Are you missing out on private healthcare enquiries?

For healthcare marketers that rely on first- or last-click attribution, healthcare enquiries could be slipping through the cracks.

First- and last-click attribution may be a straightforward way to measure marketing performance, but it’s a metric that can hide the real touchpoints that influence prospective patients to book an appointment with a private clinic or hospital.

It could be a PPC ad that shows up in their search engine results page, or a brochure they downloaded from your website while researching a procedure – it’s all vital information about the patient journey that marketers can’t capture.

And this challenge is far from unique to private healthcare; a recent Mediahawk survey uncovered that 79% of marketers struggle to achieve 100% attribution with their current methods.

So, what kind of attribution approach should marketers explore to ensure they’re maximising healthcare enquiries? Let’s explore the challenge in more depth – and discuss the role of call tracking in total marketing attribution.

Missing attribution data means less effective decision-making

With tight budgets, growing pressure from the NHS’s overflow, and a lot of competition for self-funding patients, comprehensive attribution is a vital component of an effective marketing strategy.

But many marketers lack insights into the role different activities play in helping patients navigate the complex – and often confusing – world of private healthcare. The channels that bring in initial clicks, or finally turn intent into an appointment, aren’t always the ones that shape people’s decision-making.

A call that looks like it originated from an organic source, for example, may have really been triggered by a paid campaign – but most analytics platforms can’t make that connection.

Without visibility into how your marketing activities perform, there’s no way to know if you’re leading with the right messages or using the right channels.

And that makes it more difficult to plan campaigns, justify spend, and adjust your strategy on the fly as clinic priorities and patient needs change.

“If you’re not collecting all the data you need to make informed decisions – about which channels are bringing in qualified patients, and which touchpoints encourage them to enquire – you’re putting your investment and efficiency at risk,” explains Faye Thomassen, Head of Marketing for Mediahawk.

“If you’re not collecting all the data you need to make informed decisions – about which channels are bringing in qualified patients, and which touchpoints encourage them to enquire – you’re putting your investment and efficiency at risk.”
– Faye Thomassen, Head of Marketing, Mediahawk

The middle phase of the patient journey is where trust builds and insights are hidden

For so many people, the hunt for information about their health concerns, procedures, and potential care providers can easily turn into a research rabbit hole. They need to have confidence that they’re making the right decision about when and where to become a patient.

This makes healthcare marketing a high-touch process, incorporating online and offline channels – with a lot of opportunities for potential patients to find their way onto another clinic’s radar if you miss the moment to convert.

“Momentum builds for your clinic between the first and last clicks,” says Faye. “Those touches in the middle of the journey, where prospective patients read about your facilities and your services, are where you establish trust. That’s the phase where your marketing needs to work the hardest, and it contains the insights you need – but so few tools can analyse it in depth.”

“Momentum builds for your clinic between the first and last clicks. Those touches in the middle of the journey, where prospective patients read about your facilities and your services, are where you establish trust. That’s the phase where your marketing needs to work the hardest, and it contains the insights you need – but so few tools can analyse it in depth.”
– Faye Thomassen, Head of Marketing, Mediahawk

This is why a growing number of private clinics and hospitals are using call tracking to connect effort to outcomes and demonstrate the effectiveness of their marketing. Call tracking platforms – especially those that offer additional capabilities like conversational analytics – are designed to enable 100% attribution.

By attaching unique phone numbers to channels, campaigns, or even individual activities, private healthcare marketers can trace the patient journey from marketing activity to appointment. “With the ability to connect both online and offline sources, call tracking unlocks that ‘messy middle’ that so many marketers struggle to access,” adds Faye.

Call tracking connects the journey between the clicks – so you can optimise your strategy

More than three-quarters of marketers surveyed by Mediahawk are now using call tracking software to measure their marketing effectiveness down to the keyword. If you follow suit, you’ll be able to:

• Create more complete reports on how each channel, campaign, activity, and keyword is performing – giving you a full overview of your strategy and making it easier to demonstrate impact
• See which channels, directories, PPC strategies, and other approaches are delivering the best return on investment, uncovering hidden high-performers and diverting spend from any activities that aren’t paying off
• Make more informed decisions about which campaigns to run, how to refine your messaging, and the kind of patients to target with each activity
• Understand the patient research journey in more depth, helping you identify whether your website, assets, and support options are giving them the information and encouragement they need
• Optimise every patient touchpoint to capture their attention and make sure your clinic is the first port of call when they’re ready to reach out and book an appointment

Summary

Relying solely on first- or last-click attribution leaves too many gaps in understanding the true patient journey. To maximise healthcare enquiries and make smarter marketing decisions, private clinics and hospitals need a more complete view – one that captures every key touchpoint, especially the critical moments where trust is built.

Call tracking is the tool that connects the journey, giving marketers the insights they need to optimise campaigns, prove ROI, and ensure their clinic is the first choice when patients are ready to act.