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the easy solutions you can implement to help boost the effectiveness of your advertisements.
Pressing the ‘boost’ button
Enhancing Your Facebook Advertising Digital marketing professional Richard Gibbons outlines the common problems and simple solutions of Facebook advertising to increase your patient enquiries Facebook advertising is a goldmine for clinics looking to generate high-quality patients. In the UK, 57% of small businesses use social media for marketing purposes.1 However, I have noticed that many are not using it to its full capacity. In this article, I aim to explain why many people fail when it comes to Facebook advertising and will provide the best tips to help them. The great news is that these tips work for both those experienced with Facebook advertising, and those who are complete beginners. Although we will be discussing Facebook, the same techniques and approaches are transferrable to Instagram. I have found, however, that Facebook commonly attracts patients who are more likely to have a disposable income and are therefore more likely to convert into paying patients.
The use of Facebook advertising Firstly, it’s vital to understand exactly what Facebook advertisements are. Facebook advertisements are shown on users’ news feeds as they’re scrolling through looking at their friend’s posts. Advertisers can choose to place adverts in between these posts, with the aim of capturing the attention of their potential customers. This advertising platform is completely different from traditional marketing such as leaflet drops, radio ads, and emails. When running Facebook adverts, you only have around 1.7 seconds to capture the user’s attention to make them stop scrolling!2 This means your ads need to be short, snappy, and intriguing straight away. So, let’s talk about the top mistakes I have witnessed clinics make on Facebook, and
The problem The most common mistake that I see clinics make online is pressing the ‘boost’ button. This is a shiny blue button that appears under many Facebook posts you will create on your business page. The idea behind it is to reach more people, which sounds like a good plan. However, I have found that it’s one of the quickest ways to waste your advertising budget. Why? Because your goal isn’t to just reach more people, it is about converting people into paying patients. The boost button can be useful if you want to have more viewers on your posts. You can pay as little as £1 a day and have your posts seen by more of your followers. This is helpful as only 5.2% of your page followers will see your organic posts!3 However, we want to discover ways to ensure a great return on investment from our advertising and generate new bookings. The solution The ideal way to solve this problem is to use Ads Manager inside of Facebook.4 This tool allows you to set up adverts that are tailored towards generating high-quality leads. The benefits of Ads Manager are that it allows you to: • Implement more detailed targeting/ customer demographics • Split test ads to find the ‘winner’, meaning you can compare two adverts to see which performs the best • Choose new ad ‘placements’ such as on messenger ads or Instagram stories. I’ve found that placing adverts on the ‘Facebook Timeline’ is the most effective way to generate enquiries With this tool, you will also be able to accurately track your adverts and ensure that the money you are spending is being utilised. I’ve personally seen clinics switch to Ads Manager and reduce their cost per lead by more than 50%.
Forgetting the call to action
You only have around 1.7 seconds to capture the user’s attention to make them stop scrolling
The problem As I mentioned, you only have 1.7 seconds to capture your potential customers attention on Facebook.2 A call to action refers to the next step you want your audience/reader to take, such as clicking on the ‘book an appointment’ button. I regularly see adverts online which
Reproduced from Aesthetics | Volume 8/Issue 9 - August 2021
