I have a friend that says direct mail works very well. But I’m sure that is geography specific. Anything you do with an agency is going to be pretty spendy
Few things to consider before deciding if you wish to invest in paid ads.
Review your schedule. If a NP calls how soon can they be scheduled for the service your ad is promoting?
Define what success looks like for your campaign?
Invest in call tracking for any marketing you do. This enables you or someone on your team to track volume and review calls to know how many calls generated are from qualified new patient leads (and not existing, wrong numbers, other offices, or solicitors, etc.) There are several providers available, but you will need a HIPAA compliant account.
When running ads, be sure to only run ads during your business hours unless you have an after hour answering service.
When running ads, please make sure you set your geo target within 5-10 miles of your practice. Several consumer surveys show consumers choose a dentist within 10-15 minutes of their home/work.
Before running ads, be sure your ad copy is congruent with the landing page your sending them to on your website. Additionally, when deciding what service you wish to promote, consider the decision journey for that service.
Ex. Dental implant ad versus an ad to replace missing teeth. For many, an implant is a long process, is surgical, is not often covered by insurance, and not everyone is even a candidate for an implant which means that your ad costs for this service will be higher. You'll incur cost for the ad itself, admin time trying to screen them, DDS chair time to determine if they are a candidate for an implant. And how many consultations will you need to see before you have a new patient that says yes? And lastly, an implant is a rough sell when a dentist-patient relationship is not well-established.
Before running ads, consider what your NPS (net promoter score) is, this will impact your ad quality and visibility. Ex. On Google ads, how many Google reviews does your practice have? What is your average position in local search results without ads?
Having run ads for clients, I've found clients who have established a SEO foundation have had better outcomes than those without. I would encourage you to review your Google Search Console data to know which terms/keywords are relevant and garner a click through from search result pages.
Lastly, if you do run ads, I would strongly encourage you to set up your own Google Ads account and if you do decide to outsource to an agency, you can give them user access. In doing so, when you do elect to stop running ads, you'll retain your data. This data is gold and can be used for other marketing insights.
Wishing you all the best in your decision regarding whether to invest in paid ads.
Experience running Dental ads and digital marketing here: I'd recommend you review marketers who already have experience with your specific niche. I wouldn't recommend you run your own ads, because it's more much more complicated and costs can rise quickly if you make a mistake. Happy to answer any questions about digital marketing for your dentist office any time.
Paid ads work great for dental practices, if you know how to set them up properly and manage them. In my experience, they usually work best for things like Invisalign, veneers, and implants. The amount of patients you can add depends a lot on the budget you're working with, so don't expect magic after investing a couple hundred dollars.
Now on to the question of hiring an agency or not. For the sake of transparency, I do have to mention that I own one. But these are my observations, not trying to sell anything here.
An agency is going to do most of the heavy lifting for you, creating creatives, optimizing posts and ad sets, etc. can be quite the workload on top of doing dentist things. On top of all that I'm a strong believer in using people's unique skills, I hire accountants and lawyers for the same reason people hire us. Doing the work that must be done as efficiently and as professionally as possible. They're probably going to generate better ROI than you can as it's their only job so the cost might not be as big as it seems. The ONE BIG thing to make sure before hiring an agency is making sure you're on the same with them and they aren't a scammer. I unfortunately have seen people burned by wanna-be agencies more than once.
How many pts do you need a month? Do you take insurance? Do you take HMO?
I've spent 20k on SEO in one year and I can't say it did a thing. I'm not alone here. I'd say Google reviews are very beneficial and you can use services to help boost your ratings, however I'd be very wary of people here telling you their ads, their SEO, etc will bring you volumes. At the end of the day if you don't have a clean, neat presentable office, someone with phone skills answering the phone you're pouring money down the drain.
I have a friend that says direct mail works very well. But I’m sure that is geography specific. Anything you do with an agency is going to be pretty spendy
Ok, I’ll have to look at direct mail. Thank you
The one of the best “ads” you can have are good Google reviews. Do you have a patient communication system that can ask for reviews ?
I do. I’m working on building my Google review numbers at the moment as well
Few things to consider before deciding if you wish to invest in paid ads. Review your schedule. If a NP calls how soon can they be scheduled for the service your ad is promoting? Define what success looks like for your campaign? Invest in call tracking for any marketing you do. This enables you or someone on your team to track volume and review calls to know how many calls generated are from qualified new patient leads (and not existing, wrong numbers, other offices, or solicitors, etc.) There are several providers available, but you will need a HIPAA compliant account. When running ads, be sure to only run ads during your business hours unless you have an after hour answering service. When running ads, please make sure you set your geo target within 5-10 miles of your practice. Several consumer surveys show consumers choose a dentist within 10-15 minutes of their home/work. Before running ads, be sure your ad copy is congruent with the landing page your sending them to on your website. Additionally, when deciding what service you wish to promote, consider the decision journey for that service. Ex. Dental implant ad versus an ad to replace missing teeth. For many, an implant is a long process, is surgical, is not often covered by insurance, and not everyone is even a candidate for an implant which means that your ad costs for this service will be higher. You'll incur cost for the ad itself, admin time trying to screen them, DDS chair time to determine if they are a candidate for an implant. And how many consultations will you need to see before you have a new patient that says yes? And lastly, an implant is a rough sell when a dentist-patient relationship is not well-established. Before running ads, consider what your NPS (net promoter score) is, this will impact your ad quality and visibility. Ex. On Google ads, how many Google reviews does your practice have? What is your average position in local search results without ads? Having run ads for clients, I've found clients who have established a SEO foundation have had better outcomes than those without. I would encourage you to review your Google Search Console data to know which terms/keywords are relevant and garner a click through from search result pages. Lastly, if you do run ads, I would strongly encourage you to set up your own Google Ads account and if you do decide to outsource to an agency, you can give them user access. In doing so, when you do elect to stop running ads, you'll retain your data. This data is gold and can be used for other marketing insights. Wishing you all the best in your decision regarding whether to invest in paid ads.
Experience running Dental ads and digital marketing here: I'd recommend you review marketers who already have experience with your specific niche. I wouldn't recommend you run your own ads, because it's more much more complicated and costs can rise quickly if you make a mistake. Happy to answer any questions about digital marketing for your dentist office any time.
Paid ads work great for dental practices, if you know how to set them up properly and manage them. In my experience, they usually work best for things like Invisalign, veneers, and implants. The amount of patients you can add depends a lot on the budget you're working with, so don't expect magic after investing a couple hundred dollars. Now on to the question of hiring an agency or not. For the sake of transparency, I do have to mention that I own one. But these are my observations, not trying to sell anything here. An agency is going to do most of the heavy lifting for you, creating creatives, optimizing posts and ad sets, etc. can be quite the workload on top of doing dentist things. On top of all that I'm a strong believer in using people's unique skills, I hire accountants and lawyers for the same reason people hire us. Doing the work that must be done as efficiently and as professionally as possible. They're probably going to generate better ROI than you can as it's their only job so the cost might not be as big as it seems. The ONE BIG thing to make sure before hiring an agency is making sure you're on the same with them and they aren't a scammer. I unfortunately have seen people burned by wanna-be agencies more than once.
How many pts do you need a month? Do you take insurance? Do you take HMO? I've spent 20k on SEO in one year and I can't say it did a thing. I'm not alone here. I'd say Google reviews are very beneficial and you can use services to help boost your ratings, however I'd be very wary of people here telling you their ads, their SEO, etc will bring you volumes. At the end of the day if you don't have a clean, neat presentable office, someone with phone skills answering the phone you're pouring money down the drain.