There’s a problem with modern healthcare marketing. It can’t function without data, but this data leads to HIPAA violations, FTC enforcement, and class action lawsuits.
When healthcare marketers are grappling with this challenge, the initial suggestion from compliance and legal teams is, “Can you run digital advertising and marketing campaigns without data? Can’t you just shut off the flow of data?”
And yes, technically, you can “go dark” and run marketing and advertising without data. But, as one healthcare organization experienced, going dark caused their marketing metrics, like cost-per-lead (CPL), to skyrocket 8x. If CPL increases eightfold, then Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) also increases exponentially.
Those increased metrics quickly put any healthcare marketing team underwater, meaning it costs them more to acquire a customer than that customer pays back to the organization through appointments, procedures, and other services. That’s completely unsustainable. It will drive any healthcare marketer to failure.
To understand why this happens, we have to understand why data is so important in marketing.
The Role of Data in Healthcare Marketing
You may have heard of the Meta Pixel. It’s Meta’s tracking technology used by millions of websites across all industries, but it’s not the only tracking technology. Almost all marketing and advertising platforms use tracking pixels installed on websites to collect data on user actions. This data is crucial for refining future ad targeting.
For example, consider a national dental service organization that uses search ads to drive appointments. They might target people searching for specific keywords like "cosmetic dentistry" and "dental exams," setting up campaigns and landing pages designed to convert clicks into scheduled appointments.
The initial conversions captured by the tracking pixel are invaluable. For instance, if the first 50 users who scheduled appointments through Google's search ads shared common characteristics, Google uses this information to optimize future ad delivery. It targets new users resembling the initial converters, enhancing the likelihood of booking more appointments.
Similarly, a podiatry service focusing on runners might use Facebook to target potential patients in specific regions. By analyzing data from the first conversions, Facebook can fine-tune its targeting, showing ads to users most likely to schedule a consultation for custom orthotics, based on similarities with the initial group.
Tracking technologies from other popular marketing platforms all operate in roughly the same way. They’re installed on the back-end code of websites to collect data from website visitors. That data is fed back to the marketing platform to optimize performance.
Optimizing Ad Performance through Data Collection
Unfortunately, data collection by platforms like Google, Facebook, and others comes with significant privacy concerns, especially in the healthcare sector. When users visit healthcare websites, the tracking pixel can access sensitive information.
This situation becomes problematic when the sensitive information accessed includes Protected Health Information (PHI), which is frequently the case in healthcare. Platforms like Google, Microsoft, and others often collect more data than necessary for their operations, aiming to bolster their advertising business.
This is the exact situation the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) set out to solve with their December 2022 guidance about the use of online tracking technologies. In that guidance, OCR clarified that sharing any combination of HIPAA identifiers and health information from pages of a healthcare website to tracking technologies without a proper Business Associate Agreement (BAA) violates HIPAA rules.
Fortunately, OCR wasn’t trying to stop healthcare organizations from using ad platforms. OCR simply wants to prevent ad platforms from collecting sensitive information. If healthcare organizations adopt privacy-first marketing practices, they’ll be able to ensure PHI is not sent to unauthorized destinations.
Implementing Privacy-First Strategies with Customer Data Platforms
OCR has offered a clear solution for healthcare organizations that want to use digital advertising platforms without a BAA: use a healthcare-specific Customer Data Platform (CDP), like Freshpaint. These tools will sign a BAA and have functionality that allows healthcare organizations to put privacy first by governing the flow of data to ad platforms. That will ensure Protected Health Information is not inadvertently being shared with those platforms.
While navigating the complexities of data use in healthcare marketing poses significant challenges, adopting a privacy-first approach with the right tools, like Customer Data Platforms, provides a sustainable path forward. By prioritizing privacy and compliance, healthcare organizations can harness the power of digital marketing without compromising patient trust or violating regulatory standards.
To learn why Freshpaint is the only healthcare-specific Customer Data Platform you should consider to control your consumers’ PHI, visit freshpaint.io.