Media Buying for Your Orthodontic Practice

Media buying is the act of purchasing real estate or inventory where advertisements can be placed. More traditional forms of media buying include purchasing billboards, radio advertisements, television spots, and print advertisements in magazines and newspapers. With the evolution of advertising in the digital era, media buying requires more research to determine the best venue for advertising your orthodontic practice.

Digital Platforms Provide More Results

Online magazines, blogs, social media, and websites are now options for advertising. Unlike traditional media, with digital platforms you can learn more about the demographics of the audience you’re reaching, and at the conclusion of the campaign, ask for specific results about how successful your advertising was in reaching your target audience.

Research the Best Venues for Placement

When you are purchasing advertisements, there are several things to consider as an orthodontist. First and foremost, you’ll need to research the best venues for your ad placement. The biggest factor for determining where you will buy advertising is your target audience. After all, it’s not enough just to invest in advertisements; they need to be strategically placed in front of the right people.

Who Is Your Target Audience?

Are you hoping to reach new patients in a particular geographical region of the area you serve? Or are you more concerned with reaching a specific age group? The good news is, with the internet, there is more research than ever about how to reach your designated audience. Before you enter into any kind of media buying agreement, it’s important to understand your key objectives and goals. Then you can select what media channels you want to invest in.

If your new client basis consists mostly of adolescents, perhaps one way to grow your business is to reach the parents of your current and former patients. Researching the demographics of social media platforms will reveal where that age group is the most active. From there, you may make the decision to place advertisements on Facebook or Instagram. If you are trying to target a specific geographical area, perhaps your research will entail identifying what radio station people in that area listen to most often.

Budget Appropriately

Generally, a media buying strategy will include more than one channel, but it depends on your budget. In the past, it was typical for orthodontists to purchase space on a billboard for thousands of dollars. Today, those thousands of dollars may be better invested across many different digital channels, which can be purchased much more affordably.
If you purchase advertising space on a website, the price for that inventory is determined by several different factors. The media company you are purchasing from will explain the differences in the prices based on where the ad is placed on the page, how many pages of the website the ad will appear on, how large the ad is and how many days the ad will run for. They will also provide you with information about how much traffic the website receives and the website’s user demographics.

There is also the option of mixing traditional and digital media. Of your total marketing budget for the year, perhaps you will put 40% toward social media, 25% in billboards, 15% in mobile ads and the rest in radio. Making this decision will require a proper analysis of your goals, your audience, and your budget.

Ask for Results

At this point you are ready to connect with the appropriate media vendors. But your job is definitely not over once you’ve purchased your advertisements. As mentioned before, media buying is not enough. Your ads need to be placed in front of the right people. This is why you need to ask for the results of your campaigns. Who clicked on your ad? Who visited that website? Who actually listened to the radio station when your ad was airing? Based on the information provided to you, you may decide to pivot your media buying strategy in the future.