Leveraging metrics for effective health and wellness advertising: A modern marketing guide
Anybody remember the golden age of advertising, when campaigns were launched into the abyss and everyone crossed their fingers, hoping for the best? It was somewhat like throwing darts in the dark, but when they landed, it was impressive.
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
Start tracking your metrics today. It’ll be fun.
Have you heard that quote? At the risk of dating myself, when I went to business school, it was still being told. Now, not so much. Today, we live in an era where there’s really no need to guess which ads are performing and which aren’t anymore. Modern health and wellness advertising agencies and practitioners have access to sophisticated tools that eliminate the guesswork, allowing you to track exactly which marketing efforts drive results. This will save you time and money, and done well, make you more money too (though maybe not time… at least not in the short term).
While storytelling marketing can inform your journey and help you connect with your customers, you should let metrics be your compass. They objectively help you understand if your healthcare marketing campaigns are actually reaching the right audience or if you're operating on incorrect assumptions. It’s good to be humble as a wellness influencer building your brand or a practitioner developing your healthcare marketing plan, allowing data-driven decisions to lead you to success.
The power of digital healthcare marketing lies in its accountability. These metrics will enable smarter decisions and ideally even help you maintain maintain ethical standards by showing you exactly who you’re reaching and who might be missing in your wellness advertising efforts.
So, if you’re ready to transform your healthcare marketing strategy, read on for a rundown of the key performance indicators that the best healthcare marketing professionals track to optimize their campaigns:
Metrics to track
Impressions: This tells you how many times people have seen your ad
Why it matters: Knowing the visibility of your ad helps in gauging its reach
What’s “Good:” If you’re trying to reach the masses, you want this number high
The catch: Often, people view your ad and don’t remember it anyway
CPM (Cost Per Mille): This tells you how much it costs for your ad to be viewed a thousand times
Why it matters: CPM illuminates the cost-effectiveness of different platforms
Good: This number usually decreases over time because you get more efficient
The catch: High-value clicks sometimes cost more and can be worth it
Clicks: The raw number of people who clicked on your ad
Why it matters: Clicks show interest in your ad
Good: You want as high a ratio of clicks to impressions
Catch: People still need to convert on your website for this to be worth it
CPC (Cost Per Click): This tells you how much you pay every time someone clicks on your ad
Why it matters: CPC illuminates the cost-effectiveness of different ads
Good: A low CPC is usually good
Catch: Sometimes fighting to "win" a keyword isn't worth the cost per click
Website visitors from specific sources: Know where your website traffic is coming from.
Why it matters: Helps you make decisions about platforms
Good: You want the traffic to increase from sources you’ve focused on
Catch: Make sure these folks are converting, not just showing up
Data can sometimes feel cold and impersonal, but think of it as your best tool for a warm, inclusive, and effective outreach. Again, metrics keep you honest, keep you efficient, and sometimes, they keep you on the right ethical path too.
Takeaway tip: To the extent that it’s useful, use data to guide your advertising. Metrics like impressions and clicks help you make informed, ethical decisions while optimizing reach and cost.
From data to decisions: Example healthcare marketing transformations
Tracking metrics can give you insights to win more business.
Want to see these metrics in action? Here's three examples of how wellness practitioners may have used their data to transform their marketing effectiveness to give you a sense of how to become your own detective for your business:
The message-testing massage therapist Sarah tracked her Google ads performance religiously. With a healthy 4% click-through rate but a concerning 82% bounce rate, she deduced people seemed interested in what she had to offer but something about her website wasn't connecting. Diving into her heat maps and user recordings to understand where people were actually hovering and clicking on the site itself, she discovered potential clients were leaving because her website didn't clearly show pricing or availability - whoops. After adding a transparent pricing table and real-time booking widget, her bounce rate dropped to 40% and bookings increased by 215%… All with the same ad spend.
The conversion-focused physical therapist Dr. Rodriguez was frustrated with his Facebook ads. Despite spending $800 monthly and getting plenty of likes on his educational content, his cost per lead was $85, which seemed way too high. So he dug into his analytics and found that people spent 3x longer on posts about sports injuries than general wellness. By niching down his ad content to focus on local athletes and adding sport-specific landing pages, his cost per lead dropped to $22, and his quarterly new patient numbers doubled.
The data-driven acupuncturist Linda's Instagram metrics revealed something interesting: while her broad wellness content got likes, her fertility-focused posts got saves and shares. Since saves and shares suggest deeper engagement than plain old likes, she had an idea of what her core audience wanted to understand from her. So, she reallocated her budget to target women ages 28-40 interested in fertility, created specialized landing pages, and saw her conversion rate jump from 1.2% to 4.8%. Her key learning? Sometimes better targeting beats bigger budgets.
Putting it all together: Your metrics action plan
Here's how to start using metrics to improve your wellness marketing:
Track the basic metrics we covered (impressions, CPM, clicks, CPC)
Set up Google Analytics to monitor website behavior
Create a simple monthly dashboard comparing:
Cost per lead across platforms
Conversion rates by campaign
Return on ad spend
Review metrics monthly and adjust your strategy accordingly
Takeaway tip: The goal isn't to maintain perfect numbers since such a thing doesn’t exist, but to test your theories, iterate rapidly and drive continuous improvement.
Conclusion
In conclusion, these days, advertising isn't just for big corporations. It’s an indispensable tool for healing arts practitioners. From understanding the rich history of wellness advertising to recognizing its role as a subset of a broader healthcare marketing strategy, it has immense value.
The key to successful health and wellness advertising lies in defining clear objectives, knowing your audience, and aligning with your business goals. The emergence of data analytics has replaced guesswork, allowing for smarter and more ethical decisions.
As the options for how to advertise continues to evolve, so should your strategy—always with an eye on fostering inclusivity and connecting with those who truly need your healing touch.
Free Branding Guide: As you craft and execute your advertising campaigns, our interactive brand workbook can be an invaluable resource. This guide will help you define and refine your brand voice, ensuring your brand communication remains authentic and impactful. Download our guide, "Crafting your unique brand voice in healthcare: a practical guide," for self-assessment questionnaires, brand voice exercises, and real-life application scenarios to support your advertising efforts.