We’re pulling back the curtain to demystify the world of paid social media marketing

Just like medicine is unfamiliar to people who don’t practice it, marketing can seem strange to those who don’t work in the field. This is especially true when it comes to paid social media marketing. When our team suggests that you “run ads on social,” you might be hesitant. After all, your practice already has an active presence on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, so why do you need to pay for social media ads?

While there is a lot of power in regular social media management, running ads on social media can take your marketing efforts to the next level. If you’re wondering how, we’re here to shed light on this question.

What is paid social media marketing and what does it give you?

Social media marketing can be divided into organic and paid marketing.

• The posts you share for free on your account constitute organic social media marketing.
• Social media ads are a form of paid marketing. Ads can be a graphic, collection of photos or video that includes a clickable link to drive traffic to your site.

At first glance, you might wonder why you would buy an ad when you could make a regular post for free. The answer is you are paying for increased exposure, visibility and click opportunities. Social media ads can also help promote new physicians and specific service lines at your practice in ways that organic posts can’t.

Where do we run paid social media ads?

It’s possible to run paid social media marketing on multiple platforms. However, we most often implement paid marketing efforts on Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook features helpful tools that allow us to target your audience by key demographics like location, age, interests, behaviors and connections. Our team can even target friends of current fans and lookalike audiences that are similar to your existing audience. We can also utilize retargeting to reach users who have previously interacted with your business through your social media page or website.

Instagram is a platform for sharing photos and videos, so we create visually enticing content to keep your fans interested and engaged. By using a strategic blend of hashtags with each post, we make our content more discoverable, increase engagement and attract new followers. Creating Instagram ads and using an Instagram boost budget is critical for success. These tactics increase your content’s exposure and include a clickable link on otherwise static content.

What are “like” and “boost” campaigns on social media?

As you start to learn more about paid social media marketing, you might hear us mention “like” and “boost” campaigns.

A “like” campaign on Facebook is a target ad set that helps attract new followers to your social media page. The goal is to build a community of engaged potential patients who are interested in your content and services. More followers means more opportunities for exposure.

A “boost” campaign is a monthly ad spend used to increase your content’s exposure to your current fans, their friends and/or a specific target audience. Boosted content leads to more exposure and engagement for your content.

When using a “like” campaign and a “boost” campaign together, you end up with more exposure and engagement, which results in more business. Essentially, paid social media marketing is an investment you make in your practice that pays for itself by attracting more new patients over time.

This introduction to paid social media marketing is just the tip of the iceberg. If you’d like to dive deeper and learn more about how this type of marketing can benefit your practice, contact us today.