Hard to believe 2024 is wrapping up already. The whole “time flies as you get older” thing is real.
No doubt you’re planning your 2025 marketing budgets right now. A few items to ensure are included, along with input I’ve received from some of my expert friends in these areas of focus:
Google Ads
The beauty of Google ads is they’re unique in that they target people already looking for your services.
They are “intent-based” advertising, not “interruption-based” like pretty much every other marketing channel.
You’re probably already doing Google ads, so keep it up. Keep in mind (at least in my experience) Google will appear tell you to add more budget, and sometimes that’s not always the best move.
That said, as long as you know your numbers, and if Google ads are profitable for you, don’t be afraid to scale that budget up to the point of diminishing returns. When done right, Google ads can be like an ATM.
Now what if you’re wanting to target different procedures or demos, like LASIK vs. RLE? Or LASIK vs. RLE vs. Cat? Allocating your budget between accounts, assessing performance, what should the creative say, where should you send people who click, etc. << all these need to be taken into consideration.
I was on with a client and one of our amazing partner agencies yesterday getting into these very topics. We have a set of new strategic approaches we’ve been testing, and they’re showing great results early on. So make sure someone is on top of this, Google ads are not a set-it-and-forget-it media.
Meta Ads
When I say meta ads, I’m taking about Facebook and Instagram ads. Over the last 12 months, this platform has greatly improved their targeting capabilities to get in front of action takers in your target demographic.
They have a number of options for lead generation, including driving traffic to your self test, a pricing guide or even running their native “lead ads” on their platform.
“But social media leads are typically low quality, Troy.”
Imagine when you met your spouse. Did you propose marriage on your first date? (geez, hope not). Because that would be weird, right? It would be out of sequence.
To a lesser extent, social media leads are the same way. They aren’t “bad leads” per se, many of them just aren’t ready to take the leap.
Solution? Don’t make them leap. Give them stepping stones instead. Free guides, FAQs, videos, etc. And then have a strategic delivery mechanism (SMS + Email) to share those resources with these leads.
Other thing to remember on ANY lead channel – conversion rate doesn’t matter. “HERESY!” Nah, listen:
The only thing that matters is the ratio of leads to kept consults. If you’re converting 10% of social media leads into consults, that sounds like trash on the surface. BUT if every one of those leads cost you $15, do the math. That’s a $150 consult walking through the door. Even if you only convert at 50% to surgery (which is low), that’s $300 for a $6k LASIK or $12k RLE. You’ll take that all day long.
On a related note, ad CONTENT is a whole other topic that we can’t discuss today, but obviously that has a huge affect on the campaign performance.
Alright moving on….
TikTok Ads?
Supposedly they’re about to get banned. Pretty sure that’s NOT gonna happen, but it could.
But let’s say they don’t. TT is a solid ad platform, and I know some practices having success with ads there, either running the ads themselves or through an agency.
Test Budget
This is a big one. Back in the day – when social / google ads weren’t even a thing – we used to have a budget line item called “remnant ads.” These were earmarked dollars we could use for print, radio or TV to buy any last-minute, unsold inventory at a reduced rate. (This still works for those channels btw).
Sometimes we used it, sometimes we would not. But every month, it was available. It was baked into the budget.
With the shift to digital, you should still have this type of earmark, but it should be for running tests.
The beauty of digital is you can cook up a campaign, spend a couple hundred dollars driving traffic to it, and figure out if it’s a potential winner.
Sometimes it’s not, and that’s fine. You learned something, and it didn’t cost you much money or time. On the other hand, we had several test campaigns this past year that turned out to be home runs. We’re talking sub-$15 leads and decent conversion to consult. All thanks to the extra “Test Budget” we had available to us.
You can run these tests as new campaigns in your current channels, or use them to test new channels like TikTok ads or Twitter ads.
Not a lot of $$ btw, $500 – $1000 per month. And if you don’t use it, no problem. But try to use it.
CRM
If you have some version of a CRM, awesome. If not, now is the time.
You simply can’t be maximally effective in your conversion process if you aren’t tracking your leads with pen and paper or a basic spreadsheet. You need a tracking system, which is a CRM.
And you need to USE the CRM. Make sure your team is trained on it and have standardized processes. Bonus points if your CRM includes the capability of automating emails and SMS messages to your leads.
If you want a CRM recommendation, hit me up. There are a few good ones out there, and I’ll help you figure out what would be the ideal solution for you.
Communications / Sales Coaching
More of the A-player practices have started to incorporate communications / sales coaching into their budgets. Why? Because it’s the one area where you can make massive gains whether you spend a ton of $ on marketing or very little at all.
Driving a bunch of leads through ad channels? You need to know how to followup, connect and convert them.
Not doing much marketing? You probably rely on a lot of referrals. How do you create the best experience possible so patients and other doctors can’t help but sing your praises from the rooftops?
A weapons-grade communications and sales coaching program fits the bill in both scenarios. And yes, we have what I would describe in my not-so-humble opinion as the best in the game (especially with the “real-time feedback” modifications we’re rolling out in Q1).
I’m not alone – we’ve had hundreds of students go through the coaching, and they’ve shared their stories of massive wins – converting skeptics to believers, getting in tough with no-shows and turning them into surgery eyes, overcoming the most ridiculous objections with unwavering confidence.
Reply for more info or head over here to check it out.
Enough for today. Hopefully this gives you some useful insights into how to be most effective as you plan your approach for the upcoming year.
– T-Cole
PS – I am bullish on 2025. New president, new administration. Things will be shaken up, and I believe it will be a net positive for the economy and consumer confidence. Get your plan together to make the most of it. 💪🏻