How To Convert Invisalign Enquiries From Social Media Ads

Turn ‘cold’ Invisalign leads into meaningful treatment consultations

It’s very difficult to escape the huge range of ads dentists are using on social media to advertise Invisalign at the moment. Wherever you look, whether it’s on Facebook, Instagram and even more recently, TikTok, there will likely be Invisalign ads in your feed at some point.

This is because social media ads are a proven way to get your treatment offer in front of tens of thousands of people very quickly and then with some focused effort on following-up the leads which result, book some very meaningful consultations and treatments.

However, whilst this sounds easy to achieve, far too many dentists are failing at the point where the enquiries need to be converted from relatively ‘cold’ leads into lucrative new treatments.

So what’s going wrong and why do more fail with social ads than actually succeed?

In this blog we’ll review the types of leads you’ll receive from social media compared to other sources, discuss conversion rates and importantly, what you and your team need to do to make sure your lead follow-up process is effective as possible.

Why are social ad leads the most difficult to convert?

This is perhaps the most important thing to understand before embarking on a dental social ads campaign. These types of ads are presented to people who are essentially engaged in a social activity; communicating with friends or family, posting photographs etc. Those folk are not really searching for products or services as they would be with intent on Google for example, so the resulting enquiries are generally quite a lot more speculative. However, that doesn’t mean that they are pointless; on the contrary, there will be some real “golden nuggets” in there which are well-worth following up. Please see my earlier blog comparing dental social ads to Google Ads for more information.

Why do some dentists fail with the lead conversion process?

Let’s begin by saying that even the best social ad campaigns for dentists achieve a conversion rate of around 12-15% and that’s the number of people actually attending for a consultation, not the final number having treatment. Many campaigns achieve less than this, around the 8-10% mark, even with proactive follow-up and a reasonably compelling treatment offer. That’s a lot of leads which come to nothing and many of those folk won’t even answer their ‘phone when called.

If you and your team don’t realise this before you start, then frustration can easily result. To be completely transparent, whilst we’ve had a lot of success as an agency with dental ads, we’ve also experienced a few clients who’ve quit early because they haven’t had the resource or willing to follow-up on the leads. Unlike many agencies who still advertise social advertising as a quick and easy win, I much prefer to explain the pros and cons and what to expect – so you need to be prepared and realistic before you begin. One of my team drew the analogy with ‘panning for gold’ – you have to shift quite a lot of rubble before reaching the gold nuggets.

The systems you need to make social media lead conversion successful

Having established the need for discipline and determination when sorting the wheat from the chaff, what are the systems successful practices have in place for converting social media enquiries?

• Dedicated follow-up resource – don’t simply allocate it to your reception staff to do in their spare time.
• The follow-up staff need a deep understanding of the benefits of Invisalign and suitable training to ethically persuade the patient to proceed with the consultation. This is not just a courtesy call to ask someone to book in – it needs much more input.
• The team allocated to converting leads needs to be committed – you should be prepared for ‘busy’ admin support team members to try to step away from a process which isn’t always easy to complete. If you quit at this stage, the campaign will be wasted.
• Prepare and use follow-up documentation. Research suggests that many patients won’t commit until the third or fourth interaction, so don’t quit if they don’t pick up the ‘phone first time around. Use their contact information to send compelling information to help them decide to proceed.
• Consider the use of a CRM system (client relationship management) – these systems can be configured to receive your leads automatically and then provide a structured way to follow-up, even recording and tracking the financial value of agreed treatments. A CRM system is not essential to begin with, however most of the successful practices we work with now use them to great effect.
• Be rigorous and disciplined – rapid follow-up is essential so don’t leave it to the following day when the enquirer may well have forgotten.
• Ensure your ad campaigns are refreshed regularly so that they stay appealing. Use an experienced ad specialist to help you with this.
• Generate compelling content to help your ads stand out – remember that competition is significant now, so appealing ads are essential. Consider video to give your ads an edge.
• Allocate an appropriate daily budget for your ads – unfortunately the days of spending £5 per day for Facebook ads are long gone.
• Be realistic with the value proposition of your treatment. Whilst no-one wants to drive prices lower, you need to be fully cognisant of current economic pressures and certain demographics having to prioritise their mortgage payments over their teeth. Those dental coaches and Invisalign reps who suggest that “business is better than ever” aren’t being realistic unfortunately, so be prepared to adapt accordingly.

Summary

There is much to be gained from using social media ads to gain new dental patients for treatments such as Invisalign, but you will have to work for it. Most leads from social ads are not “hot” irrespective of how much you’d like them to be, so it’s very important to understand what to expect before jumping in.

One final point to note before I close is that you will find a lot of agencies want to charge you thousands of pounds per month for social ads campaigns, often accompanied with onerous, long term contracts. Fortunately you don’t need to do this – to find out about a much more accessible and cost-effective way to promote your practice and treatments on Facebook and Instagram, please call my team at Dental Media on 01332 672548 for a no-obligation discussion.