Introducing geotargeting for hospital marketing

Pinpoint the location of your mobile hospital ads with these services

Geotargeting — for years the retail industry has used this tool to send deals and promotions to unsuspecting consumers, luring them into their businesses. And it’s time for the healthcare industry to get a piece of the action. Geotargeting is a location-based service that enables marketers to send ads to smartphone users when they enter a designated location. 

With geotargeting, your hospital or health system can target ads at people who walk into a community gym, shop at a local farmers market or visit one of your locations, etc. This and other geotargeting tools are on the rise as one of the most measurable and hyper-targeted media out there. It offers a deep pool of analytic data that will tell hospital marketers where their patients go, how often they go there, and how well their targeted offers bring patients into their organization. Not to mention, it can help convince consumers to leave the competition.

Intrigued yet? Well, you should be. Geotargeting services are changing the advertising game. Here’s how:

Geofencing

You’re probably wondering how marketers can serve ads to people who arrive at a specific location. It’s possible because of smartphones. With the right setting, smartphone apps give off your geographical coordinates ( longitude and latitude). Businesses can set perimeters around a particular area, and then send promotions to consumers when they enter that location.

Tailor messages: Hospital marketers can curate ads based on a service line campaign they are launching. Or, a wellness event they are planning. A primary care physician that needs foot traffic. Or, National Health Observances that your hospital is promoting.

For example, March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Because adult men are less likely than women to get a colonoscopy, hospitals can send push notifications about cancer screening services to people at hardware stores, athletic stores or barbershops.

Geoconquesting

This tool is a variation of geofencing, where businesses set a perimeter around a competitor’s location and serve ads to mobile users in that area. Instead of serving ads to consumers when they’re within the borders of your organization, you can target ads at them when they’re in the vicinity of your competitor. The hope is to attract them to your organization instead.

Bisect competitors: If users are waiting to see a doctor at your competition’s organization, you can serve them ads that offer them a “better deal.” In the healthcare industry, that might be faster ED wait times or friendlier customer service. Research shows that if you’re targeting consumers near your organization, then it’s effective to target consumers near your competition’s location as well.

Geofencing and conquesting might become the most efficient services in digital media. A current geofencing campaign we launched for a client is showing a .31% click-through rate on display vs. our standard geotargeting display ads at .08%. That’s a huge number difference, and it’s still early in the campaign