At PRM, we are huge proponents of smart advertising, and one of the best tools at your disposal is Facebook Advertising. Facebook ad campaigns are an easy and cost-effective way to consistently connect to people who have already expressed an interest in your practice, keeping you front and center when they make their healthcare choices and expanding your visibility to their social network. Facebook’s latest offerings enhance and already solid advertising platform.

Here are some recent Facebook Advertising you should know about for future marketing campaigns

Lookalike audiences

Facebook has added a new feature, called “Lookalike audiences,” that helps advertisers target users who are similar to their existing customers. This feature is only available to advertisers who are using Facebook’s Power Editor, a Chrome extension. This wildly versatile extension allows you to target users similar to those you create in your Custom audience databases. A Lookalike audience can be created after an advertiser has uploaded first-party data which includes email address, phone number or Facebook user IDs for a custom audience. Facebook’s algorithms then analyze the custom audience information and produce a second audience that has similar profiles.

This feature is only available for ad campaigns, not page post targeting, so keep that in mind for your strategy. This is going to be a powerful tool for doctors and medical practices looking with pre-existing newsletter lists, as well as practices that utilize a data capture page for contests, welcoming new fans, etc.

Target specific audiences in newsfeed posts

You can now choose to target your posts to specific demographics in the Newsfeed. This option wasn’t available before- you were advertising to all of your fans.  Segmented marketing means you can target people by interest, gender, etc., which means your marketing is more effective because it’s more pertinent to the audience.

For example, a podiatry practice could make an unpublished post about high-heel shoe pain and only show that to female fans, and then do a football ankle sprain post for football fans, and so on.

This feature also allows advertisers to get more creative with their ads and to test creative ideas. Healthcare practices can use Unpublished Posts to test a variety of copy and images. You can create Unpublished Posts through the Power Editor or through Ads API and promote them in any placement.

Updates to Ads Manager

Facebook already captures a wealth of information in their advertising metrics, but will be enhancing their Ads Manager to allow advertisers to analyze their ad campaigns even further based on specific metrics. The new features match campaign goals with users’ actions. According to Facebook, “We know that marketers on Facebook have various goals. Some might care about app installs, some might want new fans for their pages, and some might want to increase people’s interactions with their posts. We are now helping marketers better identify what user actions drive their specific advertising goals. Now Ads Manager will display the actions they care about most more prominently in their campaign summary pages.”

The updated Ads Manager is expected to be rolled out globally in the next coming weeks.

Mobile “Offers” Reminder Feature

In February, Facebook began testing a new version of Offers on desktops. These Facebook offers are ads you pay for to offer a one-time discount, coupon or similar offer to your patients/audience through your Facebook Page.

The “Remind Me” feature available to desktop Facebook users since February is now available on mobile devices. When Facebook users select “Remind Me” on an offer, they’ll receive an email notification at a later time as well as a notification via Facebook itself. This is a step up from only allowing users to claim the offer immediately, which was the previous iteration of Offers. This should help capture those individuals not yet ready to commit to what your practice might be offering, who simply need a little extra push at the right time to seal the deal.

Healthcare Marketing Agency- Physician Referral Marketing (PRM) provides the tools and the know-how to grow physician practices & increase visibility both online and off. PRM specializes in strategic marketing campaigns & referral development through a uniquely direct relationship establishment with demographically relevant doctors and hospitals.To stay on top of the latest healthcare marketing trends, contact PRM today at 888-336-1344 or visit www.physicianreferralmarketing.com.  Also be sure to visit our Facebook, Twitter, or G+ page for the latest news in healthcare marketing. Nationwide service, with headquarters in Michigan and a regional office in Arizona.