Chris Baker on the Dummies Guide to Facebook Advertising

From Dentistry

Are you thinking of dipping your toe in Facebook advertising? Chris Baker explains the ins and outs.

I imagine many of you have a practice Facebook page and regularly post interesting and engaging content. If you do that’s great but even if you don’t that doesn’t mean you cannot take advantage of Facebook advertising.

According to the website Avocado Social, there are now more than 31 million users of Facebook in the UK – an audience that must be worth considering. Why Facebook advertising? Because there is no more targetable form of advertising available today.

Top 10 tips

  1. As with any advertising campaign, have an achievable aim and measurable goals. The more specific you can make it, the better. ‘We are a wonderful dental practice in X’ is not going to work well on Facebook
  2. Facebook is so targetable – but this is only useful to you if you know who your ideal audience is
  3. Set a budget over a defined period of time and stick to it. Start on the low side and then test, record and improve. Allocate more funds to what is working
  4. If you have a business page, you are able to upload email contact lists to target. Facebook will then create a ‘Lookalike’ audience from those email addresses associated with a Facebook account. You can then use this audience to target Facebook users who share common characteristics with your existing patients
  5. What do you wish to achieve? Facebook offers a number of options but the three keys ones are ‘boost post’, ‘gain likes’ and ‘conversions’
  6. Boosting posts does what you expect – you can allocate funds that will promote individual posts to followers and non-followers. To be used if you have a particularly good piece of content, preferably pictorial
  7. If you have a Facebook business page and less than 500 page likes, I suggest that you run an ad to gain followers. Remember – what’s in it for them? Why should they follow your page?
  8. Conversions is the one to use whenever possible and choose to pay for ‘clicks’ rather than ‘impressions’ – that way you only ever pay for results, ie when they have fulfilled the desired action. If you are after website conversions – perhaps for an event, then make sure you have a specific ‘landing page’ on your domain. This will greatly improve conversion rates.
  9. There is not enough space here to cover all the various demographic and behavioural targeting options; suffice to say that the amount of options will probably scare the life out of you!
  10. The advertisement itself can contain either pictures or video – a video will often generate a better response. The associated text needs to be compelling and convince the viewer to take action straightaway.

Facebook advertising can be tremendous value for money. For instance, a client of ours filled an entire Invisalign event by spending just over £90 on Facebook advertising that led to 10 patients going ahead with the treatment.

What a fantastic return on investment!

www.coronadental.co.uk

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The Monday Morning Quote #378

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
Plato

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The Monday Morning Quote #377

“Before you act, listen.

Before you react, think.

Before you spend, earn.

Before you criticize, wait.

Before you pray, forgive.

Before you quit, try.”

William Arthur Ward

Twitter algorithms – is it me?

Wikipedia tells me: In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm (Listeni/ˈælɡərɪðəm/ AL-gə-ri-dhəm) is a self-contained step-by-step set of operations to be performed. Algorithms perform calculation, data processing, and/or automated reasoning tasks.

I understand that in marketing algorithms are used to suggest what you might like based on what you have liked.

So far so good.

So when Clare Hughes Dental liked something that I had posted on Twitter and followed me I followed her in return.

And then this appeared….Screen Shot 2016-07-07 at 15.33.50

Is it me?

Leprechaun economics and implants.

From RBS Chief Economist’s brief 18.July.2016

happy-st-patricks-day-concept-with-leprechauns-hat_QkqxCz_LLeprechaun economics? Ireland is globally renowned for its great works of fiction – from Bram Stoker’s Dracula to Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. And last week’s GDP figures were viewed in this light when an unbelievable 26.3% y/y expansion for 2015 was revealed! The UK and Eurozone growth rates of 2.2% and 1.7% were Lilliputian in comparison. So what’s going on? The key story is that multinationals are distorting the figures through tax inversions and corporate relocations. In particular, the airline leasing industry moved its assets (planes) onto the Irish balance sheet for tax reasons. Nobel Prize-winning economist, Paul Krugman dubbed the figures ”Leprechaun economics” due to their fantastical nature. So what is the reality? Consumer spending rose by 4.5% last year and accelerated to 5% y/y for Q1 2016. Not quite 26%, but still very impressive in the real world.

Irish Times letters here.

