Running a successful optometry office takes a lot of hard work. Not only do you need to manage all the aspects of a small business, like sales, marketing, and front office management, but you also need to provide the best care possible for your patients. It’s not easy, but you wouldn’t do it if it didn’t matter to you and if you didn’t love what you do.
In order to keep your optometry business running smoothly, it’s important to have a steady stream of new customers coming to the door. Out of all the online marketing techniques that can be used to grow and sustain your business, online advertising is the one that can bring about the quickest results.
Online advertising can have a significant impact on local search rankings and online visibility. After all, you are paying to appear higher in search results and get in front of potential customers. However, you still need to have a great localized ad strategy in order to make the most of your efforts, which is why we’ve created this guide on how to begin localized online ad optimization for optometrists.
Understanding the Impact of Online Advertising in Localizing Your Online Presence
We all know what advertisements are, but they play a slightly different role in online advertising than in traditional print and visual media. Online ads appear virtually everywhere online, from Google search results pages to social media feeds to YouTube videos and in the margins of web pages and more.
Online ads tend to be more successful and, in these days, more seen than ads on television or on the radio. According to recent research, YouTube ads are 84% more likely to capture user attention than television commercials. Other sources state that social media ads are the top source of new brand discovery for young internet users, making advertising more valuable than word-of-mouth marketing.
As more and more businesses explore the possibilities of online advertising, it’s even more important for small businesses to target local audiences and maximize their advertising budget on the places that matter most to their business. For example, you wouldn’t want to be paying for ads that appear in front of people who live three towns over and aren’t likely to make the trip to your optometry office for a check up.
Benefits of Online Advertising
Local businesses in particular can get a lot of benefits from online advertising, especially with the tools and features available on advertising platforms such as Google today. Local businesses can get super specific about the demographics of their target market and the location they advertise in to optimize their return on investment.
- Greater Visibility: Online ads improve visibility almost instantly, by getting your business to the top of results pages and into user feeds immediately.
- More Customers: Ads have a direct impact on the number of customers a business receives, as well as impacting the rate those customers come in the door.
- Higher Quality Leads: Online ads target people who are actively searching for your services or who fit your ideal customer description, improving the quality of your leads.
- Increased Revenue: Specific targeting features allow businesses to get granular in their search parameters and reduce spend while increasing revenue with new business.
Other Considerations for Online Advertising
Your strategy really begins with understanding which online platforms are the best options for your advertising strategy. There are many different sources for starting your online advertising, but the biggest platforms are Google and Meta, which includes Facebook and Instagram. There are other social media platforms you can advertise on as well, so think about what platforms your audience will be on and start your advertising campaigns there.
It’s also important to consider your budget as you begin planning your digital advertising campaigns. It can be easy to overspend if you get caught in the trap of chasing keywords and trying to improve rankings without a strategy in place. Start with a clear, set budget and evaluate over the course of the campaign so you can make improvements to make your next effort more effective, rather than trying to overspend to see results in your first attempt.
Create Targeted Local Ad Campaigns
Once you’ve determined what platforms you want to use and have a budget in mind, you can start planning out the specifics of your advertising campaign. The first step is to define the specific geographic targeting parameters you want to follow. What area do you want to target, and who in that area do you want to focus on? The more specific you are, the more effective your campaign will be.
Craft ad copy and design visuals that are tailored to your local audience by mentioning or referencing events, places, or phrases that resonate with your target audience. Even minor nudges can stick in the minds of your potential clients and keep them engaged with your ads.
You can also utilize location extension features on advertising platforms that help you further emphasize your location and give you additional features for local relevance. That can help contextualize your advertisements and help audiences understand that you are a local business.
Optimize for Local SEO in Online Ads
Just like all other aspects of your digital marketing efforts, there is always room for SEO in advertising. A great place to start is by incorporating location-based keywords into your ad copy and visuals. Mention where your optometry business is located or include your address in the graphic you’re including in the ad.
As you craft your campaign, make sure that you are being consistent with information across ad content, your business details, and the landing pages your online ads direct leads toward. That helps boost your SEO efforts and create cohesion across the campaign for better results.
This is another area where you can utilize ad extensions, with SEO-focused tools that help showcase local details like your map location, contact information with a local phone number, and other recognition factors that your audience can connect with.
Collaborate with Local Partners
Not all online advertising has to be done alone. It is always a fun idea to collaborate and build partnerships with local businesses in your area and create cross-promotion in ads. For example, you could work with a local sunglasses company to create a deal where they get a discount on a new pair of shades after a visit to your office or work with neighboring businesses for a discount day on your block.
Exploring different ideas for partnerships can lead you to new collaborations you didn’t think of on your own and can create cross-promotional events that become a regular part of your marketing strategy.
Monitor and Adjust Ad Campaigns
Advertising is an investment, so it is important to make sure that you are tracking and monitoring your results to make sure your money is being spent wisely. Make sure you have set up tracking and analyzing tools for your ad performance. Look through the data and results so you can make informed decisions moving forward and adjust campaigns.
A/B testing can be implemented in order to see how different ad variations resonate with audiences, so you can focus on the best option for optimal results. It’s always best to have a tool or service like Surefire Local that you can use to help streamline optimization efforts in your advertising campaigns and performance.
Start Your Local Online Advertising Optimization with Surefire Local
Local advertising is a great way to get directly in front of your core audience and find potential clients who are actively searching for your optometry services. By incorporating local SEO best practices into your ads, you can get the most out of your advertising budget and improve your results, so long as you prioritize your ad strategy and actively manage your online ads.
At Surefire Local, we want to help optometrists with localized online marketing. We’re all about helping small, local businesses establish their online presence by creating local signals across platforms and profiles to make it easy for new customers to find you. That’s why we created the best all-in-one online marketing solution for local businesses that includes features for digital advertising, including:
- Local Online Advertising: Create ads designed to attract only the attention of customers within your service area and get more customers from every platform. Turn more website visitors into customers with Surefire Local marketing tools and track results to optimize your performance.
- Analytics and Reporting: Gain transparency in campaign performance and how much revenue your marketing dollars are generating with AI-generated recommendations on specific actions you can take to improve your efforts.
- Educational Resources: Find webinars and blogs designed to help small businesses learn all things local online marketing.
To learn more about the other tools and features available in the Surefire Local all-in-one marketing platform, click the link to attend a Surefire Local marketing platform demo and discover how we can help your small business improve local visibility.