Geofencing For Dentists: Location Targeting to Grow Your Practice

Smartphones have changed digital marketing in countless ways, and geofencing is perhaps one of the most exciting. Traditionally, digital ad targeting was done by demographics, interests, and home address, but geofencing allows marketers to target ads based on the current location of a mobile device. In other words, someone might live in Omaha but be traveling to Chicago on business, and when they’re in Chicago, they’ll see ads for local restaurants and attractions while browsing the internet on their phone. When they’re back home in Omaha, they’ll stop seeing these ads.

There are a number of reasons to implement geofencing in your digital marketing efforts:

If you’re currently only using Google Ads and/or Facebook Ads, then you’re missing out on opportunities to get in front of prospective patients.  For example, a pediatric dentist could target nearby daycare centers to get in front of parents that may not be actively searching in Google.  This is an opportunity to introduce your office without the distraction of other competitor ads.

Geofencing allows you to target the audiences who are most likely to visit your dental practice. When combined with other forms of targeting, you can decide who sees your ads with laser precision, maximizing your ROI.

With other forms of advertising, success is typically measured by phone calls or form submissions on the website.  The problem is that not all of those leads turn into patients in your office.  With geofencing, conversions are actual visits because the technology uses your office address as the conversion zone.  That means you’ll know exactly how many patients showed up to your office after viewing or clicking on your ads.

We know what you’re thinking: This all sounds great, but it also doesn’t sound like something that would work for my dental practice.

It may seem that way on the surface, but with a little creativity, you can make geofencing work for you. Here are some ideas:

• Geofence around retirement communities to advertise dental implants or dentures.
• Geofence around medspas, plastic surgery clinics, and high-end salons to advertise cosmetic and/or reconstructive dentistry services.
• Geofence around newly-built subdivisions to advertise to people looking for a new dentist.
• Geofence around gyms to advertise custom mouth guards.
• Geofence around playgrounds and schools to advertise pediatric dentistry services to parents.
• Geofence around chiropractic practices and alternative medicine clinics to advertise holistic dentistry.
• Geofence around competing dental practices to advertise your superior (or more affordable) services.

While there are not quite as many opportunities in geofencing for dentists—going to the dentist isn’t a spur of the moment decision for most people, after all!—as you can see, there are some exciting ways to set up geofenced campaigns to promote your dental practice.

Contact us today to discuss how Dentalfone can help you set up geofencing for your digital dental marketing campaigns.