[00:00]
Tobi Alli-Usman: Simple answer: start with Google Ads. And the reason why is…
Cameron: Hi, I'm Cameron from Smooth Digital [Smooth Digital, now Prosperwell], and welcome to Tea with Tobi, the show where I put your home care and care home marketing questions to our very own strategy director, Tobi Alli-Usman. Welcome back to the show, Tobi.
Tobi: Always a pleasure.
Cameron: Right, we're going to jump right into it today with a question from the internet. Today's question for you, Tobi: "My care home is at 60% occupancy and I need to fill my empty beds quickly. I've been hearing a lot about digital marketing and know I need to start advertising online, but is it better to start buying ads on Google or Facebook first?"
Why Google Ads comes first
[01:03]
Tobi: Great question, and good on them for taking the plunge into digital advertising. Simple answer: start with Google Ads.
Cameron: OK.
Tobi: And the reason why is that Facebook is basically disruption marketing. What I mean by that is, let's say I take out my phone. I'm in my leisure time, my downtime, I'm scrolling through Facebook, and then I see an ad. Hopefully that ad is going to disrupt my flow, and I stop and consume it. However, I didn't ask to see the ad. Is it relevant for me? Am I in the market for a care home?
Whereas with Google paid search, Google PPC, Google Ads, you know my intention. I'm looking for a care home. I'm actually going to go into Google, search for care in a particular area, and then I'm going to see some listings. So definitely start with Google Ads, especially if they're at 60% occupancy. They need a lead generation campaign rather than a branding campaign.
When Facebook makes sense
[02:04]
Cameron: OK, absolutely perfect. That simply answers that question, but I'm sure everyone is wondering, well, why would you then want to advertise on Facebook? Why would you want to build a brand? Google also offers brand-building features, like display ads or banner ads around YouTube videos, so why would you choose Facebook over Google? But unfortunately we don't have time…
Tobi: Can I just answer that one, because it's important to hear it at the same time? With Google's display product and Facebook's display product, Facebook gives you more real estate. You can show videos, you can have a carousel of images to paint a bigger picture. So if you're doing branding, I would definitely go down the Facebook route on that front, because with Google you just have the strip and the MPU size, the square. So hopefully that answers it.
Cameron: OK, so that's the answer in short, but if you want to know exactly why, we'll save that for next week. See you next week.
Tobi: See you next week, guys.
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Prosperwell is the UK’s leading sales and marketing growth partner for private-pay care providers. We help care homes and home care businesses attract and convert more private-pay clients, from the first enquiry through to move-in.
