Digital marketing campaigns are expected to grow by 35 percent of total marketing budgets in the year 2016.
It's no secret. A growing number of advertisers are moving to online and digital marketing from the traditional forms of advertising. It comes down to one simple factor – consumers are getting their news online. In the 2015 State of the News Media by Pew Research Center, 39 out of 50 news sites saw more traffic on their mobile version. On 10 out of 50 news sites, mobile visitors spent more time per visit on the site over desktop visitors.
Economic trends this last year have shown that print newspaper revenue has been down by 4 percent to $19.9 billion while local TV on air ad revenue grew 7 percent since 2013 to $20 billion. Meanwhile, digital advertising grew 18 percent to $50.7 billion. Mobile advertising grew 78 percent in the last year, which now accounts for 35 percent of digital advertising. (Pew Research Center, 2015)
What does this mean to you? Consumers are connecting more and more on the internet. Online advertising is an exciting maze of possible connections with consumers based on their interests and search history.
Ultimately, online advertising serves to benefit consumers and advertisers alike. For consumers, they don't see ads that aren't relevant to them or their interests. For advertisers, they are seeing a better return on investment because they are able to better target those that would be interested in their product or service. Secondly, advertisers are able to responsibly track and understand their target demographic to change the campaign to improve the return on investment.
As consumers turn to their mobile devices for medical advice and research, online advertising has become the new frontier for patient acquisitions. Even Google announced in May that the search algorithm was going to include mobile activity because they saw such an increase in mobile traffic in 2014.
Online advertising shows a great deal of potential for Ambulatory Surgical Centers that are looking to increase volume in key specialties. For example, if there is an ambulatory surgical center that specializes in sports related injuries like ACL repair or labral tears, an online advertising campaign could focus in on key demographics like athletes or weekend warriors who are more prone to those sort of injuries. The online advertising campaign is much more targeted, opposed to traditional advertising, which hits a broad array of consumers that may not be affected by the ad.
Online advertising is going to continue to increase as social media and online news continue to see increased usage by consumers. The engagement opportunities with a digital strategy are endless. An advertising campaign could initially start as an "image campaign" to generate awareness or encouraging consumers to follow your story. The campaign could then integrate into an email campaign that is targeted toward consumers that are most interested in what you have to offer.
Traditional advertising is still a valuable part of the industry, but online advertising allows us to study and understand the target demographic even more. Advertisers are better able to navigate a campaign when they know whom they are targeting and what they are looking for. This information, when used correctly, can lead to increased patient acquisition for ambulatory surgical centers across the nation.