So why are so many Irish Dentists engaged in a race to the bottom by undercutting their competitors’ prices – especially in implantology? Instead of hanging around in the shallows with a net this summer why not swim into deeper waters where there are plenty of fish. The sea of high quality dentistry isn’t overfished by any means. There is plenty to be caught for those with the right skills, the right tools and patience. Price wars benefit no-one in the long term.

Remember TQP – Time Quality & Price,

“Cheap Premium” is an oxymoron.

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The Monday Morning Quote #376

Do more than belong. Participate.

Do more than care. Help.

Do more than believe. Practice.

Do more than be fair. Be kind.

Do more than forgive. Forget.

Do more than dream. Work.

William Arthur Ward

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Thanks to Walt Hampton

In case you missed….TGBSL #22

Effectiveness of SDF in arresting root caries in different fluoridated areas

Conclusion: Based on the 18-month result, the researchers concluded that the annual application of 38% SDF solution can arrest root caries in community-dwelling elders. Furthermore, background water fluoride level does not have a statistically significant influence on the effectiveness of SDF. This clinical trial is still ongoing and longer-term results will be reported later.

Full article click here

Research - monitor screen

Researchers investigate prevalence of gingivitis during 1st/2nd trimesters of pregnancy

Conclusion: Clinical examination of 600+ pregnant women showed moderate-to-severe gingivitis to be common, well-established and relatively stable in the late first and second trimester, and regular dental care prior to and during pregnancy may be critical to maintaining oral health.

Full article click here

For the background to TGBSL series take a look here

The Incisal Edge Podcast – Alun Rees talks to Harry Singh

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Harry Singh founder of The Botox Training Club shares the story of his journey from Full Time Dental Practice Owner to his new life in Facial Aesthetics where he looks after 900 patients by working two days a week. He’ll tell you what’s involved, how to get started, where to get trained and how you can introduce Botox, Fillers and more into your clinical work. Read more about Harry  & The Botox Training Club.

Has the tooth fairy entered the realm of science? TGBSL #21

346.cover-sourceInteresting bit of research from American Association for the Advancement of Science. Here’s the link

The extended culture of keeping a child’s fallen baby teeth to be collected by imaginary figures such as the “tooth fairy” might turn out to be of scientific value. In recent work, Modabbernia et al. used baby teeth to track a person’s prenatal and infant exposure to metals and then correlated this exposure with psychotic behavior that emerged later in life. Environmental insults such as exposure to metals during brain development are known to increase the risk for neurodevelopmental and behavioral disorders in children. The long-term effect of such exposure, however, has remained under-researched partly because of the lack of analytical methods that allow for tracking early exposure in individuals diagnosed with a behavioral disorder that emerges later in life.

In their new study, Modabbernia et al. use laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), in which a laser beam is used to generate particles from solid samples (baby teeth in this case) to be later analyzed by mass spectrometry. They then measured exposure to metals at several stages in prenatal and postnatal development. Baby teeth begin to form at different points during prenatal development, absorbing chemicals circulating through the baby’s body. By analyzing dentine layers corresponding to specific life stages, Modabbernia and collaborators generated estimates of exposure to several metals including manganese, lead, cadmium, copper, magnesium, and zinc during pregnancy and early childhood (from 4 months before birth to 6 months after birth), in 9 individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia and 5 healthy controls. Despite the small sample size, the authors found statistically significant increased lead concentrations in the baby teeth of patients compared with controls at all developmental time periods analyzed, as well as some trends for other metals. In addition, lead concentrations positively correlated with severity of psychotic experiences and inversely correlated (specifically during the prenatal stage) with IQ. Although bigger sample sizes and a broader look into other potential toxins are needed to ascertain the role of early life environment in schizophrenia, this approach provides a useful tool to reconstruct prenatal and early postnatal chemical environmental exposures in individuals diagnosed with neuropsychiatric disorders later in life.

A. Modabbernia et al., Early-life metal exposure and schizophrenia: A proof-of-concept study using novel tooth-matrix biomarkers. Eur. Psychiatry 36, 1–6 (2016). [Abstract]
Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science

Thanks to reestheskin

 For a history of TGBSL look here

The Monday Morning Quote #375

“Never play another man’s game.

Always have a game of your own.”

Loren L. Lewis