Guidance and Insights on Using Facebook Ads for Rehab Leads

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In the constantly shifting digital marketing landscape, Facebook ads have become instrumental in creating ad campaigns in multiple industries, including addiction treatment.

With enormous reach, advanced targeting options through features like lookalike audiences, and potential as a cost-effective lead generation tool, Facebook provides a platform to connect addiction treatment providers with those needing addiction recovery.

However, using Facebook ads for addiction treatment presents unique challenges, from ethical considerations to strict advertising policies.

This social media marketing resource from Ads Up Marketing explores how addiction treatment centers can use Facebook ad campaigns to generate leads for new clients.

We will cover critical digital marketing campaign creation strategies, targeting the right audience, compliance with Facebook’s regulations, and the best ways to measure success.

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The Importance of Facebook Ads for Addiction Treatment Centers

So, what’s the hype surrounding Facebook as an advertising platform? Recently, those looking for business success have begun looking at Facebook more as a way to deploy powerful ad campaigns and less as a social media pastime.

What makes Facebook such a viable option over other advertising platforms?

Why Facebook Ads?

Facebook provides a powerful opportunity thanks to its extensive global reach. In addition, powerful targeting tools allow you to pinpoint hyper-specific audience segments, taking targeted marketing to another level.

In an old case study, one marketer optimized an ad so accurately that he could send a message directly to his roommate as the sole target with an audience size of 1.

In other words, Facebook allows you to ‘call your shot,’ delivering the ideal message at the exact time to the hand-picked group of potential clients when they need to hear it.

With these powerful options, users leverage split tests, experimenting with different audiences until they find the combination of content and demographic they’re looking for.

But it doesn’t stop there. Facebook allows you to capture these specific audiences and create lookalikes—or groups with the same characteristics, showing ads to carbon copies who have yet to view your advertisement.

This separates Facebook from other platforms, allowing the social media giant to take on a leading role in the digital marketing of addiction treatment centers.

Ethical Considerations for Advertising Addiction Treatment

One of the primary reasons Facebook continues to exist as a leader in digital and social media marketing is its ad campaign rules. In an industry that’s already heavily scrutinized by regulatory compliance efforts, one must tread carefully on channels like Facebook. But this is a part of the Facebook lore.

Because of their heavy-handed enforcement, the platform has primarily kept spammy and predatory advertisers away from its users. This is why you can sell items and services on a platform full of people who had no intent of buying anything when they signed on.

Ads must be tasteful, relevant to the landing pages, and only offer practical goods and services backed by organizations with a moral compass.

Fly-by-night outfits have difficulties thriving on Facebook, and for good reason. Adhering to the following rules will likely keep your addiction services campaigns alive and well:

Avoid over-promising or offering unrealistic outcomes and expectations.
Stay away from predatory advertising that takes advantage of a vulnerable audience. This rule keeps scammers off the platform.
Your ad content should match your landing page. This means what you offer in your ad should directly translate to the content on your website, blog post, or any other viewer destination.
Ad campaigns should be transparent, steering clear of delivering anything that might be taken as false or misleading information.

These are all standards any quality addiction treatment center should adhere to anyway.

Assuming you operate with a certain degree of integrity and value your audience, you should have no problem enjoying the benefits of addiction treatment marketing on Facebook.

Industry-Specific Facebook Ad Policies for an Addiction Treatment Center

Paid advertising platforms like Google Ads and others were bombarded with scammers claiming to be legit members of the substance abuse treatment industry. Those in dire need of treatment fell victim to predatory offers that took their money but didn’t provide any services in return.

In 2017, a solution came in the form of LegitScript. This certification system became required for any prospective addiction recovery organization looking to advertise on either Google or Facebook.

LegitScript and Facebook for Behavioral Health Providers

LegitScript outlines requirements for addiction treatment centers, providing evidence that they’re well-established and accredited rehabs.

The criteria for both Google and Facebook LegitScript certification are identical. However, if you plan to use both, you must still obtain a copy for each platform individually.

