Creating a digital ad strategy that actually generates more leads for your orthodontic practice requires an intentional approach and an understanding of how to implement it. There are two major digital ad platforms at your disposal: Google and Meta (formerly known as Facebook). These platforms operate in different ways to round out your ad strategy, drum up brand awareness, and funnel more leads to your scheduling page. Keep reading to learn how to get more patients with targeted orthodontic ads.
Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads (Meta Ads)
What they are, what benefits they offer, and when to use them.
Google Ads Overview
Because Google is a search engine, Google ads work as an intent-based advertising platform for immediate lead generation. That means that users who see your ads are typically actively searching for the service you provide, which is important for orthodontic practices because it allows you to reach potential patients who are more likely to convert.
When creating a Google Ads campaign, you have several options to choose from that we recommend for orthodontic practices:
- Search Ads: These text-based ads appear at the top or bottom of Google search results pages. When someone searches for relevant terms like “best orthodontist near me” or “clear braces in [city],” your ad can appear in these results, placing your practice in front of people who are already looking for orthodontic treatment.
- Display Ads: These images or banner ads appear on other websites across Google’s Display Network. They help increase awareness by showing your practice to people browsing the web, even if they aren’t actively searching for orthodontic services.
- Performance Max Campaigns: These campaigns span across multiple channels at once, including YouTube, Search, Display Discover, Gmail, and Maps. Using real-time data, they automatically adjust your bidding and ad placement to maximize your campaign performance.
Google ads offer several benefits for your orthodontic ad strategy. Beyond being more likely to attract people who are already interested in orthodontic treatment, they also offer these benefits:
- Targeting Options: You can target users by location, specific search keywords, and time of day. You can also exclude irrelevant traffic with negative keywords to avoid wasting your budget.
- Ad Extensions: Google Ads allows you to enhance your ads with extensions, such as call buttons, site links to other pages on your website, or even patient testimonials. These extra elements make your ads more compelling and clickable.
- Performance-Based: Google Ads uses a pay-per-click (PPC) model, meaning you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. This ensures that you’re spending your ad budget on users who are actively engaging with your content.
Meta (Facebook) Ads Overview
Meta ads work through social media on Facebook and Instagram to build brand awareness and nurture potential leads over time. These types of ads are not intent-based, but they can be highly targeted through demographics, interests, and behaviors.
When working with Meta ads, your practice can choose from several ad subtypes that we recommend:
- Lead Ads: These ads are designed to capture information directly within the Facebook or Instagram platform, allowing users to book consultations or request information without leaving the app. This makes lead ads great for promotions or incentivized deals because they direct traffic right to the instant form or your promotion’s landing page.
- Brand Awareness Ads: Your ads can appear in users’ regular feeds as they scroll through Facebook or Instagram. These ads often include visuals (photos, videos, or carousels) to capture attention and lead users to your website or a booking page.
As you begin working with Meta ads, you’ll discover several key benefits of this ad platform:
- Precise Targeting: Meta ads allow you to create highly specific audiences based on demographics (ex., parents with children in the ideal age range for orthodontic treatment), interests (ex., users interested in parenting content), and behaviors (ex., people who frequently search for dental or orthodontic care).
- Lookalike Audiences: This feature allows you to find new potential patients by targeting people who share characteristics with your existing patients. By uploading a patient list, you can generate a lookalike audience and expand your reach.
- Engagement & Retargeting: You can retarget people who have interacted with your practice’s website or social media profiles. For example, someone who visited your “Braces” page but didn’t schedule an appointment can see a retargeting ad that offers them a limited-time discount.
Tips for Building Targeted Orthodontic Ads
Making the most of your Google and Meta ads strategies can help you get more leads and more new patients.
Select the Right Keywords
Like Google itself, Google ads are keywords-based. When a user types a search query, Google matches it to the keywords in your campaign. As an orthodontic practice, you should prioritize keywords and phrases like “aligners in [city],” or “affordable braces,” depending on what users are searching for in your location.
