Online Marketing Benchmarkfor Healthcare Providers

Created by

2016 Report

Executive summary

Why care about online marketing?

Healthcare is catching up

The new word-of-mouth

A sizeable budget?

Measure your happiness

Benchmark scoring

Contents

Page 2 2016 Report: Online Marketing Benchmark for Healthcare Providers

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• We surveyed 62 hospitals and clinics in 19 countries to assess trends in online marketing among healthcare providers

• 86% of surveyed hospitals and clinics actively use online marketing, with the overwhelming goal of increasing patient acquisition

• The average budget for online marketing is $4,755 per month. 72% of hospitals and clinics employ an external agency to develop and implement their online marketing campaigns

• Google and Facebook are by far the most popular preferred channels for paid marketing campaigns

• Most hospitals and clinics do not consistently create ROI+ online marketing campaigns and underspend relative to best performers in other industries

ABOUT MEDIGO

Whether you are looking for an oncologist

in Berlin, a dentist in Bangkok, or a

cardiologist in Bangalore, MEDIGO.com

supports individuals and healthcare

organizations everywhere. It is an

easy-to-use platform and service that

helps patients to find and schedule

affordable, high-quality medical treatment

abroad. For hospitals and clinics,

MEDIGO has developed a simple patient

communication and payment platform,

and offers online marketing services

targeted at patients globally. With more

than 700 trusted hospitals and clinics

in 36 countries, and a dedicated 24/7

Care Team, MEDIGO improves access to

healthcare worldwide.

Executive summary

NUMBER OF PROVIDERS SURVEYED

62NUMBER OF COUNTRIES

19PROVIDERS ACTIVE WITH ONLINE MARKETING

86%AVERAGE MONTHLY BUDGET

$4,755PREFERRED CHANNELS FOR MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

FacebookGoogle

OVERVIEW

Page 3 2016 Report: Online Marketing Benchmark for Healthcare Providers

Research shows that at least 3 in 4 people

searching for health information online

with search engine like Google or Bing

(Pew Research Center). As a relatively

inexpensive and scalable channel, online

marketing has the potential to reach an

audience of 4.3 billion people connected

through the internet (Internet Live Stats).

That’s why search result page real estate

is so valuable, irrespective whether a good

ranking is achieved through paid search

engine marketing (SEM) or through a strong

organic web presence (SEO). Although

companies rely on a combination of the

two, many hospitals and clinics are just

starting to understand how to create a

strong presence online.

Today, hospitals and clinics (or marketing

agencies) launch online marketing

campaigns primarily to acquire more

patients, to create stronger brand

recognition, to improve traditional

customer service, and distribute hospital-

or treatment-specific information.

This is the first global survey to define

the use and success of online marketing

by hospitals and clinics. The Benchmark

Survey (see Appendix #1) includes

questions on the size, type of activity, and

results of marketing campaigns created

by healthcare providers. The survey was

distributed in July 2016 to marketing

departments at 282 clinics and hospitals

and collected 62 responses among

facilities in 19 countries (21% completion

rate). The respondents represented a

broad range of clinics and hospitals, from

private practices with a single doctor

all the way to university hospitals. Each

survey was scored according to the

MEDIGO Benchmark Methodology (see

Appendix #2).

This report should encourage learning

and discussions about the current state

Why care about online marketing?

of online marketing best practices for

online marketing. The specifc goal of the

hospital and clinic survey was to develop

a benchmark that allows hospitals and

clinics to compare their online marketing

performance with similar organizations

around the world. We hope that this report

summary creates a clearer picture for

the reader of the current state of online

marketing at medical facilities.

Page 4 2016 Report: Online Marketing Benchmark for Healthcare Providers

Instagram, Pinterest and Youtube), and

through content marketing (newsletters,

blog posts). And they don’t have to start

from scratch: the relatively established

online marketing industry has some

good ways to measure performance and

improve user engagement. But there

is one major learning that is unique to

the healthcare industry: that the best

healthcare marketing includes patient

education.

