Understanding Google vs. Facebook Ads for Dentists

Introduction

In this episode, Ben delves into the difference between Google and Facebook ads for dentists. He explores the differences in targeting, conversion rates, and audience behavior. Understanding these platforms can help optimize ad strategies for better results. He also shares valuable insights on how to improve your ad performance.

Google Ads

• Direct advertising
• Targeted based on specific search terms
• Higher intent searchers
• Bottom of the funnel audience
• Higher conversion rate
• More expensive but reaches people actively seeking services

Facebook Ads

• Interruption advertising
• Targeted based on demographics
• Top of the funnel audience
• Lower cost per click
• Better reach for budget
• Higher likelihood of no-shows due to less intent

Pros and Cons

• Google Ads
  • Pros: Higher intent, higher conversion rate
  • Cons: Costly, potential for wasted budget if not done correctly
• Facebook Ads
  • Pros: Better demographic targeting, lower cost per click
  • Cons: Higher no-show rates, less intent from audience

Lead Magnets on Facebook

• Offering free value in exchange for contact information
• Nurturing leads through automated campaigns
• Transitioning top of the funnel audience to bottom of the funnel
• Effective in changing audience intent over time

Conclusion

• Understanding the differences between Google and Facebook ads
• Considerations for implementing strategies for dental practices
• Contact information for further assistance from Flow New Patient Marketing

00:00 Introduction

05:08 Video Content Importance

08:49 Audience Awareness

11:41 Facebook Pros

13:38 Local Awareness Marketing

15:23 Ads Approach

Client Spotlight
Sugar Hill Corners Dentistry:
- Website: https://sugarhillcornersdentistry.com
- GBP Page: https://maps.app.goo.gl/82QHx4gMo9Amt6sW6
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sugarhillcornersdentistry

For 12+ years, Flow New Patient Marketing has had a simple mission… to bring you as many quality new patients as possible. We believe in ensuring that when a potential patient needs a provider, you are the one they find, choose, and set an appointment with. We Get You More *Profitable* New Patients!

• No long-term contracts.
• Our clients average an 8X return on investment.
• Personalized, non-corporate approach.
• 5-star reviewed.

Find us:

Website: https://newpatientsflow.com

Google: https://g.co/kgs/zqWTc5a

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/newpatientsflow

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newpatientsflow/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/newpatientsflow

Transcript

00:02 Hello, hello. Welcome back to the Dental Flow Podcast. As always, I'm your host, Ben Suggs. Uh today, we're gonna talk about something that I think it's an important topic for dentists to know more about and that is uh Google versus Facebook ads for dental practices.

00:17 We're gonna look at uh comparing, contrasting, talk about the pros and cons of each platform, the differences, uh and also just give you some other additional strategies on how you can get the most out of these platforms as well.

00:31 So, I'm going to dive right into this, let me open up the screen. here. Alright, so let's look at a comparison between of Google versus Facebook ads for dental practices.

00:44 So, what type of ads are we talking about? Uh, if you are going to watch this on YouTube, we are showing you a slide you can follow along.

00:54 But of course, if you're listening to this, we will kind of walk you through it as well. So, let's look at the type of platform, the type of ads that Google ads is.

01:04 It's what we call direct advertising. It's probably the purest form of direct advertising. And what I mean by that is that somebody is going to the Google search engine, they're typing in a search.

01:18 In the case of a dentist, it might be dentist near me, dentist in my town, dental implants, veneers, something like that.

01:27 They're typing in that That's her term. And we are feeding them with an ad that is a direct result of that specific search.

01:33 And what I mean is if they type in root canal, we're not going to show them an ad talking about teeth whitening.

01:40 We're going to show them an ad talking about root canals and why they should choose your dental practice for that root canal.

01:46 Facebook is a little different. Facebook ads, which also includes Instagram ads because Instagram is a platform owned by Facebook. So whenever you run Facebook ads, you have the option to put them on Instagram as well.

02:00 So that's what we call interruption advertising. And what I mean by that is that most people don't go to Facebook searching for ads.

02:08 For dental services, they go to Facebook to do whatever the heck they do on Facebook, could be posting pictures of what they had for dinner, trying to see what their friends and family are up to, posting pictures about their vacations, whatever it is.

02:23 But they're going there for that, a different purpose other than looking for a dental service. Now, there are some people that will go to Facebook to search for dentistry.

02:36 A few years ago, we were convinced that Facebook was going to overtake Google as the main search engine that people used, but it never happened.

