The challenge: improving patient acquisition and marketing ROI
Our client, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, needed to grow patient volume in priority service lines. But without formal KPIs or past campaign benchmarks, they were launching from scratch. Orthopedic services (especially back and neck) were underleveraged, and awareness was low. They needed a proven strategy that could validate downstream value and scale across service lines.
The Unlock solution: shifting to an intent-based marketing approach using health risk assessments
We launched a condition-specific digital campaign built around our back/neck health risk assessment (HRA). By combining paid search and social, we reached people who were already looking for answers to their healthcare needs and guided them toward care — either by completing the HRA or calling directly to talk to someone.
The results
Activating targeted campaigns across digital channels increased patient volume, engagement, and revenue:
- $120 CPA for HRAs and $275 for orthopedics with campaign outperforming established benchmarks
- 500+ HRA completions per month
- Moderate to high-risk users dominated HRA completions spanning a diverse age range
Channel highlights:
- Social media emerged as the top-performing channel for HRA lead generation by a wide margin.
- SEM was the primary driver of traffic and accounted for all service line call conversions to the website.
Backed by clear ROI and low CPA, the client renewed the campaign twice and expanded the scope to include a Heart HRA timed to seasonal awareness (Heart Month). What started as a pilot is now a reliable way to bring in new patients at various touchpoints online. Unlock’s approach, rooted in data and performance, has empowered the client to scale with confidence, spend their marketing budget wisely, and move patients meaningfully through the care journey.
Ready to improve your patient acquisition performance?
See what a combination of health risk assessments, search engine marketing, and paid social can do for your organization.