A lot of principals we meet say they've tried 'Facebook Advertising' by boosting a few posts. But creating an ad on Facebook's Ad Manager and boosting a post are two very different things.
It's always a tempting option to boost a post on your Facebook page - especially as you notice how few people actually interact with your posts organically.
Facebook has also made boosting incredibly simple and straight forward - by creating a 'Boost' button on each post.
It certainly sounds easy and reassuring.
However, by simplifying it, they've also removed many of the advanced features that Facebook Ad Manager offers - and those features are absolutely critical for getting more new patients into your dental chair.
Firstly you're missing out on a wealth of targeting options and advertising 'objectives'.
Boosted posts are typically based on Facebook's 'engagement' objective, which means that your ad will be shown to people who are more inclined to 'like, comment or share' your post.
Whilst 'likes' are nice they certainly don't cover your overheads or generate treatment revenue!
So, if you've ever tried boosting a post and didn't get any results, that's probably why.
Here's what to do instead.
It's better to use a 'Link click' or 'Conversion' objective so that you can send potential new patients to a dedicated page on your website or a landing page.
That way your campaign will be fully measurable - who wouldn't want to know EXACTLY how many Invisalign consults they got for their £500 ad spend?
Setting up an ad on Facebook can be intimidating as Facebook Ad Manager is not the most intuitive tool - but then again it's not rocket science either.
It's certainly worth spending the time getting to grips with how it works and the options available to you!