It’s been said that you can’t have great media without strong analytics. For analytics to effectively serve as the backbone of a successful healthcare media campaign, it must be a holistic approach that spans from planning to optimizing post-launch – incorporating strategies, tactics, and campaigns to find out what works, what doesn’t, and what could work. Effective analytics involves identifying key performance indicators (KPIs), setting up data capture strategies, and ultimately turning insights into action.
Choosing the Right KPIs and Measuring Patient Demand
Not all KPIs are the same. Think of the market as a chessboard; different strategies require different tactics. The goal for healthcare marketing leaders should be to select meaningful KPIs that guide both strategic decisions and tactical improvements. These include:
- Brand Health Metrics such as awareness, familiarity, preference, consideration, recommendation, attitudes, and perceptions.
- Reach and Engagement Metrics like click-through rates (CTR), video view rates, website visit growth, online appointment requests and phone calls.
- Experience Metrics such as find-a-doctor searches, engagement rate and conversion rate.
- Business Outcome Metrics such as patient volume, revenue, ROI and CLV.
The Analytics Process
For healthcare organizations looking to elevate their media campaigns, the journey toward first establishing a comprehensive analytics foundation will involve several steps, including:
1. Identifying Data Sources and Capture Strategies: Determine where and how your organization collects data.
2. Aligning Internal Resources: Make sure your team is ready to handle data.
3. Defining Best Practices and Tagging: Set up the necessary tags and methods for data capture.
4. Developing and Implementing Tagging Before Launch: Ensure the site and media are appropriately tagged.
5. Setting Up Data Architecture and Integration Solutions: Organize and integrate data for easy access and analysis.*
6. Post-Launch Optimization: Create a reporting dashboard aligned with business goals, test and improve campaigns based on findings, and continually refine segments and targets.**
*Through the implementation of an A/B testing platform, the analytics team at MERGE conducted experiments for a healthcare client that identified user journeys that converted online booked appointments between 300% to 1,700% higher than previous landing page experiences.
**By implementing a closed loop measurement strategy, MERGE’s analytics team informed media mix optimizations and channel selection resulting in new patient appointments increasing by 30% YoY and Cost per Appointment improving by 13% for a national VBC provider.
Understanding the “Why” and the Benefits of Deeper Analytics
Healthcare marketers must dare to drill deeper into their organization’s approach to measuring brand health, going beyond the “what” to understand the “why.” This means interpreting the numbers to get a broader understanding of the brand’s direction. To do this, align yourself to these four fundamentals:
- Focus (Messaging): Evaluate how well your messaging addresses key funnel metrics.
- Relevance (Emotion): Understand attitudes and perceptions that drive preference and consideration.
- Impact (Media): Measure how efficiently you deliver messages to key audiences.*
- Innovation (Experience): Find new ways to align your positioning with audience needs and values.
The result of deeper analytics reaps numerous benefits. It not only drives patient growth, but enables consistent reporting, the opportunity to fine-tune performance, and ultimately validates your marketing strategy. Perhaps more crucially, it can transform decision-making, allowing for a data-driven approach.
*Comparing YoY performance for a service line campaign for a mid-sized health system, channel mix optimizations led to a 34% increase in cardiology admissions despite a budget decrease of 52%. This resulted in cost per admission improving by 64%.
The Wrap
Indeed, great media campaigns rely on robust analytics. With careful planning, a solid understanding of KPIs, and a willingness to dive into the numbers, healthcare marketing leaders can shape future strategies confidently, optimize ROI, and succeed through data-driven decision-making.
*Samantha Stout, MERGE SVP, Group Business Development Leader, and Kellie Bliss, MERGE EVP, Client Service, also contributed to this article
Looking to amplify your healthcare marketing strategy with data and analytics? Connect with our experienced team of experts at MERGE today!