Whereas Google Ads get people who are already looking for a therapist, Facebook and Instagram are different. No one opens Instagram at midnight trying to find "CBT therapy near me".
Rather, they allow you to bring your business to people who haven't started looking yet and this can be very effective in therapy, where many of those who could benefit from your services don't even know they do until someone tells them.
A Meta ads contract that has been setup correctly will fill up your calendar and create awareness in your locality. Poorly done Meta ads will waste your budget on impressions that won't turn into actions. Today we go through the best methods of making a profitability therapy marketing campaign which converts.
The greatest mistake that therapy businesses make is the ad that looks more like a business listing: “Anxiety therapy, depression therapy, counselling available today.” On social media, that’s gone in an instant.
What works is human. Videos showing you (or your colleagues) speaking about what anxiety and burnout really feel like. Carousels taking people through a first therapy session. Text posts talking about the fear of making contact. You’re not selling six sessions. You’re trying to get someone to think this is the service I need to help with my disorder and you’re the person who can help with this.
Meta's targeting allows you to target individuals by their interests, behaviours, and locations. Potential targeting methods are the following:
Please keep in mind that there are some limitations in targeting health-related audiences on Meta, you cannot claim any medical knowledge about potential audience members. You should be more generalised in your messaging ("therapy helps with stress").
They aren’t going to book when they come to your site for the first time, especially when it comes to something as personal as therapy. With the Meta Pixel installed, you’re able to retarget people with a gentler reminder, such as an overview of your philosophy, a client FAQ, or simply considering booking?
Retargeting audiences are usually the most cost-effective and high-converting audiences you’ll create.
You must be careful doing so within the health industry as depending on the data you have this could be intruding on GDPR guidelines. It’s always best to do re-targeting based on enquires which are specifying certain conditions and not based on a person’s specific data.
Therapy falls into a tricky category here. Never do the before/after guaranteed thing, do not promise anything diagnostic, and be crystal clear about the use of the information in your privacy policy and landing page.
Expect lower prices per click compared to searching for therapy usually under £1 per click for local searches but also lower intent levels. Start with £5–£10 daily budget on an awareness plus a retargeting campaign evaluated over 4–6 weeks, not days. Measure enquires (form submissions/calls), not likes.
The overall aim here is get as many conversions as possible within your campaign.
Getting to this can take a while depending on your budget and requirements, we always recommend getting a minimum of 10 clicks a day for any budget. This allows you to have enough data that can be analysed later and refined to maximise conversions.
They're complementary, not competitive. Facebook and Instagram put you in front of people before they're searching; Google catches them at the exact point when they are. If you need a full explanation of the search strategy component from realistic budgeting, conversion math to the pitfalls of going it solo, we've got a separate guide to Google Ads for therapists and whether they're worth your investment.
The best approach for most practices would be a functional website with decent SEO, a small Google Ads campaign to catch those already searching and some Meta ads for continuous visibility in-between searches.