Online marketing has completely

reshaped the way we make decisions

every day: from cheap flights to unique

shoes, well-placed advertisements

and content pieces influence the way

we make decisions. And why should

healthcare be any different? According

to our survey, 86% of hospitals are using

online marketing actively and about 10%

of hospitals are looking to launch their

first online marketing campaigns.

Today’s forward-thinking hospitals and

clinics are attracting users and converting

them into patients through a number

of online channels: paid advertising on

search engines (Google, Bing), engagement

on social media (Facebook, Twitter,

Healthcare is catching up

FURTHER READING

• 4 Ways Healthcare Marketers Should Utilize Social

Media

• How to Create a Profitable Google AdWords

Campaign (from Scratch)

• A Beginner’s Guide: How to Advertise on Facebook

Page 5 2016 Report: Online Marketing Benchmark for Healthcare Providers

Social media is the place to be: more than

40% of consumers say that information

found through social media affects the

way they deal with their health, and

affects their choice of a specific doctor,

hospital, or medical facility (Mediabistro,

The Spark Report).

Online communities form the new

meeting space for doctors, nurses,

patients, and caregivers. More than half

(53% to be exact) of all the paid channels,

are social media platforms and at 34%,

Facebook clocks in as the most popular

social channel for hospital marketers.

However, Google paid marketing remains

the largest single channel with over 35%

of hospitals and clinics purchasing paid

advertisement there.

Which campaigns work best on social

media? If you feel lucky, you might

create viral campaign1. A more pragmatic

marketing strategy is to become a trusted

source for genuinely useful content for an

engaged following2.

FURTHER READING

• Social Media for Health Care: Who’s doing it right?

• Understanding Word of Mouth in the Social Media

Age

• Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media

Social media is the newword of mouth

1 - The Ice Bucket Challenge was a viral campaign to promote awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and generated more than $100 million in donations to the ALS Association

2 - The Mayo Clinic boasts more than 1.3 million Twitter followers and posts content 7 to 10 times per day

Respondents could answer more than once. Thus the percentage on each channel represents the number of hospitals using that channel divided by all responses.

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Hospitals and clinics spend anywhere

from $1,000 to $50,000 per month on

their online marketing, with a majority

keeping their marketing budget under

$5,000 per month. The average spend

varies largely by type of facility; healthcare

providers with patient volumes between

10,000 and 50,000 tend to spend more

than four times the amount that providers

with fewer than 1,000 patients annually.

As an industry, healthcare is one of the

most conservative digital marketing

spenders, allocating only 2.2% of each

company’s revenue to the marketing

budget (Gartner). A large marketing

budget does not necessarily indicate

a strong marketing strategy; rather,

healthcare providers who spend their

budget efficiently follow best practices

and deliver ROI positive results.

Interestingly, 72% of hospitals and

clinics use a marketing agency, which

are paid a 18% average commission.

(The commission ranged from 5% to

A sizeable budget?35%). When is a marketing agency a

good solution? If a hospital or clinic

does not have an established marketing

department, an experienced agency

can quickly build up a solid campaign

framework and test various channels for

performance. Oftentimes, such agency

work requires a flexible budget to test

various messaging and channels.

For those organizations with a solid in

house marketing team, an agency can be

used to lead one-off campaigns or to try

out a new marketing channels.

For those organizations not interested

in investing in a marketing agency, it is

possible to build and train a solid inhouse

team. Seeing results will take longer than

with an agency because of the learning

curve.

FURTHER READING

• Defining Digital Health ROI: 5 elements that might

actually make sense

• Top 25 Medical Practice Marketing Ideas

• Seven Low-Cost Marketing Ideas

The frequency of response for larger patient organizations was not high enough to be considered in this analysis

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43%of hospitals and clinics surveyed reported an increase in patients

acquired through their online marketing campaigns.

These are called hard metrics because

they follow deliberate user actions.

Soft metrics represent an inferred user

behavior and include bounce rate,

average time on page, number of pages

visited per user. Google Analytics and

Facebook Power Editor

auto-calculate a number of

the most popular metrics,

although some site-specific

conversion rates need to be

calculated in-house.

