How Much Should My Medical Practice/Spa Spend on Facebook Ads?

Internet marketing for medical practices and spas is getting more competitive by the minute, especially when you factor in Google Adwords, Bing Ads, and now Facebook Ads. Facebook’s foray into advertising is helping local businesses target potential customers and increase their brand awareness. But how much will it cost for your medical practice to do the same?

Why Facebook Ads

There are over 1.1 billion Facebook users, with 728 million of them using the social platform on a daily basis, according to Facebook’s 3rd quarter highlights. Even better, consumers spend more time on Facebook’s News Feed than they do on Yahoo!’s and MSN’s combined, making Facebook ads a perfect advertising strategy for keeping medical practices in front of their targeted audience.

Developing Your Facebook Ad Budget

Determining how much it costs to advertise on Facebook depends on the type of ad (display, text, or engagement), the budget, and whether you choose CPC (Cost per Click bid) or CPM (Cost per Thousand Impressions bid) – which is all hinged on the overall objective of the ads. Your medical practices’ main objectives regulate how high or low your ad bid will be. If your practice just wants your targeted audience to see the ad, then you’ll pay based on impressions. If you want clicks, then you’ll pay for clicks, similar to Google Adwords. Once you determine what your objective is and which type of bid to use, you’ll need to actually choose a dollar amount. Facebook recommends bidding for true value, which means thinking about the advertising objective and how much you’re willing to pay for that objective. Their example is “if your advertising objective is Page likes, think about how much you would pay for a Page like”.

Facebook Ad Tips

Before you start creating your ads, make sure you can answer the following questions:

• What is the objective of the Facebook campaign?
• Why type of ad will you choose? Text Ad? Display Ad? Engagement Ad?
• Who are you targeting? Age? Gender? Geographic Location?
• What interests are you targeting?
• What is your call to action?

The answers to these questions will not only help you determine how much money you should spend, but also help you define the goals of your campaign. You’ll be able to measure the success, or failure, of your ads when using goals to measure.

Tags: Digital Marketing • Healthcare Marketing • Paid Search Marketing