When a university medical center sought to increase awareness related to its orthopedic offering, they turned to The Jakes Group for guidance. With a highly competitive market, they were struggling to break through the sheer mass of marketing messages. The client believed their same-day appointment guarantee could move the market; however, they were having limited success with traditional marketing methods (e.g., billboards, print ads).
QUESTION
With the end of their fiscal year approaching, our client had only six weeks to determine program direction and yield results. They quickly needed recommendations on how to best complement their current marketing approach and meet campaign objectives.
While raising awareness of the service line offering was the primary campaign goal, we believed we could harness the available resources to do more. Our experience with digital marketing in the health care space led us to recommend that we not only grow awareness, but drive engagement and convert searchers to patients. A few facts supported our rationale:
- In the U.S., 80 percent of Internet users have searched for a health-related topic online, according to a July 2019 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
- From June 2018 through June 2019, Google search accounted for 94.44% of all searches in the United States on mobile devices.
- People use their mobile device because they want immediate results; this need is amplified when seeking relief from discomfort or pain. As stated in an article by Search Engine Land, “People search on mobile because they have an urgent need, and in this day and age, people with an immediate need want things fast.” This need, coupled with the client’s same-day appointment guarantee, offered a distinct opportunity for building awareness and engagement.
CREATE
To ensure we were true to the objective of building awareness, we needed the ads to touch the target market beyond search. The following information provided support for our decision to employ social media as a principal component of the campaign:
- A survey by National Research Corp. found that over 40 percent of respondents rely on social networking for health information, and nearly all of those people (94 percent) turn to Facebook.
- From June 2018 through June of 2019, Facebook accounted for 54.38% of all social media usage in the United States on all devices.
Using the largest platforms for both search and social media respectively, our recommendation was to geo-target the area of highest opportunity for the client. This would allow us to control costs and reach people who had orthopedic needs and would be moved by the availability of same-day appointments.
Since not every person is necessarily ready to visit the orthopedic center immediately upon conducting an online search, we also employed remarketing tactics. To capitalize on every relevant contact made via our search campaign, we recommended the inclusion of Google remarketing ads and Facebook Pixel (remarketing) ads to build awareness and stay connected to this high-interest audience.
ACTIVATE
We launched a digital marketing campaign utilizing the Google Display Network, Facebook and Instagram.
1. Google Ads
Our principal approach for our online campaign included Google search and remarketing ads. Using the zip codes of the client’s core market, we were able to target only those areas where our most likely patients lived or worked. Knowing that people searching for pain-related keywords on a mobile device had a propensity for immediate assistance, we incorporated a click-to-call feature. So, those seeking out orthopedic services could call the office right to make an appointment directly from the search results.
2. Facebook/Instagram Ads
To ensure the campaign remained consistent and leveraged work-to-date, our social ads used the visuals and messaging from the traditional campaign when possible. The ads appeared throughout the Facebook and Instagram networks. Once again, we were able to target specific Facebook and Instagram users by defining campaign parameters with zip codes supplied by the client. Additionally, a Facebook Pixel code was placed on the client’s orthopedic website. By placing the Pixel code, visitors to that specific website would be more likely to have campaign ads appear in their Facebook/Instagram newsfeeds, stories, etc.
RESULTS
This orthopedic digital campaign reached thousands of prospective patients and their caregivers online in a limited timeframe. Through Google Ads, our client was able to reach potential new patients “in the moment” as they searched using orthopedic-related terms on the Internet’s largest search engine. Facebook and Instagram ads helped our clients increase their brand awareness online and interact with their audiences in a way they had not explored previously. Beyond helping our client maximize their available budget to drive more people to their website and heighten brand awareness, we were able to actually move people to call for information or schedule an appointment.
Do you have a digital marketing need that you’d like to get moving on? We’d love to hear about it. Contact The Jakes Group today.
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