Location Targeting
By tagging specific cities, ZIP codes, or even your location radius, you can target the areas that most apply to your practice location through both Google and Meta ads. Meta also offers geo-fencing, which allows you to target users based on their real-time location.
Demographic Targeting
Google and Meta allow you to target based on demographics like age and household income. You should select higher-income brackets to attract people who can afford treatment and age groups that include parents of teens or adults considering treatment, which usually range between 25 and 55.
Meta ads give you more options for defining your categories. For example, you can target moms by parental status who tend to be the decision-makers for children’s healthcare.
Interest-Based Targeting
Meta allows you to build highly specific audiences based on potential patients’ lifestyles and online habits. By tracking users’ likes, follows, and other online activities, you can create targeted groups that reflect your ideal buyer without wasting money.
Setting Your Ad Budget
Plan your work, and work your plan. The ROI will follow.
Nailing the exact ad budget you need to achieve a high ROI will differ from practice to practice and platform to platform. Overall, Google ads typically require a larger budget due to higher cost-per-click values, while Meta ads are more affordable.
Consider the following when determining your ad budget:
- Competitive Market: how dense is your local market? The more competition your practice faces, the higher your ad spend should be.
- Conversion Values: Orthodontic treatments are typically high-value services, with each new patient potentially bringing in $5,000 to $7,000 or more over the course of their treatment. This high potential return on investment (ROI) justifies a larger ad budget, as acquiring just a few new patients can cover your ad spend.
- Testing & Optimizing Your Ads: Start with a moderate budget on both platforms and then optimize based on results. If you notice that Google Ads are driving more leads and conversions, you can shift more of your budget there. If Meta Ads are generating a higher engagement rate and more affordable leads, adjust accordingly.
- Seasonality: You might need to adjust your budget based on the time of year. For example, orthodontic practices often see higher demand during the summer months when families have more free time, so you may want to increase spending during peak periods and decrease it in slower seasons.
Google Ads Budget
Google ads work using a bidding system. The more money you bid per keyword, the more likely Google will show your ad over your competitors’ ads when a user searches for that keyword. However, you pay Google through a cost-per-click bid, meaning that you’ll only pay the amount you’ve agreed to if the user clicks on your ad.
Every keyword comes with a variable cost-per-click depending on how in-demand that keyword is. It’s important to take this into consideration when building your digital ads budget.
Meta Ads Budget
While Meta ads are more affordable in general, orthodontists should spend no less than $10/day at the very least to begin seeing results. Less than that could mean breaking even or losing money in the long run.
Combining Targeting Across Platforms
Balance is key. Leverage both Google & Meta ads to get the most out of your ad strategy.
Using a mixed-platform ad strategy offers numerous benefits, particularly for orthodontic practices looking to maximize their reach, target different user behaviors, and optimize lead generation. Here are key reasons why you should adopt a mixed-platform approach:
Reach Different Stages of the Buyer’s Journey
Each platform targets users at different points in the decision-making process, which allows you to address potential patients wherever they are in their journey toward starting treatment. Using Meta ads to develop brand awareness and nurture leads alongside Google ads to create immediate lead generation is more effective when done in conjunction.
Leverage Different Types of Targeting
Because Google and Meta ads offer different capabilities for targeting, you can cast a wider net and determine which format works best for your audience over time. This can also reduce your investment risk and offer better data insights for future ad campaigns.
Increasing Your Overall ROI
By combining both strategies, you can get the best of both worlds: high-intent leads from Google and affordable brand-building from Meta. This balanced approach helps you maximize your overall ROI.
Build Your Goal-Based Orthodontic Ad Strategy
Developing a high-quality plan to attract qualified leads that actually show up and start treatment takes careful consideration of both Google and Meta ads’ strengths and weaknesses. Every ad strategy is unique to each practice and their goals, so if you’re ready to get the insights you need to start, we’re here to help. Contact us to find out how we can build your digital ad strategy!