Have you been wondering if digital ads are right for your pediatric practice? Because these ads have so many uses and so many types to choose from, knowing where to start can be overwhelming.
But once you how to use digital ads and when, you’ll see they can be an excellent tool for your practice. In this article, I’ll explain what digital advertising is, its different components and how to use them to greatly benefit your pediatric practice. Let’s dig in.
What Is Digital Advertising?
Digital advertising is where you pay money for your message to show up online. What does this mean? Today, it mainly means Facebook ads, Instagram ads, Google ads, and YouTube ads. Those are the primary channels for digital advertising.
Digital advertising provides an incredible method of reaching people that you otherwise simply would not get in front of, by paying to be on someone else’s platform. Facebook and Google have a ton of traffic. Everyone’s there. Through digital advertising, you’re saying, “Hey, I want my message to be at the top.”
You could rank there naturally using search engine optimization. You could build a list and email to people. You could do event marketing. But if you want to reach tens of thousands of people very quickly, digital advertising is absolutely the way to go.
Which Digital Advertising Platform Should You Use?
Let’s talk about some of the most common digital advertising platforms which are available to private practices.
Facebook Ads
Facebook is an outbound platform. That means you’re reaching out to people, like sending a postcard in the mail.
You’re trying to talk to people who aren’t necessarily looking for you. You’re saying, “Hey, reach out to me. Here’s this offer. Here’s this message. Check it out, click here.”
Instagram Ads
Instagram is an outbound platform like Facebook. People are scrolling, and you’re putting an ad in front of them as a sponsored post.
The idea is that they will go, “Oh, look at that. Huh, that’s interesting.” That stops the scroll and gets them to click to go check out your offer.
YouTube Ads
YouTube ads are similar to Facebook and Instagram ads in that you’re interrupting what the viewer is watching to show them your ad. You can put YouTube ads at the beginning of a video, in the middle of a video, etc. I’m sure you’ve seen a million of those.
But YouTube ads have a different use. For a pediatric private practice, one of the best uses of a YouTube ad is to put videos out there that spread your message and educate people broadly.
You can show people your educational videos, your practice brand story video, etc., to make sure that you’re showing up in the marketing mix for your area.
Google Ads
Google search ads are used when you’re trying to get people who are searching for you to find you. For example, when someone is looking for “pediatric occupational therapists near me,” that’s when you want your Google ad to show up.
That person is not doing something else and happening to see your ad. That person is actively looking for you. Therefore, Google Ads tend to present a relatively hot audience, somebody who’s interested in what you have now.
Should You Use Digital Ads to Get New Patients?
Because most pediatric private practices tend to get new patients through referrals, digital advertising for new patients is not as critical. In other words, if we ran Facebook ads for a practice and got people to reach out for a developmental screening, and then they did reach out, you might be like, “Oh, great. But what am I going to do with this person?”
You have to get one of your staff to call them back and see if they even need therapy. And that’s a tough one because while you’re doing that, you’ve already got a wait list. You already have a bunch of people that need physical therapy or speech therapy. You don’t need someone else, and you don’t want to pay for it.
That’s why digital ads specifically to get new patients are not necessarily the best for pediatric private practices.
How to Use Digital Ads for a Pediatric Private Practice
So, if you’re not using digital ads to bring in new patients, what are they good for? Well, digital ads are great for:
- Advertising workshops
- Driving traffic to community events
- Getting the word out about your practice
- Educating your audience
If you create a video, a blog, a guide, or any piece of content that’s valuable for someone, you’re going to reach way more people, and reach them way faster, through digital advertising than almost any other channel.
When you’re trying to get the word out fast to your community, digital ads are a great way to go. They will turbocharge your marketing to reach people that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to get in front of.
What Are the Elements of an Effective Facebook or Instagram Ad?
Facebook and Instagram are both owned by the same company, Meta. To get your ads noticed, they need a very clear image with bright colors that grabs attention and stops the scroll. Something that makes you go, “Whoa, what’s that?” Some ways to do that are to:
- Use authentic photos and videos.
Stock photography does not work well; but a video or good, authentic photo typically will work well. This could be something happening in your practice that grabs attention.
- Have a great headline.
You want a great, attention-grabbing headline—not clickbait, but something that strikes a chord in a person.
- Speak to a specific audience.
You also want to call out the audience that you’re talking to. For example, “Attention, parents of kids ages zero to three.”
- Offer something valuable people can sign up for.
If you’re just doing brand awareness, it’s not going to provide you with much return on your investment. But if you say, “Hey, download this. Sign up for this, come to this event, click here,” then people are more likely to interact with your ad.
People will see your ad. They’ll go, “Oh, that’s neat.” But if the ad just takes them to your website’s homepage, it didn’t really do anything for you. That’s why you want to use some sort of offer or actual action they can take.
What Are the Elements of an Effective Google Ad?
Overall, Google ads are just, “Hey, this person’s looking. How do we capture that information?”
That’s why with Google ads, you want to make sure the keywords (the thing that people are searching for online) match the ad. This is an important part of setting up your Google ad on the backend.
For example, if people are searching for “pediatric physical therapy,” you want your ad to say, “pediatric physical therapy.” Then when they click on your ad, you want them to go to a page on your website that says, “pediatric physical therapy.” You want the search term that they’re looking for to match the ad, which matches the page they arrive at called the landing page.
You want to make sure that the landing page is super clear, has a great headline, and has a very obvious and easy way to sign up. You also want to describe the features and benefits of your offer so people know what it is that they’re getting. You don’t want to make them have to work for it. You want them to be able to go, “Oh, yeah, call now or enter my information right away.”
What Makes a YouTube Ad Effective?
With YouTube ads, you want something that instantly grabs someone’s attention in those five seconds that the ad plays. You don’t want extra space in that time when they’re not necessarily interested in what you’re saying.
You want to grab their attention in one second right out of the gate. You want them to be paying attention to what you’re saying. That’s just about shooting the right type of video and knowing what your hook is—the thing that’s going to grab their attention.
Digital Ads Require Aggressive Lead Follow-Up
One key point that I should mention about digital advertising is lead follow up. Whether or not you’re using Facebook ads, Google ads, etc., you’re going to get people reaching out. And as in any type of marketing, if you don’t follow up with people, you’re going to waste those leads.
However, with digital advertising, it’s even more important to follow up because when you have somebody reach out, you paid for that click. You paid for that lead directly, and to spend money on your advertising and then turn around and not follow up the leads is just wasting money.
So, one of the critical things I have to tell any private practice owner about is that, when you run digital ads, make sure you have the staff in place to do the aggressive follow-up. That means having somebody there to receive a lead as soon as it comes in, who can call the lead and follow up with them repeatedly until you actually do get in touch with them.
Digital Advertising Is How You Turn on the Lead Faucet
There’s a lot that goes into digital advertising. It has a lot of uses. You can use digital ads to promote in a number of different ways. But keep in mind that it’s just another channel of reaching people.
Digital advertising is just a faucet that you can turn on and off at will. If you want leads or traffic, you turn it on. And if you don’t want leads or traffic, you turn it off.
Does Your Practice Need to Do Digital Advertising?
For a pediatric private practice, there are typically other marketing actions that will perform better than digital advertising and fit better into your business model. This would mainly be organic content education, content marketing, and referrals.
But there is a time and a place for digital advertising. You just have to use it correctly, and it has to serve the other marketing campaigns that you’re doing.
Expert Marketing Advice for Private Practices
Our experts work with digital ads every day to help pediatric private practices achieve their marketing goals. If you have any questions about digital advertising, reach out to us. We’re here to help.
