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The past few years have been tough for healthcare marketers, especially those who are new to creating Facebook ads for healthcare.
Since the global pandemic started, many healthcare organizations and practitioners have started to improve their marketing strategies to reach a wider audience.
Today, social media is one of the most critical communication channels for anyone who wants to post an ad. Facebook ad campaigns, specifically, have become much more efficient for those who are looking to improve their healthcare advertising and reach more users who may be interested in your services.
According to statistics by Data Report, there are currently over 2.936 billion users on Facebook. Out of that number, approximately 193.9 million Americans use Facebook, meaning that approximately 58.8% of the population in the U.S. is currently using the social media platform.
Overall, if you want to improve your healthcare marketing and reach your target audience, using healthcare Facebook ads may be the best way to go.
However, healthcare Facebook advertising isn’t a set it and forget it method. You must evaluate each step in your Facebook ads campaign if you want to have results.
Many healthcare marketers fail to reach their target audience because they don’t create an effective Facebook ad. The following article will walk you through some tips you can follow to improve your healthcare advertising strategy and take your Facebook page to the next level!
Top Techniques in Creating Facebook Ads for Healthcare
#1 Set Your Objectives
The first step in making your Facebook campaign more efficient is through setting your digital marketing objectives after you create your ad account. Thankfully, Facebook advertising offers a plethora of different objective options to choose from.
First, healthcare providers can choose an objective from three main factors:
- Awareness: You’ll focus on letting potential patients know about your healthcare organization or practice.
- Consideration: Get new patients to consider your health systems and even do more research about them.
- Conversion: Encourage potential customers to take action; in the case of many healthcare practitioners, that action would be scheduling an appointment.
Depending on what you choose, you will be prompted to get a bit more specific. You can check the table below:
#2 Set the Right Demographic
One of the primary things healthcare practitioners get wrong when making their Facebook advertising strategy is that they don’t match their services to known demographics. Demographic information is as important as the Facebook ad itself. Overall, you will target your Facebook ad campaign to the people you believe will need your services.
Facebook offers a wide range of tools to digital marketers so that they can pinpoint the exact demographics they’re looking for. These demographics include:
- Age
- Gender
- Life Stage
- Interests
You can also set some exclusions for particular demographics you believe won’t work for your targeted Facebook ads for healthcare. By following this tip, healthcare consumers will be more likely to engage with your ads.
#3 Use Lookalike Audiences
Considering HIPAA regulations, healthcare advertising enthusiasts often cannot publish information about their patients for targeting and retargeting ads on Facebook. Still, what you can do is use the “lookalike audience” feature, which allows you to create custom audiences that are similar to the audience you set in your demographics.
Having lookalike audiences will do a great job when creating awareness for your digital marketing campaign.
[Read: Pros and Cons of Social Media in Healthcare (2022 Guide)]
#4 Consider Where You’ll Place Your Campaign
Right after you finish creating your ad account and pointing out your marketing budget, demographics, custom audiences, and more, you’ll be prompted to choose your placement options. In the “Placements” section, you’ll be able to choose where you like to post your ad so that internet users can see it. These include:
- Facebook/Instagram feed
- Marketplace
- Video feeds
- Explore page
- Facebook/Instagram stories
You may choose one, two, or all of the placement options offered by Facebook. However, keep in mind that not all ads will look good on all platforms. If you ever notice one of these platforms isn’t reaching your target market, consider removing it.
[Read: The Essentials of Healthcare Marketing (A Beginner’s Guide)]
#5 Consider Using Video Ads
Many people already know that videos are a great way to target people, build a custom audience faster, and even achieve greater lead generation. However, not many people use videos because they don’t want to go through the process of creating one.
According to HubSpot, approximately 86% of video marketers say that videos are one of the most effective methods to generate leads. As long as you optimize your video to the right platforms, you’ll be able to reach a new audience and deliver ads more efficiently than with images.
You can use videos to reach your marketing goals as much as you want, but make sure you throw in images, carousel ads, and other ad types every once in a while. Whether you’re making organic posts or paid ads, videos will be an excellent way to reach the right audience based on your current practice.
#6 Use GIFs
If you’re not fully convinced about using videos yet, you may throw in some animated GIFs in your posts. Keep in mind that many Facebook users prefer to watch animated or moving images rather than looking at still images.
One of the things about healthcare marketing is that you must be as interesting as possible so that both new and existing customers are drawn to what you have to offer. If you post what every other healthcare practitioner is posting, you will not add anything new to the table. Therefore, you will unlikely get more website traffic.
[Read: 5 Awesome Patient Engagement Strategies for Your Medical Practice]
#7 Cater to Your Audience’s Emotions
Currently, one of the best ways to get more patients in your local area through targeting options is to use emotionally-positive images and videos. Remember you’re talking to a person, and they’re more likely to click on your ad if they feel understood.
In the case of healthcare, you must also convey positive outcomes and experiences to your audience so that you drive traffic to your website or page. Finally, make sure you’re updating these images every once in a while if one of them isn’t working as usual.
#8 Look at What Your Competition Is Doing
One of the best ways to increase your targeting capabilities is to consider what your competition is doing. There may be some cases in which your blog post or ad will not perform as well, and you may be confused about what to do next time to make it better.
In these cases, an excellent idea is to take a look at what successful healthcare practitioners in the same field as you are doing. Maybe they’re using more videos, or maybe their ad copy is more appealing than yours. Regardless of what it is, evaluating your competition is a great way to update and improve your targeting options.
#9 Evaluate and Adapt
You cannot simply place an ad and leave it alone. If you truly want to see results in your ads, you must keep track of them every once in a while to see how they’re performing. That way, you can take a look at what’s working and what’s not working and update your strategy based on what you found.
Moreover, you should be monitoring your ad frequency. If people are getting your ads way too often, you’re running the risk of some users reporting it, which can reduce your relevancy score.
[Read: Why Hospitals Need Online Medical Advertisement (And Why You Need It, Too)]
#10 Include a Call to Action (CTA)
CTAs are some of the classics when it comes to ads on Facebook and any other social media platform. It may not seem like it, but a CTA with a direct link to your website will likely increase the chances of your potential client reaching out to you.
Overall, you can start with simple messages like “Schedule an Appointment Today!” or similar messages to gain the attention of people and increase your chances of conversion. Keep in mind these work as signposts that tell users what they should do if they’re interested.
If you don’t include a CTA at the end of your Facebook ad, people may not know what to do next, which will make them leave in some cases.
#11 Be Concise
No one wants to read hundreds of words that don’t get to the point of what you’re offering. Overall, you should use your first two sentences to tell people what they need to know. Ads shouldn’t have that much text. Otherwise, you risk people not reading them.
Find a good and engaging way to send your message to your potential patients. If you check most ads seen on Facebook or Instagram, you’ll quickly notice how most of them aren’t longer than three or five sentences. Check out this guide from Upbeat where they talk about different Facebook ads you can try.
Make Your Facebook Ad Stand Out
Digital marketing is becoming more and more popular each year. If you want to make the most out of your Facebook ad, you must find a way to make it stand out from any other ad. If you do what everyone else is doing, you may not see that many positive results.
Read the Digitalis Pro’s Guide to Managing Social Media in Healthcare for more tips.
In case you feel working on these by yourself is too much for you, consider working with a healthcare marketing agency, such as Digitalis Medical!
Facebook is a powerful platform for patient acquisition, and we’re positive that if you follow all of the tips offered on this page, you’ll make the most out of your targeting options, reach warm audiences, and advertise as no other healthcare practitioner has done before!
We’d like to hear from you! What’s your top FB ads strategy? Share it with us in the comments section below!
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