Healthcare and online advertising

Much like other markets, the healthcare industry has come to rely increasingly on the ‘online’ for advertising. The shift from traditional advertising to online is as dramatic in healthcare.

Healthcare online takes many forms –

• Hospitals
• Pharmacies
• Non-prescription medicines

Among the most popular ‘healthcare’ products is ‘Weight loss’ and ‘Teeth Whitening’. The number of campaigns I would have run in these areas is simply not funny. At an average I have had requests for these campaigns once every quarter. Budgets on these campaigns are not to be scoffed at either. About 6 months ago, I had a weight loss campaign in US and UK with a budget of US $ 15,000 in each geography. And these were pre-pay campaigns i.e. where the client paid us in advance!

This tells us two things –

The demand for these types of products and services, and,

The efficacy of online advertising on these campaigns

My observations are borne out by statistics on online healthcare advertising –

• 75% internet users research health online
• 75% of users with a chronic health condition confirmed that online research influenced their decision

An integrated approach is a sine qua non for successful health care campaign online. An integrated approach includes –

• Search – Paid and Natural
• Social – Blogs, networks…
• Videos – display and pre-roll
• Display – Rich media, banners
• Email – in house and 3^rd party emails

A relatively new product/market that has spawned is ‘Medical Tourism’. Medical tourism is about people travelling abroad to get their illnesses treated. Popular medical tourism destinations are India, parts of Europe etc… Enter ‘Medical tourism’ in Google and the results run into innumerable pages.

Benefits of online advertising in healthcare

Ability to Target

Sharp targeting is very much possible in healthcare. In Weight loss for example, targeting can be females in the age group 18 – 35 living in the UK. Suited to this targeting the average network can rustle up highly relevant inventory to get the message to the target market resulting in actions – registrations, purchases etc

Ability to Engage

By their very nature they engage their viewer. How does this sound – 1visit, 1 hour, 0 side effects, pain free, instant result! Holds your attention doesn’t it?

Ability to interact

Healthcare websites are usually high on the interaction quotient. Interaction can be via phone, email, videos etc…

Like any other form of online advertising, online healthcare ads lend themselves to measurability, affordability and accountability.

Do I need to justify online healthcare advertising any more?