Advertising Clicks – Not as Important As You Think in Orthodontic Marketing

When creating exposure online  with an Internet orthodontic marketing program – online advertising was used as a measure of click through rate (CTR).  But over the past several years, we’ve learned while clicks can be measured, they do not necessarily matter, like they used to. Comscore.com, an industry leader in tracking online information, offers a great blog post on the topic.  One area of interest to note is in the wellness industry click through rate, which includes orthodontics.

The percentage is the same as the retail industry and about average at .09%.   Organic page ranking and frequency of visitors to your site are key factors when determining a successful online marketing campaign.  If you rely on online advertising solely for your Internet exposure, especially in major metropolitan areas, the time has come to shift your focus while you still can.   Yellow page advertising, Dex Knows, Super Pages, and PPC, programs take a huge bite of monthly marketing budgets.  With the new year, now is the time to consider how to wisely allocate your 2011 Internet marketing budget to build your business for the future based on consumer habits to build your practice.

Digital Advertising: What to Remember and Forget About the Click

  • Clicks on display ads are a misleading metric, and one should only use clicks for direct response ad campaigns (or search).
  • Clicks do not reveal information on brand building. Clicks don’t measure all of a campaign’s sales impact nor the cumulative (latent) impact of ads.
  • Click-through rates continue to decrease as more content is created and more advertising inventory is available.
  • The majority of clicks come from a small percentage of the total population. One of our company studies found that heavy and moderate clickers only represent a combined 8 percent of the U.S. Internet population, yet they account for about 85 percent of all click-throughs.
  • Clicks are not the right metric to use for measuring online branding. Better metrics such as ‘reach and frequency’ help establish online media on the same playing field as traditional media to provide continuity in planning.
  • Although it might be coined ‘the most measurable medium’, brands need to understand what metrics (and there are many!) are important in measuring their digital success.

If all of this is overwhelming and too confusing, feel free to contact me at 877-295-5611 for a complimentary online consultation to help you determine what metrics to use in your Internet marketing plan for best results in 2011.