patient Reviews
You don’t always need patient videos to show your credibility as a doctor. Posting patient testimonials in your Facebook ad campaigns also goes a long way in boosting your brand image and digital growth.
Alternatively, you can also post the comments patients have left in your Google profile or other healthcare directories that allow people to rate doctors. Don’t forget to respond to any positive or negative comments from patients on your Facebook page! Express gratitude for positive feedback while giving a balanced response to negative ones. This shows that you are responsive and attentive to your patient’s needs as a doctor.
Worried about your brand image on Facebook? You always can consult an experienced doctor marketing agency offering targeted social media advice on your Facebook ad campaigns.
4. Follow Facebook’s Policies
It can be a little tricky to create healthcare ads that are aligned with Facebook’s extensive Advertising Standards. However, following these rules is important to participate as a healthcare marketer.
All doctors and medical services must be aware of the advertising rules Facebook follows, especially when it comes to addressing the personal attributes of your target audience. Any advertisement that does not follow these rules is likely to be rejected by Facebook. As a result, the ad will be stopped from running altogether!
5. Analyze your Competition
Want to create an ad copy that stands apart from your rivals? You will need to know how they are performing!
In today’s digital landscape, competitor analysis has never been easier. All you need to do is access the Facebook Ad Library and check the advertising strategies used by your competitors. Simply put a Facebook Page Title or other relevant keywords and voila! You can now look up Instagram and Facebook ads with similar formats on this page!
Keep in mind that these tools should never be used to imitate or copy a commercial from your rivals. Regardless, you should still try and look out for what they are doing to create Facebook ads that reflect the credibility and vision of their healthcare services. This will help you to fine-tune your social media ads for your target audience.
Conclusion
Our guidelines and strategies are perfect to follow as you start creating successful Facebook ads for doctors. By simply starting and implementing these steps, you are sure to discover how you can create a distinctive message for your medical practice amidst a highly competitive and qualified industry.
Developing a creative Facebook ad strategy needs more than simply posting an advertisement on social media. After a few trials and errors, you will clearly understand which healthcare ads perform optimally and which do not. Patience and consistency are the best ways to ensure a good return on investment. However, if you truly want to get the most out of your social media ads, consider working with medical marketing experts who can offer you personalized advertising advice.
