Which Is Best For Dentists: Facebook Advertising or Google Adwords?

 

Both!

Facebook advertising AND Google Adwords (in addition to Bing/Yahoo too…among others) can cost-effectively supply the average dental practice with sustainable new patient acquisition flow.

Quick & easy, now go back to work.

If you care to learn why that’s our story and why we’re sticking to it, please read on…

 

Facebook’s New Atlas Ad Network Is About To Really Compete With Google

 

Facebook Advertising Vs. Google Adwords: The Battle Is About To Begin

 

According to the Wall Street Journal, as early as next week, Facebook is poised for a full-go in launching a brand new advertising network to help compete with Google gorilla.

Why doesn’t Facebook currently compete with Google?

It does, but basically because ads that run on Facebook are pretty much contained to people actually being on Facebook – retargeting efforts notwithstanding.

Even with dentists using Facebook ad retargeting, the first interaction with their ads from any potential new patient happens inside of Facebook.

Only after that first visit to your website, will the force multiplication effect of retargeting begin.

Retargeting works by tracking visitors to your website (or ad landing pages) and then displaying your retargeted ads to them as they browse around the internet on other sites – and inside of Facebook.

But that’s old news.

The aim here is to define exactly why Facebook and Google Adwords can complement each other to provide dentists with cost-effective sustainable new patient acquisition.

 

Google Has An Incredibly Expansive Ad Network, As Does Facebook – & It’s About to Get a Whole Lot Bigger.

 

According to the WSJ article, Facebook Inc. next week will unveil a new advertising platform designed to improve how marketers target and measure the advertisements they buy across the Web, according to people familiar with the company’s plans.

Key term being, “…across the Web.

Facebook is calling their new ad network Atlas. This is a re-engineered version of the Atlas Advertiser Suite business Facebook purchased from Microsoft Corp. in 2013.

Atlas promises to help marketers understand which Facebook users have seen, interacted with or acted upon ads that appear both on Facebook’s services and on third-party websites and apps.

It will also provide an automated ad-buying tool known in the industry as a “demand-side platform” or “bidder,” which will offer marketers the ability to buy ads that target Facebook’s members as they move around the Web.

 

So Why Does The Atlas Network Mean Dentists Need Both Facebook Ads & Google Ads?

 

It doesn’t, the average dentist can probably still rely on word of mouth referral system (the best new patient acquisition there is), in addition to direct mail, radio, and local newspaper  print ads to not so cost-effectively maintain an over-bloated practice marketing budget that still manages to butt heads with some semblance of a sustainable ROI.

 

Does The Atlas Network Mean Dentists Need Both Facebook Ads & Google Ads?

 

In case you haven’t read our blog before, we’re big believers in dentists using Google’s HUGE advertising network to acquire new patients – and that’s not just because we’re a certified Google Parnter Agency.

We’re also totally in favor of dentists employing the social media power of Facebook advertising to not only promote their owned media efforts, connect with local businesses, reward loyal patients, capture more online reviews, generate more digital word of mouth referrals, and increase page Likes, but also to acquire new patients who have zero connection to your practice whatsoever.

So, it makes natural sense that we’d be all-in on Facebook’s new Atlas Network. And here’s why…

Lower cost per acquisition, and increased impressions – more reach at a lower cost.

According to this MarketingLand.com article, the new [Atlas] network will also be a “demand side platform” permitting dynamic bidding for impressions on third-party sites.

  • A demandside platform (DSP) is a system that allows buyers of digital advertising inventory to manage multiple ad exchange and data exchange accounts through one interface.
  • Impressions are the number of times your ads are seen.

Given the data that Facebook has about its users the new platform could pose a formidable challenge to Google (not to mention Yahoo).

In 2013 Google made just over $13.2 billion from non-Google sites displaying its ads – and with Atlas, Facebook will now be taking a piece of that pie.

Here’s more techspeak about what the author (Greg Sterling) of the aforementioned MarketingLand.com article thinks…

Perhaps the most interesting and provocative aspect of the WSJ report involves the cookie-less cross-platform dimension of the network.

The idea is to turn the Facebook ID itself into the new cookie:

With Atlas, Facebook hopes to fix those [cookie] problems by linking users’ ad interactions to their Facebook accounts, which can be used to track users across both desktop and mobile devices, albeit on an anonymous basis.

 

For example, a marketer using Atlas might now be able to understand that a customer purchased a product on a desktop computer, but first saw an ad for it on their smartphone device.

 

Facebook already tracks users this way across its own service, but Atlas will now extend the functionality to other sites and apps. Facebook also plans to pitch marketers on the concept of using Atlas to tie consumers’ offline behaviors to their online ones.

 

For instance, a consumer who purchases a pair of shoes in a store might volunteer her email address at the checkout. Facebook could then use that email address to inform the retailer if, when, and where the consumer saw its ads across the Web, if the email address is tied to a Facebook account.

This cross-platform, online + offline capability would be enormously powerful and is currently unmatched by any of the big ad networks or exchanges.

Facebook’s pitch to marketers, according to the WSJ, will be about “people-based marketing” — essentially audience targeting.

This audience targeting is already one of the biggest advantages Facebook Ads have over Google Adwords – the ability to target to custom audiences, look-alike audiences, users by demographics and interests, to name a few.

The key difference between [this new Atlas Network and] other behavioral advertising solutions is that Facebook has far more data and far more accurate data on users’ preferences, likes, interests and cross-platform behavior than any other advertising entity or platform.

In some ways this is the realization of what Facebook has been building toward – think they’re stockholders will be applauding the move?

UPDATE DECEMBER 2016:
According to AdWeek, Facebook plans on winding down its Atlas ad serving platform to focus on improving the company’s measurement capabilities.

Even with this announcement, Facebook Ads are only increasing in effectiveness.

This new Atlas news doesn’t affect dentists running Facebook Ads one bit.

 

What Does All This Facebook Ads Vs. Google Ads Mean For Dentists Seeking New Patients?

 

Of course the whole hook with Facebook’s Atlas network was that people have to be on Facebook…just like people searching for a dentist have to be on Google to see your ads.

Who do you know that doesn’t have a Facebook profile or use Google EVERY DAY?

Competition is good!

There will certainly be a counter punch from Google about their cookie-less ad products coming very soon, but again that’s a good thing. With this increased competition comes decreased cost per acquisition and increased reach for your dental practice social media & search engine marketing.

Dentists moving out of the past need to utilize both Google & Facebook to maximize their new patient acquisition efforts.

Let the big platforms battle it out while the super savvy digital dental marketing snipers combine the pin-point granular location and behavioral targeting aspects that BOTH Google Adwords & Facebook Advertising platforms offer, with kick ass ad copy and compelling dental health money-saving offers to watch their bottom line go BOOM!

Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.  

– Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

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