With roughly 2.89 billion monthly active users in the second quarter of 2021, Facebook is the biggest social network worldwide. Facebook also reports the highest use among those aged 45 and older, Statista reports.
The message is clear; you can’t afford to ignore Facebook in your marketing plan. Sleep industry companies and practices are losing serious revenue if they don’t create an effective presence on Facebook.
It’s not enough to simply set up a Facebook page and share posts. To reach your ideal patients, you have to invest in sleep-specific ads created for Facebook’s very precise standards.
Five steps to follow in Facebook advertising
1 - Set your goals
Facebook offers multiple advertising formats, so you can choose the best to meet your goals — including:
Driving traffic to your sleep-focused website. A Facebook ‘ads click campaign’ can link your target audience with a page on your site. Use these ads to focus on services you offer, like sleep apnea or insomnia diagnosis/treatments. Or, you can create a more general ad that highlights your business or clinic and its unique selling points.
Boosting appointments and sales. If your sleep website is set up with online scheduling, you can create Facebook ads that link to that page. You can also retarget people who have visited your sleep website — or encourage people to reorder CPAP supplies. For example, you may want to place ads that prompt people to get sleep apnea testing — and direct them to a webpage where they can schedule an appointment.
Establishing your online reputation. Many people choose a healthcare business, including sleep apnea providers, to learn more about their symptoms. To become a trusted source, you should share helpful information on your social media channels. When you boost your organic posts on Facebook, you can ensure getting helpful tips to more people.
Building your Facebook followers. With a simple “Like” campaign, you can encourage people to like your Facebook page. Your posts and ads will get more views, and shares can increase — which will build your audience (and potential patients).
2 - Build a sleep-focused following
Have you considered who your ideal patient is? It’s critical to identify your target demographic — age range, location, interests, symptoms.
Your goal is to build a Facebook audience that aligns with your ideal patients. Your ad copy must be tailored to this audience, to convert them into patients. With Facebook advertising, you can also build an audience based on likes, interests and geographic location.
When boosting your organic content to a larger audience, you can target followers who like your page. This gets your content in front of people who have already expressed an interest in hearing more from you.
3 - Create engaging Facebook-compliant ads
For sleep-focused ads to be successful, they must be engaging and relate well to the needs of your followers. The ads should seem like normal posts, but the content should create attention. Research shows that people like educational posts and discounts.
As an expert in your sleep specialty, you have a trusted voice to educate readers on their sleep-related problems. You can certainly include a discount/promotion for your services (or products), which research shows will engage readers.
Most importantly, the ad must be compliant with Facebook’s advertising policies. These very strict policies contain subtleties that may not seem problematic to you. Many first-time Facebook publishers have been stymied, trying to figure out why Facebook disapproves an ad that does not seem offensive in any way. Understanding the subtleties of Facebook’s rules is crucial to publishing.
4 - Design for cell/mobile users
Research shows that the vast majority — 96 percent of active Facebook users — use a smartphone to access their platform. In designing your ads, you must remember to create mobile-friendly ads; you must also keep any videos very short — 15 seconds, at most. For the same reason, ad copy must be brief and direct. People scrolling on their phones won’t read a lot of text.
5 - Track results and optimize
Measuring the performance statistics of your Facebook ads is critical. Even if your goal is driving traffic to your website, it’s critical to also monitor link clicks and click-through rate. The click-through rate measures percentage of clicks. If click rate is low, you should try different advertising copy, images, or both. If your goal is to increase Facebook page likes, you should monitor the growth pattern of your audience.
Tracking results is crucial to adjusting your campaign for the best results. Without tracking, you risk wasting money without gaining any traffic — or new patients/customers for your sleep business.
Do you need help with Facebook ads?
Creating successful Facebook ads for your sleep business involves more than just placing the ad. Over time, you will understand which ads perform well and which don’t. This is the best way to ensure you’re getting the best return on investment.
Somnowell Marketing has a team to professionally execute and place your Facebook ads. The burden will be off your shoulders, as we will create Facebook ads that are compliant with the platform’s advertising policies, and track your engagement with readers, adjusting the ads accordingly — for best results. Your online content and social media posts are an investment in your practice’s reputation and financial success, and that’s undeniably priceless.
