Want to Advertise to Nurses? Here’s How to Do It Right

There are millions of Registered Nurses (RNs) and hundreds of thousands of Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) in the United States.¹

That means that millions of nurses could be the perfect fit to influence the buying decisions of doctors.

So, if you’re asking yourself, “Do I want to advertise to nurses?” the answer should be a resounding “yes.”

Here’s everything you need to know about how to advertise to nurses.

Why Healthcare Brands Should Advertise to Nurses

There’s often a misconception that you should only target senior-level doctors, executives, hiring managers, and others with decision-making power. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

You should target nurses, too.

Here’s why:

Nurses Influence the Buying Decisions of Doctors

Convincing the decision-makers is important, but they aren’t the only ones who have a say in the final purchase.

Nurses play a role as well.

While they may not be in the room to sign the dotted line or demo the product, they can influence the events leading up to these moments.

For example, a nurse who sees an ad for personal protective equipment (PPE) from a medical supply company could show the Nurse Manager who could send the message up the chain.

Similarly, a nurse practitioner who saw an ad from a pharma company could approach a physician and talk to them about the medication or treatment it promoted.

Adding a dose of nursing advertisements to your strategy can get your foot in the door and help your brand enter the consideration phase. In other words, you can engage decision-makers who may otherwise be difficult to reach.

Understanding Nursing Audiences

Impactful nurse advertisements rely on your understanding of the nurses you’re targeting and the data you use to do so.

Adfire Health can help with both.

Our proprietary database consists of 3,163,338 RNs (including BSNs), 699,216 LPNs, 329,555 NPs, and 120,903 PAs. With this data, you can programmatically advertise to most of the nurses in the United States.

The ability to reach nurses online will only get you so far. If you can’t deliver impactful ads, the reach is for naught.

How do you make sure you take advantage of the reach?

Ask yourself what you know about the nurses you’re targeting.

• Do they frequent certain websites?
• Are they more active online during certain times of the day?
• What do they do outside of work?
• What are their primary workplace pain points?
• What’ll resonate with them?
• How do they interact with different technologies?

The answers to these questions should guide your strategy and help you build campaigns that reach nurses when and where it matters.

Did you know? Adfire Health lives and breathes healthcare advertising. We also know a thing or two about marketing to nurses. For example, we know that nurses are most active in the morning between 6-8 am, spend considerable time online on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and frequent artsy and gaming sites/apps, like Candy Crush Saga and Trivia Crack.

These are insights you can use to strategically place ads that help you achieve your campaign goals and drive your bottom line.

Want more insights into the online behavior of nurses? Reach out today.

How to Advertise to Nurses in 2022

The why behind advertising to nurses should be clear, but the more pressing question revolves around execution:

What’s the best way to advertise to them?

Here are some best practices and tactics to consider when you’re building out your next nurse advertising campaign.

The Best Tactics & Channels to Advertise to Nurses

1:1 Targeting

The most effective digital ads have something in common: They’re personal and resonate with the target audience — 75% of people are more likely to buy from brands that deliver personalized experiences online.²

How do you apply this to your nurse ads?

Easy. 1:1 targeting, which allows you to deliver relevant and timely ads.

For example, suppose you’re promoting an ECG Monitor. In that case, you could target nurses who work at a specific hospital or live in a particular region — you could even frame the copy so that it speaks to how your ECG Monitor applies to them.

Geofencing

Imagine getting thousands of nurses in a room — ones that align perfectly with what you’re selling — and pitching them. You have their attention, they’re in the right mindset, and you can tailor your message in a meaningful way.

This is what geofencing does.

Geofencing uses GPS signals to deliver programmatic ads to nurses based on their location.

Here’s an example: You could target nurses at APNA 36th Annual Conference with ads that speak to how your product — say, a defibrillator — would benefit them.

You could also target a regional hospital system and the nurses who work within it with a campaign that introduces them to your new stethoscope.

Video Advertising

If video isn’t part of your nursing advertising strategy, it should be.

Why?

Because 72% of people prefer video over text when learning about a product or service. They’re also 27.4X more likely to click them than standard banners.^3,4

Using formats such as non-linear and native video allows you to bring your brand and message to life in a compelling way that encourages engagement, which is critical due to the number of ads nurses see per day.

Mobile & In-App Advertising

In 2021, mobile ad spend reached $288B, a 26.6% year-over-year increase that’s undoubtedly a reflection of our obsession with all things mobile.⁵

Case and point: People spend five to six hours on their phones daily, not including work-related usage.⁶

Add to that the fact that four in five HCPs use smartphones daily, and it’s easy to see why mobile ads should be a part of your strategy.⁷

Mobile formats such as high-impact mobile ads and vertical mobile video ads give you effective ways to land on these smaller screens when nurses use mobile devices in and out of the workplace.

Create Messaging That Speaks to Nurses

Utilize Storytelling

Have you ever read a book that you couldn’t put down?

If so, it was likely because the author was a good storyteller.

You can evoke something similar by applying good storytelling techniques to your ads. Whether you have a handful of ads running on one channel or a cross-channel campaign with many moving pieces, your ads must tell a cohesive story that makes sense to nursing audiences, no matter when and where they see them.

Use Psychology

People make 95% of their buying decisions in the subconscious mind, which means a psychological element to your ads can go a long way.⁸

Here’s an example:

Studies have found that people naturally comply with requests when given a reason. So, in the context of advertising, if you’re asking a nurse to do something — say, click on your ad — show them why they should do that. You could do this by tailoring the copy to show how the product or service you’re promoting can help them.

Show Nurses That You Understand Them

At the heart of everything you do should be this: Delivering ads that make it abundantly clear to the nurses that you understand them.

Full stop. The success of your campaigns hinges on this.

Show them that you know their pain points and that you’re not wasting their time by blindly throwing ads online.

Make it clear that you understand what they’re going through and how you can provide solutions.

If you can do this better than the competition, your ads will stand out, you’ll get more engagement, and performance will follow.

Wrapping Up: How to Market to Nurses in 2022

If you’re not advertising to nurses in 2022, it’s time to start. It should be a critical part of your marketing strategy.

While there’s no doubt swaying the decision-makers and people with purchasing power is mission-critical, investing every last ad dollar on them isn’t wise.

Instead, spend some of them on nurses. Whether you’re trying to increase sales or develop brand awareness, advertising to nurses is an untapped opportunity you can’t pass up.