When is conservative advertising the smarter way to go? Some recent advertising results give us an interesting answer. Business owners often feel like they need to be loud in their advertising to get attention. But we must weigh the need to get attention against the impression that loud advertising leaves. Most people, and especially health care professionals, do not think health care providers should be loud. They expect conservative, respectful, and intelligent.

Brazzell Marketing Agency can use both direct mail and Facebook to serve ads to doctors and other referral sources. In an ad set we are currently running for referral sources, we created three different ads, but gave each ad two different background colors. Half the ads have a blue background as pictured here. Half the ads have a red background. Other than the backgrounds, the ads were exactly the same. Can you guess which ads the doctors like better?

In terms of how often the ads are getting clicked, every single blue-background ad is getting clicked by doctors at a higher rate than every red-background ad. Even though red is typically considered a more attention-getting color in advertising, the doctors are responding 40% more to matching blue ads. We have been finding this conservative color preference to hold true with other clients running online advertising exclusively for medical referral sources.

By the way, for $145 per month, you can be running ads like this for discharge planners, doctors, and their staff in your area. At that price, you typically get 9,000 ad views per month, multiple ad designs, and ongoing analysis. [Learn More]