Marketing efforts are useless if we cannot measure their impact through numbers and most importantly, if it does not contribute to the bottom line. Every marketing campaign must be measurable through an action item – whether that’s subscribing, scheduling, or purchasing it is essential to measure your return on investment (ROI) after the campaign is over.
As a current healthcare marketer, following the monthly health observances is a major marketing tactic used to craft awareness campaigns that move consumers. According to the Healthgrades “Throughout the year, health observances raise awareness for a variety of conditions and remind consumers to stay on top of their health” (Groux, 2023). These campaigns are essential to driving volume to our doctors or locations and showing them that our health system cares about their journey.
Our largest campaign each year is during Breast Cancer Awareness Month where we drive and encourage women to get their yearly mammograms. This campaign comprises of digital ads, billboards, radio spots, community events and sponsorships, sports partnerships, and more. Besides driving awareness and maintaining a footprint in the community and for patients who are so frequently affected, our goal is to have consumers schedule mammograms. To track our ROI for this, we ensure a QR code or URL that leads to scheduling is on every piece of collateral pushed forward. The QR code is then tracked by our paid media team who determine visits, bounce rates, schedules, and more. Understanding these components determines how effective our message and ads were and determines the ROI based on our goal to increase mammogram screenings.
All in all, tracking ROI isn’t just a way to show that marketing is working; it’s also a way to learn what works, make future campaigns better, and make sure that every dollar spent leads to real results. If you don’t have a clear way to measure ROI, your marketing efforts are left as unclear guesswork, rather than understanding what is truly moving the needle.