02:45 And honestly, I think their search volume has actually dropped off. Uhm, and the idea that they thought it would be a powerful search engine was based on the fact that if you go to Facebook and you do a search, you're going to see what your friends and your family like.

02:59 So if you go type in the word dentist near me or dentist on Facebook, what you're first going to see is a bunch of dental practices that friends of yours have liked or follow or whatever.

03:09 That never really materialized though. People still use Facebook mostly for the social stuff. So when they're there for that social purpose on Facebook and they're going about their business, they're scrolling through their feed, they're seeing what people are up to, and then we pop an ad up there right

03:28 in between their friends' photos. And that's why we call it interruption. We're basically interrupting their day. It's similar in a lot of ways to a billboard on a highway.

03:39 They're going about their business, traveling from A to B, and we're throwing up ads along the way to try to get their attention.

03:46 So that's why we call it interruption. And that's the biggest difference, I think, between these two platforms. As far as the platform itself, when you run Google Ads, you have choices of where you can run them.

04:00 You can run them simply on the Google search results page, what we call the SERP. You can run them only through Google-specific search, meaning that only when some people are on the Google platform, you can Google also offers Google Partners, which is just a bunch of other partner websites where your

04:20 ads can show up there as well. They also have something called Display Advertising, which is a lot more like Facebook in the fact that it's just displaying ads.

04:30 It's displaying ads on semi-relevant pages of your services, and then they also have YouTube Advertising where you can run a video ad that will come on right when someone goes to watch a video on YouTube, your ad will be the one that pops up before they watch their video.

04:44 So they can either skip it after five seconds or watch the whole thing. It's up to them. For our agency, for our clients, we generally, with a few exceptions, only focus on the Google search results pages.

04:58 We do not usually do Google Partners, and we definitely don't do Google Display for dentists. We do do some YouTube Advertising that's highly dependent on our clients and whether they have good video content that we think will will be successful.

05:13 So that's the platform for Google. The platform for Facebook is the Facebook app itself, the Facebook website, Facebook app on your phone, as well as Instagram.

05:24 I mentioned before Instagram is owned by Facebook so it's a very easy thing that when you run Facebook ads you click a button and it'll start showing those ads on Instagram as well.

05:35 So that's the platform for that. Now what about the audience? Yes, so when we think about the audience of people that are using, searching on Google, they're what we call bottom of the funnel people, meaning on the buying funnel, the marketing funnel, those are the people that are in that desire or action

05:56 phase and there's a visual here for those. those watching today, which I'm going to show you, but it's basically a marketing funnel.

06:03 Uh, at the top of the funnel, we have awareness. Those are people who were just trying to make them aware of the products that we offer, the services that we offer.

06:12 Then we have interest. We're trying to drive further interest. Those folks are past the awareness stage. Now they're interested, maybe, in what we're trying to sell.

06:21 Uh, the next one is desire. These folks now have a desire to get what we are selling. They want the service we have.

06:29 Uh, if you're thinking about maybe dental implants, think about those people who want implants, but then maybe they can't afford it.

06:35 They're probably going to get sick. It's stuck in that desire, uh, part of the funnel. The next piece is action.

06:41 These are people that actually are taking action to move forward with getting our service. And that may be the phone call, filling out your form, filling out a lead form, whatever it is.

06:53 Uh, but they are taking an actual action. Lastly, it's the conversion. These are the people that actually come in, sit in the dental chair and become patients at the practice.

07:07 Uh, so if you're looking at that funnel, we say on Google, you're going to get people that are more in that desire, action, uh, bottom of the funnel phase, meaning that they are much what we call higher intent.

07:22 They are looking for your service. If someone types in dentist near me, that's a good indicator that they absolutely want to see a dentist very soon in the next few days because they're not, they're not even saying, I just want to find out what a dentist is or.

07:36 Hey, are there any dentists in town? They're saying, no, I want a dentist. I want one near me for convenience.

07:41 So that's a very good potential patient right there. High intent person that's likely going to take advantage of your services.

07:49 If we can connect you with that patient, uh, a lot of times in Google, the, there are going to be some people.

07:56 People at the top of that funnel and awareness and interest based on the searches that they're making. And what I mean by that is if you take the dental implant example, again, there are some people that are typing in things like cost of dental implants, how much are dental implants, what is a dental

08:12 implant? Uh, and those people are, are really in that interest or in awareness phase. They're aware of it. Now they're moving into interest.

08:19 They want to know more about it. Um, so they're doing searches on Google to find out more information. Uh, but if we see a search term that's dental implant dentist near me, we know that that person is at the bottom.

