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How a comprehensive audit of regional campaigns revealed inefficiencies, compliance risks, and opportunities to improve both cost efficiency and patient acquisition quality.
This multi-site private healthcare provider operated across 12 locations in the UK, with each region managing its own marketing budget and agency relationships. With £6 million in total marketing spend, there was no centralised oversight, leading to suspected inefficiencies, inconsistent messaging, and potential regulatory compliance issues in healthcare advertising.
Fuel Media conducted an 8-week holistic audit across all 12 regions, reviewing media buying practices, agency relationships, compliance standards, and campaign performance with a focus on identifying consolidation opportunities and efficiency improvements.
Our comprehensive audit revealed substantial opportunities for improvement through centralisation and strategic coordination. We discovered that 8 of the 12 regions were working with different media agencies, often from the same holding company, meaning they could have been consolidated under a single contract with significantly better terms. The analysis showed that regions were paying media agency fees ranging from 8% to 22%—the lack of standardisation was costing approximately £85,000 annually in unnecessary fees. Digital audience analysis revealed that 34% of paid social impressions were served to the same users across different regional campaigns, essentially paying multiple times to reach the same prospects. The compliance review identified 23 campaigns across various regions that made therapeutic claims requiring substantiation, and several outdoor placements near schools that potentially violated ASA guidelines for healthcare advertising. Traditional media analysis showed that print advertising in local newspapers had an average cost per enquiry of £142, compared to £38 for targeted digital campaigns focusing on specific treatments. The attribution study revealed that patients typically engaged with 7-9 touchpoints before booking a consultation, yet the current attribution model credited only the final click, significantly undervaluing awareness and consideration-phase media. Regional performance benchmarking showed that the highest-performing region achieved a patient acquisition cost of £220 by focusing 70% of budget on digital channels with treatment-specific targeting, whilst the lowest-performing region at £480 per patient was still heavily invested in traditional mass-market approaches. We recommended: consolidating to a single national agency partner with regional activation capabilities; implementing centralised media buying to leverage bulk negotiating power; establishing standardised compliance review processes; creating a shared audience suppression list to eliminate cross-regional duplication; shifting budget allocation to 65% digital with treatment-specific targeting; implementing multi-touch attribution; and establishing a centre of excellence to share best practices whilst maintaining necessary regional customisation.
"We knew our decentralised approach was creating inefficiencies, but we had no idea of the scale. Fuel Media's audit gave us a clear picture of the waste—34% audience overlap alone was costing us over £100K annually. The consolidation and optimisation recommendations have transformed our marketing effectiveness. We're now acquiring higher-quality patients at significantly lower cost, and we have confidence that all our advertising is fully compliant with healthcare regulations. The ROI on this audit was achieved in the first quarter."
Week 1-2: Regional data collection and stakeholder interviews across all 12 sites
Week 3-5: Cross-regional analysis, audience overlap assessment, and compliance review
Week 6-7: Agency consolidation planning and performance benchmarking
Week 8: Final recommendations, presentation to senior leadership, and implementation roadmap
Month 2-6: Phased implementation with ongoing support for agency transition and campaign optimisation
Multi-site organisations often have hidden inefficiencies from decentralised marketing operations
Agency consolidation can deliver significant savings through improved negotiating power and reduced duplication
Healthcare advertising requires specialist compliance knowledge to avoid regulatory issues
Audience overlap in digital campaigns can waste 30-40% of budget in multi-regional organisations
Treatment-specific targeting dramatically outperforms broad awareness campaigns in patient acquisition
Multi-touch attribution is essential in healthcare where decision-making journeys are lengthy and complex