Improving Health Equity & Access For Underserved Communities Using Paid Search

Paid Search | Bidding & Automation | Healthcare Marketing | Cross-Team Collaboration | Keyword Optimization

This Paid search initiative to improve access to credible health information and empower this patient population with earlier awareness and education, helping address delayed diagnoses often driven by longstanding inequities.

Creating Safe Digital Pathways to Accessible, Equitable Care

  • Many individuals in this audience face barriers to receive a timely diagnosis due to stigma and inequities within the healthcare system.

    • This initiative helped bridge that gap by providing a personalized, conversational experience designed to meet users where they are and gently guide them toward the next stage of care.

    • Reach Users Searching for Treatment information to direct them to the website where they can have a conversational experience in the website that will guide them through their treatment journey, regardless of diagnosis stage.

    • Optimize campaign performance to meet established benchmarks, including engagement rate, completion rate, and cost per completion.

    • Reduce drop-off between search and site by improving message alignment and audience relevance across ad copy and keyword strategy.

    • Increase engagement and time on site through ongoing keyword optimizations.

What We Did:

Strategy

The Paid Search and WebDev teams refined keyword targeting to better connect with users actively seeking answers and support. By analyzing performance data weekly, they identified and prioritized keywords from users who were diagnosed, testing, or experiencing symptoms—ensuring campaigns reached those most in need with relevant, timely information.

Campaign Optimizations & Measurement

Keywords

Example framework for keyword categorization across diagnostic journey stages. Data shown is illustrative.

  • Separated higher volume keywords into a dedicated campaign to improve control over automation and budget allocation.

  • Shifted automated strategies to serve ads for long-tail, lower-volume keywords with stronger relevance.

  • Improved visibility and ranking for previously underperforming condition keywords as automation adapted to appear in more qualified auctions.

  • Paused keywords with low completion rates relative to condition status to focus spend on higher-value intent.

Key Considerations

  • Campaign optimization limitations: Privacy and cookie consent policies limited tracking capabilities, preventing full optimization toward conversions.

  • Cross-team dependencies: Collaboration with an external web partner for backend data introduced added complexity in tracking, reporting, and optimization.

  • Regulatory compliance: Advertising regulations restricted the use of detailed demographic targeting.

  • Budget efficiency: Financial constraints demanded sharper audience segmentation and more efficient bid strategies.

Key Takeaways & Future Optimzations

Performance Insights & Next Steps

  • Keywords with the highest search volume generated the most traffic but resulted in lowest conversion rates, increasing cost per completion.

  • Leveraged automation that improved visibility lower-funnel, long-tail keywords to drive stronger engagement and intent to the website.

  • Future optimizations will include creating tailored ad copy and dedicated ad groups to better resonate with friends and family audiences, offering a more personalized and empathetic experience.

  • Geotargeting could be introduced to improve efficiency under budget constraints and focus delivery in high-priority regions.