X
Bid price
Like a live auction, this is the max you're willing to spend for your display ad to be served (placed in front of your audience).
X
Audience
The potential clients or patients you're trying to reach.
X
Demand-side platform or DSP
Software used to bid and purchase ad space.
X
Served
Your display ad is considered "served" when it is placed on a site, app, or other space in front of a member of your audience.
X
Geofencing
Essentially putting up a "fence" in an area where you want to target your audience. For example, an online grill seller might put a fence around all the local home improvement stores so the people that visit the stores will start seeing ads for their grills online.
X
Keywords
Words that describe your service or product. (What should my audience search for if they are trying to find me?)
X
Bot
An internet robot. Bots click on ads to seem like people are visiting your site when they actually aren't.
Programmatic Advertising
How can you get to potential patients directly?
“I think my phone is listening to me!”
Many of us have had this same thought when we are suddenly seeing ads for things we talk about. It seems like we are getting served ads based on the things we say or even the places we go. Advertising is not as simple as placing a commercial on TV anymore.
It is a science that many companies and medical practices use to be more precise and focused. They are using a variety of tools like programmatic advertising to be more effective with their advertising dollars.
What is Programmatic Advertising?
Do you ever wonder why you see ads for Lowes after you walk out of a Home Depot? That is programmatic advertising.
Programmatic advertising uses automated technology to buy advertising space in front of a target customer instead of a manual process.
What does this mean?
With programmatic, your ad dollars have the opportunity to constantly be optimized and automatically be purchased instead of traveling through several different hands - your agency has direct access to the dollars you are spending using a demand-side platform or DSP.
It also means that you can target people across different devices they may have.
For example, your ad might be served on a website, then the person who was on the website saw the ad while streaming Hulu, and on their way to work, they were served the ad while listening to Spotify.
How does Programmatic compare?
Perhaps the most important part of advertising is reaching the people who are going to be the right candidates for your practice or product.
With programmatic - you can get more exact. When it comes to broadcast advertising there are only so many ways to single down the right person. They usually consist of looking at age and gender demographics. Often this can still be an extremely effective way to advertise.
You can still do that with programmatic advertising but you are no longer restricted.
With programmatic, you can target people based on where they work, the stores they shop, articles they read online, what they are Googling, and even more.
Example
Let’s say you are an ENT practice that is looking for more sinus patients.
With Programmatic and a tool called geofencing - you can digitally target people in your community who have recently been to an urgent care.
If you wanted to go deeper you could cross-match that with people who have searched a keyword regarding sinuses in the last 3 months.
Now you can serve your ads to a list of people who you know have been trying to seek help, and who have also expressed an issue you can solve.
The real power is that you have the opportunity to speak directly to that person's needs in your ad copy. What is your potential patient audience size?
I'm forever grateful for the recommendation from my medical representative to join TrackableMed. It has really been beneficial to me, my practice, and all my patients. I've been using TrackableMed throughout the past 4 years and I've probably increased my procedure numbers by about 200%.
Pros and Cons of Programmatic Advertising:
- Pro:
- Enhanced visibility
- Ability to drill down on your audience
- Get in front of one person in a variety of ways
- Place ads in higher volume
- Con:
- Bot traffic can be misleading
- Some agencies don't have direct access
- Complex, learning curve can be difficult
- Cookie crackdown
What’s the catch? Not all Programmatic advertising is the same.
Some agencies do not have direct access to a demand-supply provider.
What does this mean? It means they have to take a cut of your ad spend, and then they hand what is left to another company who takes another cut, leaving you with a percentage of the ad spend you originally had.
How does TracklableMed do it differently?
We are dedicated to finding the best result possible for our clients. We believe our industry has been long overdue for a dose of accountability. We know it’s important to get the absolute most out of your advertising budget. That’s why we do programmatic advertising in-house at TrackableMed.
TrackableMed has direct access to a DSP, meaning there are no middlemen in getting your ads in front of the right audience.
Want to know how large your audience could be?
You might not be right for Programmatic advertising.
Just because something is a good idea does not mean that it is a good idea for you. Not everyone has the right audience or area for programmatic advertising to be successful. At TrackableMed, we are agnostic to the tools that bring us results.
