![\"Facebook](\"https:\/\/www.dental-media.co.uk\/marketing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/facebook.jpg\")
Here at Dental Media we look after hundreds of dental websites and also the web analytics which accompanies them. This gives us an excellent overview of the data generated when users visit websites and in particular, the route they take to reach you. So for example whether they came via a Google search, clicking on a link on a third-party website, a paid advert or perhaps from social media.<\/p>\n
It’s actually quite fascinating to see what works and what doesn’t when it comes to attracting the right sort of traffic to a website. Where we undertake digital marketing for the dentists<\/a> concerned, this data is essential as it allows us to adjust our approach to make the best use of the marketing budgets available.<\/p>\n Whilst for most of our clients we manage all of their digital channels, we do have a few where the social media channels are self-managed, i.e. locally by the dental team, or by another party. Where this happens, it has become quite clear that much of it is not being managed to best effect and that considerable money is being wasted on clicks where the user has minimal interest in using the service on offer. What is happening in most of these cases, is that basic adverts are being pushed out on to Facebook without any real targeting at all. Consequently the traffic that results from them is very poor and leads to minimal “conversions” i.e. very limited new patient enquiries.<\/p>\n Whilst Facebook clearly has a lot of potential for helping attract new business when used correctly , the “quality” of the traffic coming from the platform can be quite poor when compared to that coming from people specifically searching for services in Google for example. Despite this, there are a few dental business evangelists who continue to push Facebook as the universal panacea for new patient enquiries, and there is clear momentum in the dental community to “get on there”. In this rush, there appear to be quite a few practices who are getting caught up in the fervour but failing to set up correctly – and hence wasting valuable marketing budget.<\/p>\n This is not suggesting that Facebook isn’t useful – it certainly can be as part of a balanced digital strategy with the appropriate support and experience behind it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSorting the wheat from the chaff<\/h3>\n
The rush to Facebook – why is this happening?<\/h3>\n
The critical role of targeting<\/h3>\n