What to know before you run Meta ads for your allied health practice

Ads Manager can look complicated when you first open it, but you don't need to understand every little setting. This guide covers the main things you need to know to get started.

1. Decide what a conversion looks like

Start by deciding what you want someone to do after seeing your ad.

For most allied health practices, that will be:

• Filling in an enquiry form

• Booking an appointment

• Calling the practice

  
  

You can send people to a page on your website or use a Meta instant form that opens inside Facebook or Instagram.

If you send people to your website:

Meta needs a way to recognise when someone converts.

You will usually need:

• The Meta pixel installed on your website

• A Lead event for an enquiry form or a Schedule event for a booking

• The Conversions API, if your website platform supports it

  
  

The pixel and Conversions API help Meta measure enquiries and find more people who may take the same action.

This is often the most technical part of the setup, so stay with me. Depending on your website, you may be able to connect it yourself or you may need help from your website developer.

Before starting your ads, check that the event works using Meta's free Chrome extension (Meta Ads Data Advisor) or Test Events in Events Manager.

If people book through software such as Cliniko or Splose, check whether completed bookings can also be tracked. This is an important step.

If you use a Meta instant form:

You do not need website tracking to get started because the form opens inside Facebook or Instagram.

Instant forms are easier to set up and can generate more enquiries. However, because they are so quick to complete, some enquiries may be less serious. Ask enough questions to understand whether the person is a qualified lead, without making the form unnecessarily long.

2. Send people to the right page

If your ad sends people to your website, avoid sending them to a general homepage.

Someone who taps an ad about paediatric speech pathology should arrive on a page about paediatric speech pathology.

The page should include:

• A clear headline that matches the ad

• Who the service is for

• Your location or service area

• The funding types you accept

• One clear action, such as enquire or book

• A short form

• A phone number for people who prefer to call

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Check the page on your phone before running the ad. It should load quickly and be easy to read and use.

If people tap the ad but do not enquire, the problem may be the page rather than the ad.

3. Choose the Leads objective

When you create a campaign, Meta will ask what you want the campaign to achieve.

Choose Leads.

You will then choose where you want people to enquire, such as:

• Your website

• A Meta instant form

• Messenger

• Phone calls

  
  

If you are using your website, select the enquiry or booking event you set up in step 1.

Avoid choosing Awareness or Traffic when your main goal is enquiries. Those objectives are designed to find people who are likely to view or tap an ad, not necessarily people who are likely to contact you.

4. Choose the area you want to reach

For a local practice, location is one of the most important settings.

In the ad set:

1. Open the location settings.

2. Add your clinic or service area.

3. Choose a reasonable distance around it.

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A radius of 5 to 20 kilometres may suit many metropolitan practices. Regional practices and mobile services may need a larger area.

Do not make the area so small that Meta repeatedly shows the ad to the same group of people.

You can also set an age range if it is relevant to the service. In most cases, you won't need to add interests. A broad audience within the right location often gives Meta more room to find people who may enquire.

5. Review Meta's automated settings

Meta switches a set of features called Advantage+ on by default. You'll see a small Advantage+ on label next to the sections where they're active.

You'll find plenty of advice online telling you to turn all of it off. That's overcorrecting, and it costs you the parts that genuinely work. Advantage+ isn't one setting. It's four different automations at three different levels of your campaign, and the right answer is different for each one.

Here's my recommendation:

Creative is the one to watch. Meta can crop your images, add music, move your text and suggest AI-written copy, which can change your message or describe your service inaccurately.

I learned this the hard way. When I started, I left Advantage+ creative on and Meta horribly cropped some of my ads. Now it's the first thing I switch off.

6. Create two or three simple ads

A short phone video filmed in your practice can help people understand who you are, what you offer and what to expect. You don't need professional equipment.

Aim for 20 to 40 seconds and cover one idea at a time. For example:

• The service you provide

• Current appointment availability

• What happens at a first appointment

  
  

Speak naturally rather than trying to memorise a script. Add captions because many people watch videos without sound.

You could also a few static ads along with video.

Two or three ads in the mix is enough.

Over time, the same local audience may see an ad several times. If the cost of each enquiry begins to rise, try a new image, video or message. Ads can fatigue after a while.

7. Describe your service, not the reader

Meta may reject health ads that appear to assume something personal about the person seeing them.

Avoid language that tells the reader they have a health condition, disability or personal problem.

The safer approach is to describe the service and who it supports without making assumptions about the person reading the ad.

You also need to follow the advertising rules that apply to your profession.

If you advertise a registered health profession, such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, psychology or podiatry, Ahpra's rules do not allow testimonials about clinical care, symptoms, treatment or outcomes. This can include comments people leave under your ads, so monitor the comments and hide or remove any that could be considered a clinical testimonial.

Professions such as speech pathology, dietetics and exercise physiology are not registered through Ahpra, but consumer law, your professional association's standards and the National Code of Conduct for health care workers still apply.

8. Start with a budget you can properly test

You don't need a large budget to start, but the campaign needs enough money and time to produce useful information.

Around $10 a day, or approximately $300 over a month, can be a practical starting point for a small local campaign. It is not a guarantee, and some services or locations will cost more.

Here is a simple example of what $300 might produce:

These figures are examples only. Your results will depend on the service, location, offer, website and competition.

When reviewing the campaign:

• Focus on enquiries, bookings and new clients rather than likes or clicks

• Give the campaign enough time before drawing conclusions

• Change one thing at a time, so you know what's moved the needle

• Keep a record of how many enquiries become bookings

• Check whether the new clients are a good fit for your practice

  
  

Meta may show a "Learning limited" message when a small campaign does not receive many conversions. This is common with smaller local budgets and does not automatically mean the campaign has failed.

The most important question is not how many people saw or tapped the ad. It is whether the campaign generated suitable enquiries at a cost that makes sense for your practice.

You don't have to get this perfect

Nobody gets it all right the first time. Pick a clear conversion, point the ad at a page that matches it, set a sensible radius and let it run long enough to tell you something useful.

If results are slow, check your landing page first. Plenty of campaigns fall down there rather than in Ads Manager. Even a great video won't convert if the page doesn't match the ad or makes enquiring hard.

You know your service and your clients better than any algorithm does. The rest is just settings. You've got this.

If you'd like support setting up your first Meta ads, book a free discovery call with me here.