Why Every Dental Practice Must Use Local Awareness Ads to Grow Their Business

Local searches signal intent, and they are more likely to buy your product or service. This makes it perfect for dentists as 18% of local searches lead to purchases.

Facebook uses advanced algorithms and data to determine the location of its users. This means local awareness ads only appear to users nearby your practice.

So what are some of the benefits of using local awareness ads, and how do you use them to grow your dental practice? Let's find out!

The Benefits of Using Local Awareness Ads

You Can Target Specific Audiences

As a dentist, you're providing different services like:

• Cleanings
• Fillings
• Teeth Whitening
• Implants

The tricky thing about providing all these services is, you're targeting completely different markets.

For example, people who only look for a general cleaning exam can have a different income bracket than those getting their teeth whitened or need implants.

With local awareness ads, you can sell each service to a different income bracket or other demographics such as gender and age. This gives your ad campaign a personalized feel and ensures you aren't advertising an expensive procedure to those who can't afford it.

This also works if you're offering children's dental services. To ensure you're targeting the right audience, which is new parents, only show your ads to users who’re part of parenting Facebook groups.

Use Retargeting Campaigns to Target Interested Prospects

If someone shows interest in your services, for example, they clicked on your ad but never set an appointment, then use retargeting to push them in the right direction.

Retargeting is a targeted marketing technique that advertises towards prospects who already clicked on your ad, landing page, or website.

These prospects want to buy your dental services, but maybe something came up that distracted them.

Retargeting reminds potential patients about your service. You could even throw in a special offer if they set an appointment now. This creates urgency and scarcity, which are both crucial when running ads.

Now that we understand why every dental practice must use local awareness ads, let's look at a simple 3-step formula that allows you to reach more patients.

Step 1: Educate Your Audience

When running local awareness ads, the first step is to educate your audience about what you're selling and how it'll benefit their lives.

In local markets, there's only a finite amount of people to serve. Some will look for a business like yours and set an appointment immediately, while most won't.

We have learned that around 3% of people are ready to buy. Maybe they have a toothache or are overdue for a cleaning and need a push in the right direction.

However, around 15% of people still need what you're selling and are open to buying from you, but they don't know you exist.

Don't only focus on the 3%. Educate the 15% on why they shouldn't delay that cleaning..

For example, we have worked with practices where during their initial run, their Facebook ads gets excellent results, but it dried up after a few months.

The problem was that practices need to also focus on raising awareness in addition to getting conversions.

That's why you must know your target audience. For example, as a dentist, your target audiences could be:

• Parents
• Elderly people
• People interested in reading a lot of content on dental advice

As with any kind of marketing, you must know your audience, and find out the primary driver pushing them to buy.

If someone sets an appointment for whitening, then their motivator is whiter teeth. Or if someone signs up for braces, their driver is straight teeth.

You want to create content for each of your target audiences. This type of content can include:

• Video
• Blog posts
• Social media posts

Whichever type of content you choose, you'll educate the remaining 15% about your services and why they should set an appointment immediately. You'll also build a strong base of followers.

This means they'll drive further, and this is important in a small local market.

Step 2: Present Your Offer

Now that you've identified your target audiences, it's time to package and engagingly present your services.

All that matters is conversions. Look at your cost per lead or cost per appointment and work to lower it.

The type of ad you choose to run should depend on research done in step 1.

For example, if you’re targeting parents, you could create a video discussing how you calm children down before working on their teeth, so they get a good experience.

And if you're marketing towards elderly people, create posts on before and after results of patients getting dentures.

Step 3: Use Retargeting

Once you've educated your audience and presented your services as a solution, it's time to use retargeting to scoop up any leads you missed.

Retargeting is one of my favorite conversion optimization tools since it puts your services in front of people who're interested in buying from you. Luckily, you can use Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn to retarget interested visitors.

This way, if someone was about to schedule an appointment and they received a message from a friend and forgot to get back to you, then you can remind them.

Conclusion

Using local awareness ads to grow your dental practice isn't complicated. It allows you to target different audiences with various services, which is super helpful for dentists.

By using local awareness ads, your marketing campaign is more personal than a one size fits all campaign.

Use the 3 step formula above and you'll increase conversions and leads since you target people who're ready to buy and those interested in your dental services but don't know you exist.

This way, people will be more inclined to choose your practice, allowing you to dominate your local market.