So, what goes into LegitScript Certification for Facebook? The following section outlines the 19 requirements for alcohol and drug rehabs, as well as Suboxone clinics and other MAT providers that want to run ad campaigns on social media platforms:

It must be an officially registered corporation.
You must adhere to all industry regulatory compliance standards.
Provide your official domain name for your rehab.
Facebook conducts a website audit to ensure there’s relevant content and updated information about your facility.
Prepare a ready-to-distribute list of policies and procedures for prospective clients upon request. This must include available treatment methods, medications, and other components of your treatment center.
You must provide the resumes of the owner of your facility and all staff members to prove all employees are well-qualified.
Facebook will check your website for your facility address and ensure the location exists. You must prove that you own or rent the facility on the site.
You must prove that you operate in a professional business setting, not a residential space.
Your entire staff must submit to background checks. Any past criminal or civil matters must have been resolved within the last 10 years.
Your treatment center must disclose any other properties it owns.
You must provide proof of insurance for your organization.
All HIPAA laws and regulations must be followed.
Your rehab cannot accept offers that deceive clients.
The FDA must approve every medication used in your program.
You must list all incentives provided by your facility.
LegitScript must have access to any information regarding your rehab.
If you have any business affiliation with lead generators, you must immediately sever these ties.
You must not engage in unapproved advertising on any platform.
LegitScript can also do on-site inspections at your facility as they see fit.

The list of rules might seem too demanding. However, these are practices that legitimate rehab facilities already employ in their business. Most of these rules should already be in place at your treatment center.

In addition, a comprehensive code of conduct only works to keep predators out of the industry. Every measure must be taken to eliminate unsatisfactory business dealings from the industry, as this hurts your organization and the industry as a whole.

By maintaining a certain degree of quality among treatment center marketers, Facebook helps instill trust in the rehab industry from all who engage in Facebook use.

Creating Ad Copy and Creatives that Resonate

One of the most essential elements of your Facebook campaign is crafting your ad copy and creatives.

Keep these simple rules in mind when constructing the pieces for your campaign.

Empathetic Copywriting

Your ad copy is what this individual receives. However, your uplifting copy could give them the push they need to take that next step toward treatment.

Choosing the Right Visuals

Several essential rules must be remembered regarding the video content used for your ads. First, you must remember best practices when choosing the appropriate content. Usually, using stock photos and footage is the best way to ensure you stay on the right side of compliance regulations.

You don’t want to risk coming off as too generic. If you can speak to a critical part of your target audience by using specific forms of visual content, you don’t want to miss the opportunity to make the connection.

Tread carefully, and ensure all visual material is appropriate for the message delivered in your ad. Your copy and visual content should be uniform, maintaining a baseline seamlessly conveying the intended information to the proper demographic.

Rules Surrounding Testimonials

Are testimonials on Facebook working in 2024? What seems like an overused form of marketing is still a powerful way to develop trust and build credibility.

However, as with most content strategies in the addiction treatment space, you must adhere to specific rules. Keep the following in mind:

All of the information in your testimonial must be based on facts.
Always include a disclaimer in places where they’re required. For example, if someone creates a testimonial about an extraordinary experience—let’s say they get sober the first time and stay sober with no relapses.

While ultimately, this is the goal, it’s far from the average result. This should be stated somewhere in the ad or ad copy.

A disclaimer that reads, “Results not typical or guaranteed. Your treatment outcome is based solely on your dedication, etc.”

Although it’s not a written rule, keeping those in your testimonial anonymous is always best practice, as is using an assumed name.

Key Points to Remember for Social Rehab Advertising

Facebook is an expansive tool that garners powerful results when used correctly. Books can and have been written about specific areas within Facebook advertising.

That said, pairing what you’ve learned with the following rules will help you maintain a certain degree of quality.

Develop Landing Pages with Creatives and a Facebook Page In Mind

When developing a landing page, it’s helpful to move forward with a uniform design in mind. Your ad creative, landing page, and Facebook business page should have a common design/color theme.

Not only is this more visually pleasing, it also looks more professional. Inconsistent templating, colors, and designs look tacky. Pay attention to the ad copy itself. You should notice a uniform theme or voice from the ad to the landing page, and your Facebook business page should deliver consistent messaging.

This is something Facebook looks at when approving ad creatives and campaigns. The algorithm wants a certain degree of uniformity and often rewards users with faster approval.

Leverage Lookalike Audiences

Facebook has helpful tools like “lookalike audiences” to help you optimize your campaign. Use these to speak to similar demographics you’re having success with.

Combine Google Analytics for Performance Metrics

Your Facebook pixel will help you track data on your chosen landing page. Don’t hesitate to leverage Google Analytics to identify how your Facebook ads impact traffic to other website areas.

Combining tools from other marketing campaigns while using Facebook ads will help you get a clearer picture of your efforts. Taking advantage of every piece of data compiled leads to success—the more data you have to measure, the faster you’ll achieve your desired results.

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