Have you considered display ads for your optometrist practice? Display ads are a great way to get a quick return on your investment. But what are display ads, and how can they benefit your optometrist practice?
Let’s find out!
What Are Display Ads?
Display ads are sometimes referred to as banner ads, and they are a visual form of paid digital advertising. A typical display ad will have a feature photo or an attention-grabbing graphic along with powerful copy that encourages the reader to engage with the ad.
Why Are Display Ads So Important?
Display advertising gives you the opportunity to highlight your practice in a variety of ad formats, so people don’t become “blind” to your messages. Additionally, display ads broaden your reach, so your message is seen by more people.
Display advertising is also a great way to build your brand and brand authority in your industry. And, the more well-known and trusted your practice is, the more patients you can expect to gain from your name recognition.
Another thing to mention is the photographic/artistic nature of the display ad format. Since it’s visual, it demands attention. This means people have no choice but to pay attention to it because it’s not like text which is easier to ignore. Display ads are “in your face” so the reader will see them whether they want to or not.
Why Are Display Ads So Powerful?
Display ads work because they are visual. And if you craft them correctly, they will grab the reader’s attention and be so irresistible the reader won’t be able to resist clicking on them.
For example, how many times have you been browsing the internet or social media and saw a display ad so intriguing you just had to click on it to see what it was all about? If we were to guess, we would probably say many times every day…right? Well, if a display ad worked to grab your attention, don’t you think it would work to grab and hook your potential patients’ attention as well? And as an added bonus, if the message is crafted right, the reader will frequently follow your call to action, and Voilà — you could end up with a new patient!
There are other benefits of display ads for optometrists as well.
Let’s take a look.
The Benefits of Display Ads for Optometrists
- Visually appealing.
- Builds brand awareness and authority by giving your brand a visual identity.
- Extremely targeted.
- Lends itself well to retargeting.
- Cost-effective.
- Easily tracked for effectiveness.
- Perfect for mobile geofencing.
- Great for complementing other marketing strategies.
- Reaches a broad audience.
The Most Common Types of Display Ads
- Site Placement
Site placement advertising involves the digital marketer or business owner choosing the website where they want to run their ads.
- Contextual
Contextual advertising involves the advertising network choosing where they want to place the ad. In this case, the advertising network will select a relevant website to place a display ad. For example, the network might select an optometry supply website or a related blog, forum, social media page, etc. to post your optometry display ads.
- Remarketing
Remarketing advertising is when display ads appear in front of people who have either been on your website or your landing page but left without completing whatever conversion goal you intended.
Examples of Display Ads
Here are some of the most common types of display ads.
- Banner ads – these appear on a designated location on a website, app, or social media platform.
- Interstitial ads – these are pop-ups that cover the entire page or app screen and require the user to interact with the ad in order to proceed (closing the ad, clicking on the call-to-action, etc.).
- Lightbox ads – these ads show up on the page small at first but then get larger on the screen as the reader engages with them.
- Responsive display ads – these are dynamic text ads that deliver a different variation of headlines and descriptions depending on the reader’s search inquiry.
- 360-degree video ads – these ads provide the reader with an immersive experience by responding to the reader’s mobile phone gyroscope. The reader can simply rotate their phone and the ad will respond.
What Is the Difference Between a Display Ad and a Native Ad?
Display ads are actually a blanket term used to describe all ads a user sees online. The purpose of display ads is to stand out.
Native ads are a form of advertising that is designed to match the content of its intended platform. This is so the advertising is more consumable. Native ads are designed to blend in. So native ads are non-disruptive and can be seen in-feed. For example, suggested posts, promoted posts, etc.
So in other words, display ads are designed to grab the reader’s attention, and native ads are designed to blend in with their web pages for more of a “soft sell” effect.
What Are the Display Ads Best Practices for Optometrists?
When choosing to run display ads, we’d like to suggest a few display ad best practices we’ve seen work for our optometry customers.
1. Properly Identify Your Target Audience
It’s extremely important to study and identify your target audience. What are their wants, needs, goals, pain points, etc? Once you have identified your ideal demographic, you can use targeted keywords and websites to advertise on that match your audience’s profile and fit within any given topic.
2. Attention-Grabbing Message
Your message must have a clear and compelling headline and message if you want it to be effective. If you can’t get your audience’s attention, you are wasting your time and ad spend.
3. Visually Appealing Design
If you have an attention-grabbing headline, but don’t have a visually appealing design, your ad will more than likely be overlooked. The design is what will initially catch your audience’s attention. Once you have their attention, they will read your irresistible message.
4. Use a Color-Contrasting Call-to-Action Button
You want your call-to-action button to have a completely different color, so it stands out. You don’t want it to blend into your message making it easy to overlook. Remember, many people just scan information. Therefore, if the reader is scanning and not really paying attention you might lose them even if they are truly interested in your optometry services.
5. Must Be Mobile-Friendly
One of the most important things when it comes to display ads best practices for optometrists is that your ads are all mobile-friendly. That means they can be easily viewed and read on a mobile device without having to scroll or zoom in or out. If your ads aren’t responsive on a mobile screen, most people won’t bother to scroll and will click away from the ad to find other information that is easy to read without having to scroll.
6. Properly Optimized Website
Your landing pages should be properly optimized. They need to be mobile-friendly, have a short, easy-to-fill-out opt-in form, a design that is consistent with your ad, and a call-to-action the reader won’t be able to resist.
7. Create an Authentic Personal Brand
It’s important that you create a brand experience that is authentic and builds trust with your audience. If you do this, you will build your brand’s authority in the industry. And this leads to even greater trust and recognition for your practice.
8. Test and Measure
Always A/B split test and analyze your display ads headlines, videos, and images then make improvements as needed to ensure the best possible outcome. Don’t skip this step; otherwise, you could end up paying for mediocre campaigns versus campaigns that bring you the highest possible return on your investment.
Would you like to know how you could take your display ads best practices for optometrists to the next level all while reducing the time and effort spent on your overall marketing tasks?
Keep reading…
Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform Demo
Surefire Local is a business intelligence marketing software that takes nine of your most time-consuming marketing tasks and combines (and in many cases automates) them on a single dashboard. No more logging into multiple programs to complete each marketing task separately and manually.
What Can Surefire Local Help With?
- Location-Based Marketing (geo-location check-ins)
- Content Marketing (generate, schedule, and distribute)
- Online Advertising (manage your leads by tracking how many you’ve gotten, where they are in the sales cycle, and who is responsible for following up with them)
- Lead Generation (advertise with pre-built ad campaigns built around location and directly track their effectiveness)
- Search Visibility (70+ business directories)
- Reviews and Ratings (request, manage, and respond from one dashboard)
- Analytics and Reporting (track contacts, monitor web traffic, measure paid ads and social media campaigns, and report on the results)
- Text Message Marketing (answer questions, increase engagement, convert leads via chat or text message in real-time)
- Competitor and Keyword Analysis (discover keywords and local search terms your competitors are using then benchmark your performance)
What’s Next?
Request a Surefire Local Marketing Platform Demo Today!
We hope you have enjoyed this article on Display Ads Best Practices for Optometrists and look forward to hearing from you.