So much of marketing is decision-making. Before you can even begin developing and executing a successful campaign, you have to make some big-picture decisions about which tools will work best to deliver your message.
What percentage of your budget will you devote to email marketing, and how much will go to social media? What about PPC campaigns and SEO? Once you have a relatively strong idea of your ‘marketing mix,’ you can take it one step further, comparing things like paid ads and which will be the most effective.
If you have already found yourself in this position, you may have asked the following question: What is more useful for your hearing practice, Google Ads, or Facebook ads?
The answer, sadly, is both. But before we get to that, let’s learn a little more about why they are both critical.
Why advertise online?
First, let’s think about why online advertising is a good fit for your hearing health practice. Online advertising (Google and Facebook Ads) can help you:
- Create awareness about your hearing practice.
- Spread relevant information.
- Influence purchaser behavior.
- Remind interested customers to act.
- Have multiple opportunities to contact your training and set up an appointment.
There are many other ways ads can help you, but these are the most common. Now let’s look at how both types of ads work.
Facebook Ads
Facebook has 2.3 billion active monthly users, making it a prime target to get your message across.
How it works: you decide your target audience (age, gender, venue, interests), and your ads appear on their news feeds.
There are several different types of Facebook ads:
- Messenger: Once someone clicks on these ads, they trigger a Facebook Messenger conversation with your Facebook page. You will answer questions from the prospective patient and book an appointment right on Facebook Messenger. These campaigns work better with practices that have someone who can track Facebook all day long and respond to new messages in real-time.
- Traditional: When the users clicks on these advertisements, they are taken to a landing page. You can include more information on here and include a contact form to make it easy for the prospective patient to contact you.
- Lead Generation: Clicking on those ads will trigger a Facebook form. You can collect the contact details from the lead, and AuDSEO will give you an email with the info from the lead. Typically, these campaigns work best for getting RSVPs to events.
Google Ads
Through the company’s suite of apps, Google reaches billions of people who are browsing, emailing and doing many other online activities daily.
How it works: You specify your target location. Your ads appear when people are looking for those keywords at that location, such as “hearing aids” or “audiology services.”
As with Facebook advertising, there are several types of Google Ads:
- Traditional: When these ads are clicked, they send users to a landing page where you can provide more information and display details for them to contact you.
- Call-only: When these ads are clicked, they call your hearing practice directly.
- Map: These advertisements are displayed in the Google search map pack. Upon clicking, they will give the user more details about your practice. This is taken from your Google My Business details.
Which one would be better for my business?
While both Google Ads and Facebook Ads fall under the category of pay-per-click advertising, they function differently. The best choice for you depends on the size of your hearing practice and how well-established you are in your community.
Hearing practices would do well, in most situations, to at least test both services out. For example, you can use Facebook to build brand awareness. You can then use Google search advertising to catch users further along in the buying cycle and to reach them with retargeting promotions on both Facebook and Google if they don’t immediately decide to book an appointment with you.
The best use of these pay-per-click services depends on your marketing goals, your audience, and how best to get to them. If you need help deciding for your particular hearing practice, don’t hesitate to contact us today.