A Dentist’s Guide for Choosing Target Audiences on Facebook
January 14th, 2016 by
The number one tool in any business’s online advertising arsenal is knowing your audience. In a field as wide-ranging and diverse as dentistry, such knowledge can mean the difference between a stagnant online presence and social media success. So we’ve put together a helpful guide to improving your understanding of Facebook’s targeting tools in the hopes that you can hit that sweet spot of audience-targeting potential!
We’ve investigated the targeting strategies behind some of our most successful social media campaigns in the dental industry to bring you three distinct targeting groups: family dentistry, young adults and orthodontics, and cosmetic dentistry. We dug deep to provide you with result-generating, relevant targeting parameters that go beyond the typical dental hygiene-related interests of mediocre social media campaigns. For each of these three hypothetical campaigns, we’ve provided some of Facebook’s best options for reaching your intended audience.
Family Dentistry
Although your first instinct may be to target users by selecting more obvious interests, such as pediatric dentistry, oral hygiene, or dental care, you can generate much more social engagement through streamlining your strategy and focusing on specific age groups, lifestyle choices, and purchase behavior.
For a family or pediatric dentist group, we recommend targeting women between the ages of 25 and 55 who have children. This demo group comprises the family decision makers who are most likely to engage with your page. Exploring Facebook’s fantastic targeting tools within the “More Demographics” dropdown will allow you to target parents of children within a specific age range. For instance, you can target new parents all the way through parents with children aged 12. This will ensure that your bid for impressions is going to the right users and not parents with adult children who would be more likely to seek out a dentist on their own.
Finally, investigating the options available under Facebook’s “Behaviors” section is most helpful in providing you with the best methods for reaching those most likely to engage with your social media presence. Here, you can ensure you are reaching parents who are willing to invest in health and wellness products for themselves and their children. We recommend exploring the “Purchase Behaviors” section and adding behaviors like spa enthusiasts, shoppers, and baby care.
Young Adult & Orthodontics
This group can be a little tricky to reach. The sticky situation, if you will, is developing a targeting strategy wide enough to include parents of teenagers as well as young adults and even older adults who require orthodontics. For best results, we recommend targeting both men and women between the ages of 18 and 45. Under “More Demographics,” we have found that the option to target by “Generation,” which includes Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials, is most useful. We’ve discovered that targeting Generation X and Millennials, which encompasses those users born between 1961 and 2004, is quite effective for this subset of the dental field.
The most useful behaviors for this targeting group are those related to technology. Facebook now allows for targeting by “Mobile Device User,” including tablet and smartphone owners. You can even get more focused by choosing to target only those who prioritize being up to date with their tech gadgets by selecting new smartphone and tablet owners. As common as orthodontics have become and as the stigma of adult orthodontics is reduced through innovations such as invisible braces, more and more of this targeting group’s social media audience will be young adults who are plugged in.
Cosmetic Dentistry
Our last targeting group presents the widest range of targeting options based on exactly who your cosmetic dentistry office intends to serve. Here, we have provided you with just a sample of what Facebook’s targeting parameters can allow you to do.
For this specific targeting group, we recommend focusing on both women and men in the 30 to 65+ age range. Once again, we can look to the “More Demographics” dropdown to provide even more insight into the makeup of our audience. Take a look at Facebook’s “Work” and “Financial” targeting options to get the most out of your marketing budget. You can focus on specific job titles and industries, highlighting those occupations in which a winning smile is most beneficial, such as CEO, lawyer, broadcast journalist, and the entertainment, sports, and media industries. Targeting by financial parameters allows you to engage customers with enough expendable income to prioritize cosmetic procedures.
Under “Behaviors,” we can select those users who are already investing in health and wellness, especially when it comes to dental care. Facebook provides options for targeting users whose purchase behaviors reflect investments in beauty products and accessories, cosmetics, and oral care. Lastly, Facebook’s “Behaviors” section provides our hypothetical campaign with one of my favorite targeting parameters: photo uploaders. This group includes those Facebook users who posted more than 50 photos in the last month. We all have one of those Facebook friends who is obsessed with selfies, and who wouldn’t want to make sure their perfect pearly whites are on point for all those photos?
The benefits of social media marketing campaigns are apparent. Every time you flip through your News Feed, you are greeted, hopefully, by well-targeted promotional campaigns that bring you the products and services you’re interested in. With the tips we’ve provided in this helpful guide to understanding your social media audience, you, too, can be on your way to increasing audience engagement and building your online presence!
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