If you’ve spoken to anyone from our team at Ignite, you’ll probably have heard of open day campaigns and monthly campaigns. These are designed to get new patients through your clinic doors, whether you’re after a one-off boost or you’re looking for a regular, reliable number of incoming patients.
But which campaign should you choose for your clinic? In this blog post, we will review the differences between each to help you decipher what you’ll need for your clinic.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
When we talk about these open day and monthly ad campaigns, we are talking about PPC ads; online ads where you are charged per each click the ad receives by a user.
These ads are targeted; they allow us to direct them to potential patients who are likely to click on them and convert. In the case of your clinic, a conversion can include making an enquiry about a treatment or booking a consultation.
Targeting is a crucial part of campaigns as we need to filter out those who aren’t interested in treatment to ensure that the clicks you are paying for are worth it and not just wasted on someone who has no intention of converting.
Each platform works slightly differently with targeting, and the platforms we use depend on the ad campaign we are running.
Primarily, we use three platforms to set up campaigns for our clients
Google Ads
Search intent is key. This is a user’s intent when typing a search query into Google. With a refined ad campaign, your ad will only show up to those actively looking for what you offer. This means the clicks will be from users likely to convert. Google is great for finding those already interested in your treatments which might be at different buying stages of their journey.
Maybe they are just researching the treatment, or perhaps they are ready to book in. Wherever they are on their journey, you’ll want to be the first clinic they consider, and Google Ads is an effective way of increasing the chances of this.
We use Google Ads for just monthly campaigns.
Facebook Ads
Facebook works in a slightly different way. We target a particular audience based on location, age, gender and interests. Facebook ads give you the opportunity to appear in front of potential patients who, while they may not be searching for your specific treatments, may have shown an interest in them or something similar. These are effective for finding new patients.
We use Facebook ads for both monthly and open day campaigns.
Instagram Ads
Instagram ads work similarly to Facebook ads, but instead of expecting a high click-through rate, we expect to create more brand awareness. Targeting those interested in treatment means that your clinic will be top of mind if and when they do consider treatment and start shopping around for where to go. These ads not only get people to click on your offer, but they also create a sense of credibility for your clinic and, therefore, your brand.
We use Instagram ads for both monthly and open day campaigns.
What is an open day campaign?
Let’s get down to the basics of an open day Campaign.
We suggest holding an open day only for high-value treatments, where you can showcase your clinic and the treatment you are offering with pre-booked consultations. We run open day campaigns for around four weeks before the open day.
Treatments we tend to see on open days include body contouring, Invisalign®, and hair transplant, among others. These treatments are in the higher price range, which will help to provide a better return on investment for you and your clinic. Patients will also be more willing to book a consultation for a more expensive treatment.
Another bonus of providing more costly treatments is that you can offer a discount and capture your potential patients’ attention.
With the ad campaigns we create on Facebook and Instagram, we direct those interested in your treatment to a landing page where they can leave their details and book a slot.
You can have more than one diary available depending on how many doctors, dentists, or clinicians you will have available for consultations.
We can also do up to two open days within one week through just one campaign.
We tend to get all the diaries close to being booked, if not completely booked. We insist that clinics take a deposit to reduce no-shows, cancellations and those that aren’t serious. This has been incredibly effective.
We provide full training on the follow-up process to help you get them booked in with a deposit. On the day, we tend to see a conversion rate of about 50%, which is a fantastic return on investment for high-value treatments.
Most clients choose to run more than one open day after the success of the first, and many end up running one every three to four months to get a boost of patients several times a year.
What is a monthly campaign?
Monthly campaigns are those we run continuously with frequent optimisation to ensure they perform effectively. We require a minimum of six months’ commitment in order to get the best chance of seeing consistent results.
Monthly campaigns are effective if you want to see a steady flow of leads coming in. You won’t get the same boost of patients that you would with open day campaigns, but this is great for increasing the number of patients you see in a stable, manageable way.
We don’t suggest using discounts with these campaigns as it is essential to avoid undervaluing the treatments and to ensure you don’t get any ‘’bargain hunters’’. However, offering a free consultation has proven successful in getting those patients to click on the ad.
You can run several campaigns simultaneously so long as the treatments are different. This is to avoid having the campaigns competing against each other, which can increase their cost as these platforms won’t recognise that they are for the same clinic.
Once again, we insist on running campaigns for just high-value treatments. More inexpensive treatments, such as facials, won’t have as high a return on investment, and patients are less likely to go to a clinic for a consultation for a lower-cost treatment.
Once the six months are done, many clinics decide to continue with the campaigns. Those that don’t continue often notice a significant drop in new patient enquiries coming through, leaving room for their competitors to jump in and snatch those patients up.
Which campaign is suitable for you and your clinic?
The campaign you choose depends on your objectives.
If you’re looking for a big boost of new patients, you won’t be overwhelmed, and you’re ready to take them on; open day campaigns will work great for you.
Monthly campaigns will bring in a steady flow of patients.
We have a couple of packages you can choose from. One of which includes both monthly campaigns and open day campaigns. This helps clinics get off the ground as it covers all bases. With this package over the first year, you should notice a substantial increase in new patient enquiries.
If you’re still unsure, don’t worry, that’s what we are here for.
If you haven’t already, book your free call with one of our team members, who will explain which campaign will work best for you and your clinic!
They will also explain how to organise an open day event and come up with great open day event ideas for the day!
