Calculators are wonderful devices. Punch in a few numbers and the result is a guaranteed perfect answer to your equation. If only a similar solution existed for buying online advertising for your health system. 

Google has automated tools to optimize paid advertising campaigns, including AI-based ad buying and A/B testing. But Google and the associated tools are only one piece of the paid ad puzzle. There are plenty of other excellent platforms to advertise your health system. Though few, if any, offer the sophisticated ad-buying tools of Google—unless you’re using programmatic advertising. 

This type of smart ad buying goes well beyond the Google Display Network by including both sell-side and demand-side platforms. In essence, programmatic advertising uses artificial intelligence (AI) to give you access to a wider swath of the internet.

Using machine learning and automation, this method buys ad space where your potential patients are already looking. With programmatic advertising, the ad-buying process is streamlined, taking much of the guesswork out of promoting your health system online.

How to Create a Successful Programmatic Ad Campaign

There’s no denying the advantages of programmatic advertising for a health system. This strategy is incredibly effective, offers a much wider reach than Google and social media alone, and is easy to track and scale.

But like every digital marketing tool, there’s a right and wrong way to incorporate programmatic advertising into your strategy. Here’s what you need to know to create a successful programmatic ad campaign.

1. Set Goals

What do you want your campaign to do? Your goal could be driving more traffic to a specific landing page, collecting user information or opt-ins, growing your presence among a particular demographic, or simply inspiring a phone call from a prospective patient.

Ask what your health system needs before setting these goals. Consider areas where you’re underperforming and set your campaign parameters accordingly. To do this effectively, you’ll first need a strong understanding of your target audience. Understanding the motivations and digital behaviors of your audience creates campaigns that successfully support your goals.

The importance of this step can’t be understated. Goal setting clearly correlates to success. In fact, more than 1,000 studies have linked goal setting to increased persistence, performance, and motivation.¹

2. Determine Your Budget

If you’ve used online advertising before, you know how quickly spending can get out of control. While these investments are critical to effectively promoting your health system, you should have limits in place to avoid overspending on your campaign.

To be clear, marketers spend a lot of money on programmatic advertising. In 2022 alone, more than $123 billion was spent on this type of advertising.² Even though this number is expected to rise exponentially in the coming years, you don’t need to spend a fortune to get results. 

Set your budget based on what your organization can reasonably afford. Programmatic advertising works and the leads will come in whether you spend $1,000 or $100,000. Setting spending limits for the campaign period ensures your ad spend stays within anticipated parameters.

3. Use Omnichannel Marketing

When you create a programmatic marketing campaign, you choose the platforms where you want your content to appear. Your goals assuredly determine the platforms you select, but your choices should still be diverse.

Just over 40% percent of advertisers say multichannel advertising is a crucial factor for success.³ Your advertising efforts should always be omnichannel, no matter your end goal. This means utilizing several content platforms to cast the widest digital net. As a health system, this is especially important, given the natural diversity of your target audience.

4. Measure Your Success

One of the most useful features of programmatic advertising is the ability to definitively measure your return on investment (ROI). Every aspect of programmatic advertising is data-driven and based on established facts, making ROI measurement easy.

Don’t neglect to determine your key performance indicators (KPIs) based on your goals. KPIs track factors that affect the success of your campaign. This can include cost per lead, increased web traffic, total number of new patients gained, or any other definable, trackable metric. Sixty percent of marketers claim their programmatic campaigns usually meet or exceed their KPIs.⁴

Ready to set up a programmatic advertising campaign for your health system but not sure how to get started? Dreamscape Marketing can help. Call us at 888.307.7304 to schedule a discovery call to explore your marketing goals.

 

 

For a list of references, please contact us.