08:33 They are, they have the desire, they want to take an action. They want to, to get that service. So they're a much more valuable person.

08:39 So Google ads, we tend to find an audience of much higher intent searchers and people for Facebook and Instagram. It's actually kind of the opposite.

08:49 Those people are much more at the top of the funnel in that awareness or interest phase. Uh, and that's why, you know, a lot of the ads that we run on Facebook and Instagram are more about creating awareness for your practice, not necessarily, um, you know, always about trying to make a sale at that 

09:08 moment. We're just trying to make them aware and like, Hey, you live in this town. Well, here's a great dentist in this town.

09:14 That when you need a dentist, they're here for you, that type of thing. Uh, so that we're really looking at people at the top of that funnel.

09:20 Uh, there are ways to move them down the funnel for sure. And we're going to talk about that in a minute.

09:26 But that is the audience that you're generally going to find on Facebook. People who are not aware yet of your products.

09:32 People who your service, or we can create awareness, and then they become interested in it. As far as budget, uhm, obviously, if we're getting those much higher intent, much more likely people to buy audience, then Google is more expensive.

09:47 It's just going to be more expensive per click that you get. Uh, you're going to put much more money into it than you're going to do to Facebook, uh, but there's a reason for that.

09:55 The reason is, is that you're reaching people, you're meeting people on the road who are looking for your service that day.

10:01 You know, it could be someone who's typing in same day emergency dentist. Well, that person wants to come see you that day.

10:07 That's a very, very valuable person for your dental practice. So, obviously, Google's going to charge us more. There's more for that click.

10:16 There's a lot of things that go into the budget. I could probably do a whole podcast on that. Maybe I will.

10:21 A whole podcast on what drives Google expenses, but it's things like competition, generally how far you are from an urban center factors in.

10:30 Google will charge you less if you're out in the country, more if you're in a bigger city. But Google definitely is much more expensive than Facebook.

10:38 Facebook is less expensive per click. You can generally get a higher reach for a lower budget, but again, you're reaching a lot of people who are in that awareness interest phase.

10:51 And that's why a lot of times when we write and run Facebook clients, we can see a ton of clicks happening, hundreds and hundreds of clicks from the Facebook ad to their website.

11:01 But that doesn't always translate into a ton of phone calls, because again, these people weren't necessarily at that stage of being ready to move forward, ready to take action, which is the bottom of the funnel.

11:15 All right, so what are some pros and cons of both platforms? And some of this we kind of already covered, but I'm going to go through it.

11:22 Uh, for Google, the pros, obviously, again, higher intent people, which equals a higher conversion rate. So we know that if we can get a hundred people to your website who clicked on Google ads, we have a much higher conversion rate on getting those people who are higher intent to pick up the phone and

11:39 call your practice. Uh, Facebook's much different. Uh, the pros for Facebook, I would say, are they have better demographic targeting, meaning they have more information about people who are registered for Facebook accounts.

11:53 So we're able to utilize that a little bit more. I'll be honest, in the last few years, that's become much more faulty Uh, there's been some things with Apple not sharing information with Facebook and things like that, where the demographic targeting is not as good as it used to be, but it's still there

12:10 . So we do have an opportunity to say, for example, if you wanted to run an implant ad, you could run it to people over 50 or over 45 or whatever you wanted to do.

12:19 You could look at only people with a certain higher income for cosmetic dentistry, things like that. Um, but but generally when we try to do all that stuff, Facebook always comes back and says, Oh, you're too narrow.

12:31 You've got to broaden your, your group a little bit. So the demographic targeting is there. It's not what it used to be.

12:36 Um, but Facebook definitely is as a pro better reach for your budget. You're going to reach a lot more people for less money, a lot less money.

12:46 but unfortunately, again, you're reaching a lot of people who weren't looking for your service that day. So they're much less interested in what you're, what you're pitching to them.

12:54 Um, we do find as a good pro, you know, when, when I started doing dental marketing over a decade ago, you know, whenever we would launch a brand new dental practice, like a startup, we would always have direct marketing.

13:06 We would in the, in the strategy, meaning we need to blast out thousands of direct mailers to let the whole town know that you're here, that you're open, let's create awareness.

13:16 Now we can do that a lot with ah Facebook. You know, we can use Facebook as a local awareness marketing engine and spend a fraction of what we would spend.

