We’ve recently had a number of people ask us about Facebook Lookalikes and how to use them.
Here’s a very brief guide to Facebook Lookalike Audiences and why they should be part of your social media marketing campaigns.
How do Lookalike Audiences Work, What are the Benefits?
Targeting ‘pain’ is very difficult. We constantly see generic therapy ads on social media pushing rehab at practically anyone, this shotgun approach is expensive and not particularly effective.
Facebook Lookalike Audiences are a great way of reaching new people who will be more likely have to an interest in what you offer because they ‘look like’ your existing customers. You’re essentially telling Facebook what you’d like it to find and Facebook then matches targeting against those criteria. Facebook Lookalike Audiences increase the chances of improving conversion stats (patient bookings) at a lower advertising spend. Essentially you’ll get greater value for the money you’re spending on ads and ad targeting.
You create your source audience by using data you collect from, amongst others:
1 Patient Information
2 Visitors to Your Website
3 Engagement
Facebook then identifies common qualities these patients share. For example, this could be interests, age ranges, locations. Any sort of demographic information.
Facebook will then deliver your ads to audiences who resemble your source audience. In other words, your social media marketing will be targeted to people that “look like” your existing patients.
How Large Can/Should a Lookalike Audience Be?
At creation, you can set the size of your Lookalike Audience. Smaller sized audiences will stick close to your source audience criteria. It will be more specific and more targeted. We’d always recommend, in healthcare at least and particularly at the start of a campaign, to try using a smaller audience against specific services.
Making a larger audience will increase your reach but it branches out and reduces the similarity criteria from your source audience which might be okay when you’re a business selling holidays but not so much when you’re trying to generate patient bookings.
A source audience made up of patients with particular needs works better than your whole patient list. By keeping your source audience-specific, you’re likely to yield better results. For example, neuro patients have very different criteria to sports rehab patients as do post-op vs general MSK patients so be specific with your lookalikes and ads!
Why are Lookalike Audiences Important?
It’s safe to say that you’ll have a good idea of who your average patient profile is but, you might not know how to link them up with other, similar patients.
Let Lookalike Audiences do this for you. You’ll be able to connect the dots between your patients and what they have in common. By using your data and its own treasure trove you’ll likely get much better results. Not only is this a more targeted approach to make sure you’re getting the best patients in, it also helps optimise your media marketing budget. You’ll lower the cost of acquisition while you’re at it!
We can give a real-world example of a campaign we’re currently running for a pelvic health physio. We created lookalike audiences from visitors to a specific web page focused on Mummy MOT’s, people who downloaded a guide to pelvic health products, those who purchased a pelvic product online and around 200 patients who are already being treated at the clinic.
By using those lookalike audiences we increased the reach of the campaign as well as reducing the conversion costs from £26 per booking to £17 per booking. It may not sound a lot but saving £468 on that campaign paid for the extra costs the clinic was absorbing for PPE!
Don’t Miss Out on Facebook Lookalike Audiences
So there you have it! Make sure you’re using lookalikes in your campaigns!
When broken down, it’s using your existing data for a more targeted reach. If you’re appealing to patients from a certain demographic, it makes sense to reach out to more people who fit these criteria. There is a higher chance of interesting them than reaching out into new, untested groups.
Some inside info….lookalike audiences work particularly well with pelvic health, sports screenings, sports massage, post-op rehab, Mummy MOT’s and if you’re a clinic looking to attract corporate customers.
If you’d like to chat through how we run social media campaigns for Physios, Chiropractors, Osteopaths and other healthcare businesses and whether we could help you then arrange a call! We’re always happy to have a chat over a coffee and zoom!