Overwhelmingly, the

hospitals and clinics

indicated that the explicit goal of their

online marketing is to acquire more

patients (87%). However, only 43% of

hospitals and clinics surveyed reported

an increase in patients acquired through

their online marketing campaigns. The

More than half (57%) of the surveyed

hospitals and clinics were happy with their

current marketing efforts. This group is

actively engaged in creating and evaluating

their online marketing campaigns. The

best way to understand whether your

campaigns perform well is to

establish metrics that follow

your user funnel by channel

and over time.

In the case of a hospital

seeking to increase

the number of patients

scheduling appointments, a

set of KPIs would track the user from the

advertisement, to first visit, to scheduled

appointment. These could include: cost

per click (CPC), click through rate (CTR),

cost per visit, cost per inquiry, conversion

rate to patient, and cost per patient.

Measureyourhappiness

FURTHER READING

• 9 Marketing KPIs that drive performance in the right direction

• The 16 Marketing KPIs you should be measuring (but you probably aren’t)

• Top 5 Google Adwords Metrics to Monitor each day with your breakfast

remaining 57% either don’t see an effect

on patient traffic to their facility… or more

likely, aren’t measuring the effect of their

campaigns correctly!

Running online marketing campaigns

without performance insights is like

driving a car blindfolded -- chances are

high that you will run into a wall sooner or

later. Proper campaign tracking should be

in place. If in-house knowledge is missing

on this part an agency could help you set

this up for a one off small fee.

Page 8 2016 Report: Online Marketing Benchmark for Healthcare Providers

Want to improve your online marketing?

OUR SERVICES

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Tracking implementationContent writing in multiple languagesUser journey mappingAnalyticsAnalytics implementationHigh-level reportingDetailed channel reportingContent managementContent creation in multiple languagesTrending content market researchContent outreachContent performance reportingEmail marketingSubscriber list growthNewsletter creationOpen rate AB testingEmail performance reportingClick through rate AB testingUser experience or usability testingUX reporting on conversion funnelsContent AB testingCTA AB testingWeb development or system integrationsHeatmap trackingUser session recordingExternal communication integrationsAdd conversion increasing widgets

DesignContent designWebsite designYoutubeVideo audience creationAd copy creation text or video AB testing ad contentTargeting optimisationPlacement exclusionsAudience optimisationTwitterCustom conversion implementationRemarketing audience creationAd content creationAB testing ad contentTargeting optimisationPlacement exclusionsBanner audience creationGDNRemarketing banner creationRemarketing strategy implementationRemarketing user segment creationBanner audience creationAd copy creation text or image Sitelink implementationAB testing ad contentTargeting optimisationPlacement exclusions

The Money Burners

If you are a Money Burner, then it is very likely that you are spending and seeing no return on your investment. The main points that are lacking here are no tracking to visualise the performance numbers and no online marketing strategy in place. This results in heavy ROI negative marketing campaigns.

The Overspenders

If you are an Overspender, then it is very likely that although you see results of your marketing efforts, your campaigns are very costly. Your return on investment is not zero, but a profit is not clearly demonstrated either. Your main

Where do you stand?

problems are probably not having clear oversight into performance numbers (tracking) or not having a consistent marketing strategy in place.

The Underspenders

If you are an Underspender, then it is very likely that your campaigns are still more expensive than the cost of implementation. You have probably covered the basics and have a clear marketing strategy as well as tracking in place for your key outcomes. However, getting to profitable means significant testing of new channels and dramatic optimisation of your existing campaigns.

The survey respondent were clustered into four groups based on the final score of their survey. Most hospitals

and clinics are not consistently delivering ROI+ online marketing campaigns, they are lacking the tracking

technology to evaluate their online marketing efforts or don’t have a strategy in place. We call them the

Overspenders in our benchmark. You can find the methodology in the appendix.