13:26 on direct mail just to create awareness about that dental practice opening in the town and being there. Ah Facebook also, because of their demographic targeting and targeting methods, custom audiences, you can even reach people who ah recently moved in to that area.

13:43 So Facebook tracks that, ah you know, a Facebook user has moved in to who used to be in Ohio is now in your town in North Carolina, let's say.

13:52 And they know, okay, this is a person who's recently come into this area, so let's start. And you can say, when they, for those folks, I want to show them an ad, welcome to the town, you know, we're the best dentist in town, come see us.

14:06 So it's a great way to create awareness, but just be aware it's not going to always just make the phones ring just like that.

14:15 Like Google, we have a good track record with. We can make the phones ring the next day. We can launch a campaign on Tuesday, on Wednesday that practice gets vocal.

14:23 You can't say the same thing for Facebook. It's more of a long-term awareness play, kind of like a billboard again cons of Google The big one to me is if it's not done correctly you can waste a lot of money I mean a lot of money, and we do see this like we'll work start working with a dentist And they'll

14:41 say oh, I've been running my phone campaign and when we take a look at it, you know, we're like, okay, we need to shut this down because you know, they're just Let me be very honest about something Google.

14:53 We love them. We work with them all the time They're great, but they want you to spend more money. That's just a fact.

14:59 They want you to spend more money on their platform So a lot of times They're do-it-yourself kind of ads approach is not always in your best interest as the as the business it sometimes goes skews to their best interest as the people you're that you're paying so You've got to really know how to do it

15:18 Google Ads in a way that you're not just throwing money out the window And it could be a number of things that you know like I mentioned before if if people are typing in root canal But your ad is talking about teeth whitening.

15:31 You're wasting your money if people are You know typing in Medicaid dentists, and you don't take Medicaid, but you're showing ads, but they're calling you Your practice you're wasting your time and your money at that point, so we try to do everything we can to control The people that are calling and 

15:47 people seeing those ads to make sure we're not just throwing money away Some of the cons for Facebook The biggest one by far, and this is one of the reasons that we don't really like to do ads Too much Facebook advertising is it has a much higher no-show rate that I know dentists.

16:04 I know you hate no-shows We all do they're the worst Nobody likes no-shows but it is a fact that Because of everything I've said up to this point Interrupting their day.

16:17 They weren't really looking for you. They were to hire in the fall Even if those people call and schedule an appointment, there's a much higher chance that they're not going to show up for that appointment Which wastes everybody's time, everyone's effort, and is a big pain for a dental practice We did

16:35 have a client once, we worked with a dentist in Manhattan And I remember one month later We got 20 new patient appointments from Facebook ads that we ran And 20 people did not show up for their appointment, it was insane And there's just a thing about Facebook that You know, they even have these instant

16:54 response forms that we've tested over the years Where literally, you know, the person says When someone your dental practice ad, they say, I want more information A little form pops up, it's pre-filled out, so Facebook has pre-filled it With their name, their email, their phone number, and they hit the

17:10 button, boom It shoots right to your practice, and your practice calls them within 5 minutes But even in that 5 minutes, we had dental practice ads Dental practice telling us that people didn't remember doing that thing on Facebook They literally just click, click, click, boom They didn't remember that

17:26 they had reached out to a dental practice 5 minutes ago So, that's one of the challenges in that platform Is it really is you're working with people who Even if they say, yeah sure I'll make an appointment, they may not show up If they say, yes I'm interested, they don't remember doing it Uhm, so it's

17:44 a challenge Uhm, and we'll talk in a minute about something we can do to get past that But, the other big thing that we started to see in 2020 Uh, and you know we're back in an election This is 2024, we're recording this podcast We're in another election year Uh, 2021 2020 was an election year, plus 

18:01 COVID, plus all that stuff And, we used to run a lot more Facebook ads prior to that year But one of the things we did not like is that We were showing our clients brand awareness advertising In between just, you know, political, uh, stuff I mean, it was just kinda ugly, all the back and forth No matter

18:23 which side you're on, uh, you know, you're just seeing negative article, negative article And boom, there's like dentist advertisement right in between the two, sandwiched between them Uh, and we really didn't like that So, we started doing less and less Uh, we're seeing that some this year as well with

18:38 another election You know, there's the social media platforms are just flooded with constant negativity about whether the other side, whichever side you're on, you're just seeing negative stuff So, it's not always, in our view, the best thing to have our brand, our client's brand portrayed as in that

18:57 , that kind of uhm, ecosystem So, that's another issue with Facebook that we find as a con But, that's an overview of the pros and cons of the two platforms, and I'm hoping that after this, you've got a better understanding of each one There's no real answer that this one's better than that one In our

19:15 agency, I would say 100% we like Google better because of the success we can have for our clients, the patience they can get, uh versus Facebook, you know, it's, it's touch and go Like we, many times with Facebook, you've got to test four different campaigns or ads until you finally find something that

19:33 sticks But, before we sign off, I just do want to talk about something that we do find successful on Facebook, Instagram, that we do for our clients, something that you can try yourself, um what we're talking about today is lead magnets.

