Today more than ever it is necessary for healthcare organizations to be active on social media platforms such as Facebook. Through Facebook business pages and ad accounts, hospitals and healthcare systems can actively engage with their community in a setting that allows for discussion, education, and easy distribution of content and information.
Facebook’s Business Manager allows hospitals to extend their reach, delivering branded messages to news feeds, stories, and even to the Messenger app, Marketplace app, Instagram and third-party websites through Facebook’s Audience Network. These ads have the benefit of fitting seamlessly within organic content that your audience is already browsing. Here are a few tips to capture their attention!
Be Aware of Ad Policies
Before launching a social ad campaign, make sure that your ad content is compliant with Facebook Ad Policies. Your ads must not include any personally identifiable information regarding actual patients and cannot make any claims or assumptions towards anyone who many see your ads. An example of this would be the difference between an ad that promotes a specific department in a hospital and one that asks readers directly if they have certain health concerns. The latter would be rejected under Facebook’s policies.
Additionally, Facebook requires that ads do not discriminate against individuals with disabilities or medical conditions, as well as other prohibited content. Be sure to review such guidelines before creating your ads. Otherwise, Facebook will reject the ads and you will need to adjust your targeting and ad creative accordingly in order to run the campaign.
Use Engaging Content
According to a study by Wordstream, the average click-through rate (CTR) for healthcare ads on Facebook is 0.83%, lower than the 0.9% average for ads across all industries. In order to achieve better returns on ad campaigns, hospitals and health care providers can use creative imagery* that tells a story through a friendly face or provides a testimonial about the services they offer. (*Note that any included text must not exceed 20% of the overall image.)
Healthcare marketing that connects and engages with the target audience features content that is relevant and builds trust in the brand. One way for organizations to share experiences that relate to their audience is to test different media types in their promotions. Carousel ads with multiple photos, customer and employee testimonials, virtual tours, and 360-degree photos and video are all ways to get more engagement on the social network.
Reach Your Audience
Though you cannot target Facebook users by characteristics such as condition or disability, you can reach your audience based on gender, location, age, income, demographics, and interests. You can save multiple targeting parameters together as a Facebook Saved or Core audience, for use in future campaigns.
You can also nurture your organization’s brand by getting your ads in front of already loyal customers by using Facebook Custom Audiences. Narrow your targeted ads further by targeting Facebook users that have visited your organization’s website and will recognize your organization when he/she sees your ads.
A Facebook Lookalike audience will allow you to deliver ads to new users who share similar attributes and demographic information as those in a Core or Custom audience of your choosing. This will ensure that your ads appear in front of new users who are highly likely to be interested in your services.
With any audience, you need to make sure that the ads you deliver are relevant to the targeting you have set within the ad’s Ad Group. A single campaign can have multiple ad groups, each with different targeting and different ads within them. This allows for widescale branding campaigns to be run with ad groups that target different geographical areas with relevant ad creative, all running concurrently.
A/B Test the Ad Sets
Use A/B testing to better compare the results of your Facebook ads. Test variables such as content, target audience, ad type, or images. For example, imagine that a hospital has created two Facebook ad sets with the same type of ads and ad copy; one single ad with an image of the hospital doctors and a carousel ad with photos of the facility’s technology. The only difference between the two ad sets is the content that is written in each set.
The hospital will be able to determine the most cost-effective ads by examining the performance of the two sets based on the results of the data. If ad copy A generated more engagement through clicks, likes, and shares than ad copy B, then the hospital will be able to hypothesize that the content in ad copy A spoke more to the target audience than ad copy B. Remember, you can test different variables to determine what works best for your organization’s Facebook ads.
In need of Facebook ads for your healthcare organization? Contact BlaineTurner Advertising for effective strategies such as Facebook as well as other marketing and public relations services. Our Facebook Certified Media Buying Professional is here to help build your next campaign!
Resources:
WordStream: Facebook Ad Benchmarks for YOU Industry [Data]
Facebook: Help Your Ads Find the People Who Will Love Your Business
AdEspresso: Beginner’s Guide to A/B Testing Facebook Ads