People are constantly online looking for medical advice, finding a doctor, or researching their current symptoms - with varying success. With so much activity happening online, it’s easy to see why hospitals are a natural fit for digital marketing services.
However, many people don’t realize that there are unique circumstances within this vertical that can make it difficult to gauge the overall health of an account.
Departmentalized
Every department within a hospital - transplant, bariatric, women’s health - has their own set of needs, goals, and budgetary limitations you need to plan for.
Regulations
Due to the sensitive nature of healthcare information, Google adheres to strict policies that oversee the certifications and regulations an account needs to run ads.
Wide Funnel
If a user types “cancer” into a search engine you wouldn’t know if they were looking for information, treatment options, costs, or support groups. At any one time, your digital efforts could be focused across top-of-funnel awareness, all the way down to direct response ads.
With all these moving parts, I know firsthand how daunting it can seem to just answer the question, “Am I doing a good job?”
I found my answer by using industry benchmarks. They are a great way for clients and analysts alike to gain some clarity.
In the true spirit of the healthcare industry, we recently decided it was time for a yearly check-up. We aggregated a year's worth of data across a sample of our hospital clients, and we found some really interesting results.
October 2015 – September 2016 Check-Up
Data Sources
This report is based on a sample of Workshop Digital hospital clients advertising on Google AdWords’ Search and Display Networks (representing over 33 million impressions). The data only includes non-branded traffic covering the timeframe from Q4 2015 through Q3 2016. All currency values are posted in USD.
Read further: How the Removal of Right Rail Ads Affects Paid Search Accounts
Are you seeing any other recent trends in healthcare marketing? Comment below!
