Hey Facebook users - I’ve got a question for you. Anybody found a good way to measure the returns of your practice's Facebook efforts? Like so many businesses out there, we’ve been investing time, money and resources into Facebook marketing for our clients for years. We know how to get likes and engagement, but we think we are missing something. We’re measuring, but we aren’t finding website traffic as a result of this engagement. And we are asking, but we don’t hear from any practices that patients came to them because of Facebook. In other words, in pursuit of all of these likes, shares and comments, we don’t see that it is actually amounting to much in terms of practice revenue.

And it seems we are onto something…In a survey conducted last April by Manta which asked small business owners for insights on their social media return on investment (ROI), 59% reported that they did not see ROI from their social media activities. Similarly, in it’s 2015 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, Social Media Examiner found that only 45% of marketers interviewed reported that their Facebook marketing is effective.

Further, it seems like Facebook is also aware of this issue. Recently, they introduced a “Book an Appointment”/call to action button that you can put up right on your cover photo (see the screenshot below).  The fact that they are now providing this button and giving a report of how many people are clicking on it (see the week’s Book Now results along the right of the screen), indicates that they're aware of the issue and are trying to provide more value to businesses.   

So is Facebook aware that businesses are catching on to the fact that despite the 1.49 billion monthly active users, the platform may not be doing much to bring in business?  This button may be the first step in their attempt to offer a way to measure ROI.  

In the meantime, we aren’t about to quit offering Facebook marketing in our services because frankly, people want it, but we are pursuing other routes of reaching people that offer clear and direct ways to measure results (hint: direct mail marketing).

I'd love to hear back from you to confirm our findings, or to hear how you've found Facebook success.  We're always eager to learn. Feel free to contact Daniel at Daniel@eyecarepro.net or phone (412) 532-6542.