The Professionals

Well done if you are a Professional, it is very likely that your campaigns are doing well, either you are making a profit or breaking even. Your marketing strategy consists of multiple channels. One might work better than others, and if you’re really a pro, then all channels are contributing to your positive return on investment. You have robust tracking and reporting in place to tell you how well each channel performs. But even you probably have something to learn! :) Gurus with ROI++ are constantly AB-testing, performing extensive campaign optimisations, and landing page optimisations.

The Overspenders The ProfessionalsThe Money Burners The Underspenders

HIGH

• Send an email to marketing@medigo.com

• or Give us a call at +49 30 233 206 932

LOW

Page 9 2016 Report: Online Marketing Benchmark for Healthcare Providers

RETURN ON INVESTMENT

Get a free consultation today:

1.What type of hospital do you work for?

Private clinic

Single private practice

Specialised center (<5 specialties)

University hospital

Multi-specialty center (>5 specialties)

Hospital group

2.What is the size of your organisation?

<1,000 patients per year

1,000 to 10,000 patients per year

10,000 to 50,000 patients per year

50,000 to 100,000 patients per year

>100,000 patients per year

3.What percentage of your patients are international

patients?

0%

1-5%

5-10%

10-20%

20-30%

>30%

4.Do you use online marketing for patient acquisition at

your hospital/clinic?

I have no transparency about these numbers

Yes, online marketing is very important for us

Yes, but we just started with online marketing

No, but we are interested to start

No, we don’t use online marketing

6.Which paid marketing channels do you use?

Google

Bing

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Instagram

Remarketing

Other

7.What is your monthly online marketing budget?

0

<$5,000

$5,000 - $10,000

$10,000 - $20,000

$20,000 - $30,000

$30,000 - $40,000

$40,000 - $50,000

>$50,000

8.Are you happy with your current online marketing efforts?

Yes

No

9.Which of the following is most important to your current

online marketing efforts?

Reporting on value delivered

Creating ROI+ marketing campaign

Acquiring more patients

Other

10.Rate this statement: “With the use of online marketing,

we have noticed an increase in the number of patients”

0 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

11.Do you use an agency for your online marketing efforts?

Yes

No

12.Please estimate the percentage of your marketing

budget that you spend on your agency?

0-5%

5-10%

10-15%

15-20%

20-25%

25-30%

30-35%

>35%

Appendix #1: Benchmark Survey

If you are doing well at online marketing

then your campaign should have clearly

defined return on investment, this forms

the core of our benchmark score. The

more return on investment you have, the

higher your score. The highest possible

score is set to reflect a high performance

specialist marketing agency, which makes

the scoring more competitive and more

accurately reflect the actual market

standards.

The score is calculated based on the

survey answers and focuses on four

areas described below. If you believe

we’ve made a mistake in analysing your

marketing strategy, we are more than

happy to review, just send us an email!

Spend & Commission The more budget

available to a hospital or clinic, the lower

the commission that an agency demands.

So if you have a high budget and low

commission than you are doing well, no

penalty points will be deducted. Are you a

high spender with a high commission then

you will be penalised because a positive

ROI is harder to achieve. If you don’t use

an agency thus don’t pay commission then

the height of your budget will be evaluated

in combination with your happiness score.

Appendix #2: Benchmark Methodology

Marketing Mix Relying on more online

marketing channels is healthier. The odds

that you find a profitable online marketing

campaigns is higher when you use more

channels. Thus we penalised those users

that have less than 2 channels irrelevant

to spend. Although the higher spenders

should also focus on more than 2

channels if not they will be penalised.

Priorities A combination of all the

available KPIs gave the right mindset to

do Online Marketing. You want to acquire

more patients through successful ROI+

campaigns with full insights so you can

keep this flow going. If one piece of this

puzzle is not in your focus you will be

penalised in our scoring.

Satisfaction We evaluated this statement

on the basis of the questions and the

statement whether you saw an influx of

patients. If you did not answer positive on

either of the questions we think that the

current efforts aren’t running smoothly

and an acceptable ROI is not insight.

We penalised those that showed us that

were most unhappy about their current

performance.

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