19:48 So, I'm sure you've probably heard of that, but if you haven't, a lead magnet is just something that we're offering to somebody for free in order for them to give us their feedback.

19:58 So, in the case of a dentist, uh you know, one of, we may put out a, as an example, this is what's on the screen right now, you know, we have a thing, five things you need to know before choosing a sedation dentist.

20:11 Or it could be, take the gum health quiz. Just to see how healthy your gums are, uhm, there's, those are the things we call lead magnets.

20:19 It's like we're giving some free value to somebody to get their contact information. So let's take the sedation, uh, op, example and walk through it.

20:29 So we go out, we run ads, uh, on Facebook about, you know, five things you need to know before choosing a sedation dentist.

20:37 Hey, are you anxious about going to the dentist? Have you avoided going to the dentist? Uh, well guess what? You know, sedation is the right thing for you.

20:44 Because you can relax, you can be anxiety free, blah, blah, blah. So we run those ads, we test different ones, uh, and we try to get people to then on the Facebook platform say, uh, I want to know more, uh, or yes, I want that, uh, the guide that you're offering, the five things you need to know.

21:03 So we have them click the button. Uh, and usually what we do is we take them back to the client's website where they fill out a quick form.

21:11 Boom, boom, boom. Here's my name. Here's my email. Here's my, uh, phone number. So we get that form and then we drop them, they hit submit and we drop them into what we call an automated nurture campaign.

21:23 So What we're doing is we've gotten their information now. So we have a couple things happening. We can send that information to the front desk of the practice and if they choose, they can call that person and talk to them about setting an appointment.

21:38 But then we also put them in an automated email sequence. Sometimes we'll send them a text. Sometimes we'll leave them a ringless voicemail.

21:45 That just says, oh, this is, this is our practice, uh, we can, we're here for you, blah, blah, blah. Um, but once you put them in that neat, nurture email campaign, we're going to send them emails about the topic, whatever the lead magnet was, sedation in this case, uh, about how sedation can help you

22:02 , what station does for you. We'll send them emails with, uh, client testimonials, our patient testimonials, excuse me, we'll send them emails with videos of the practice, uh, whatever that practice's value proposition is, that's what we're going to send throughout the sequence of emails.

22:17 But the point of this is, is that, again, this person, because they were on Facebook, we already know that they were lower intent Uh, person, they weren't necessarily looking for this, but we're penetrating a new audience of people.

22:32 It's an audience of people in this example of sedation that, you know, they were scared of the dentist. So maybe they haven't been to the dentist for three years or four years or whatever it is.

22:43 And now they're saying, oh, wait a minute. This you can put me to sleep and I can sleep through the whole appointment.

22:48 That sounds amazing. Maybe I will look into going to the dentist again. So these are not people that are running to Google searching for a dentist because they're terrified of it.

22:57 So, uh, Facebook's just another way to reach them with this lead magnet. And then we nurture them over time. So we take them from this awareness of, uh, awareness, interest, and we nurture them with these emails to try to push them into the desire action part of the funnel.

23:11 Uh, and this is something that we find works pretty well to try and change those folks from that top of the funnel to the bottom of the funnel.

23:20 And the problem with those little lead forms, which I talked about a minute ago, was that you're hitting people when they're still at the top of the funnel.

23:27 So, they're going to be higher no-shows, they're going to be less interest, they're going to be uh not remembering that they've even filled out that little form.

23:33 So, it's better to make them take at least a step or two to really tell you that they really do want this information from you, and then you provide it over a drip sequence over time.

23:43 Uh, you know, that's a good option to look at for Facebook to have some success there, and I hope you walk away from this podcast with a much better idea of the differences between the two platforms, Facebook and Google.

24:07 If you have any questions or want to try and use these platforms for your own dental practice, of course you can always reach us at Flow New Patient Marketing, there'll be information about that in the show notes, this is what we do and so we can help you.

24:20 Everyone have a great day and thank you so much for joining me on the DentalFlow Podcast.