Healthcare Geofencing: The What & Why

Advertising to HCPs online can feel reactionary. It’s a lot like playing the popular arcade game, whack-a-mole. You know your objective, and you have a strategy, but there’s still some uncertainty. But what if there was a cheat code for the game that gave you the precise location of where the next mole would pop up? It’d make playing — and winning — the game a lot easier. Although we don’t know of a cheat code for the arcade game, we do have one for digital advertising: healthcare geofencing.

Healthcare Geofencing Definition

Healthcare geofencing is an advertising tactic that lets you deliver location-based ads to HCPs. Healthcare geofencing campaigns use programmatic technology that leverages GPS signals from HCPs’ devices and delivers ads based on this data. The result is healthcare ads that are timely, relevant, and cost-efficient.

Geotargeting vs. Geofencing in Healthcare: What’s the Difference?

Geofencing HCPs lets you set a virtual barrier around specific locations and target HCPs when they’re inside of them. Geotargeting is similar but takes location-based targeting to another level. Not only can you target HCPs by their physical location, but you can layer additional target parameters — such as demographics, job titles, and medical specialty — to refine your addressable audience.

Geotargeting & Geofencing in Healthcare: An Example

With geofencing, you can target all HCPs who work at a specific hospital. With geotargeting, you can target these HCPs and also pick and choose which ones you want to see your ads. For example, you may only want to reach ones with a specific job title or interest.

Did You Know? Adfire Health can match your first-party data with online identities. By matching your HCP data, you can narrow your audience and ensure you’re only spending your budget on HCPs who are on your target list.

10 HCP Geofencing Examples to Inspire Your Next Healthcare Campaign

HCP geofencing has many use cases, which can make it challenging to get started. So, to get your wheels spinning, here are ten examples that you can use to inspire your healthcare geofencing campaigns.

1. Industry Conferences | Demo Requests for a Medical Device Company

A medical device company launching a new implantable cardioverter defibrillator could use HCP geofencing to promote demo requests to attendees of a Cardiology and CME Conference.

2. Hospitals | Sales for a Medical Supply Company

A medical supply company could use HCP geofencing to advertise surgical masks to HCPs working at specific hospitals.

3. Doctor’s Offices | Subscriptions for a Telehealth Provider

A telehealth provider could use a geofencing campaign to engage patients who enter brick-and-mortar offices in an attempt to get them to subscribe to its service.

4. Brick-and-Mortar Pharmacies | Customer Acquisition for a Mail-Order Pharmacy

A mail-order pharmacy could use HCP geofencing to promote an introductory offer to people refilling their prescriptions at brick-and-mortar pharmacies.

5. Cardiac Centers | More Conference Attendees

To attract more attendees to an upcoming cardiology conference, a marketing team could activate a healthcare geofencing campaign around local cardiac centers and present them with a special discount.

6. Blood Banks | More Patients for a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Practice

A cognitive behavioral therapy practice located near a blood bank could use geofencing to promote CBT to people who may fear blood.

7. Ambulatory Services | Brand Awareness for a Medical Supply Company

A medical supply company could target ambulatory services to reach HCPs on the job who are actively using similar supplies.

8. Mental Health & Addiction Treatment Centers | App Downloads for a Meditation App

A meditation app could use healthcare geofencing to promote its app to patients and HCPs at mental health and addiction treatment centers.

9. Nursing Homes | Sales for an Insurance Company

An insurance company could draw a radius around nursing homes to promote a low-cost alternative to residents and their families.

10. Urgent Care | Foot Traffic for Urgent Care Competitors

An urgent care center could use geofencing to target patients entering a competitor’s center in the same neighborhood.

Is Geofencing HCPs Worth It?

Clearly, healthcare geofencing has potential, but is it worth the investment instead of other tactics? Absolutely. Geofencing HCPs is a powerful supplementary tactic because it can engage high-intent HCPs, deliver timely ads, and give you more opportunities for personalization — all at a better price.

• HCP Geofencing Helps You Engage a High-Intent Audience

  Unless you’re running a brand awareness campaign, you have lower-funnel goals, like script lift. To reach these goals, you need to deliver your ads to HCPs who are in the medical mindset and more likely to convert. There’s no better way to do this than by reaching them when they’re actually at locations related to their professions, like offices, conferences, and surgery centers.

• HCP Geofencing Saves You Money

  There’s no denying that healthcare ad spending is on the rise. It’s estimated that between 2011 and 2021, healthcare ad spending will increase by more than 1000%.¹ Still, there’s pressure to spend wisely, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. A report forecasted that marketing leaders will have 30% less marketing spend in 2022 than they had at the end of 2019.² In no way does this mean advertising is any less important; it just means you may have to do more with less. Healthcare geofencing campaigns help you do that by focusing your spend on a refined audience of high-intent HCPs.

• HCP Geofencing Opens the Door to Personalization & Relevancy

  HCPs can become overwhelmed with ads, which means it’s essential that you differentiate your campaigns. Personalization is a great way to do this. By implementing an HCP geofencing campaign, you’re getting in front of your target audience at times when you know what they’re doing and the type of information they’re seeking. Because of this, you can personalize your ads in a more meaningful way. According to one study, 72% of people will only engage with personalized messaging.³

Healthcare Geofencing: Your Next HCP Advertising Cheat Code

Truly successful HCP advertising relies heavily on your ability to consistently generate engagement at the lowest price possible. Programmatic technology in itself is a great way to do that, but there are additional steps you can take to level up.