Too Many Acronyms
If your brain has trouble memorizing even a fraction of ad tech measurement lingo, you are not alone…IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers), ATT (Apple’s privacy-safe attribution system), ML (Machine Learning), MTA (Multi-Touch Attribution), UTM (Urchin Tracking Module), PII (Personally Identifiable Information)...the list goes on.
It’s not surprising the healthcare industry and its consumers are concerned about data privacy given the rapid pace at which measurement and attribution are evolving. Simultaneously, ad campaigns must prove effective and efficient, while consumers demand personalization.
Healthcare’s inclusion of streaming audio and podcasts across both upper and lower-funnel ad campaigns has sky-rocketed; in large part due to digital audio’s HIPAA-compliant measurement capabilities.
The Pixel Present
SXM Media partners with 3rd party measurement providers to offer a cookieless measurement solution activated with a single ad tag. Probabilistic modeling leverages machine learning to estimate campaign performance without compromising privacy. It uses publicly available signals that are not user-specific (User Agent, OS/version, etc.) to connect an ad exposure to a conversion event. This means there is no unique identifier created that can be used to track users over an extended period and across websites, thus offering a privacy-safe solution for consumers and advertisers.
A third-party pixel is commonly placed on a health system’s appointment registration page where it remains for the duration of a streaming audio ad campaign. This allows the healthcare advertiser to gauge campaign effectiveness, without exposing sensitive data. At no point does it follow the user to collect or mine data (this pixel would never show up on a consumer’s MyChart portal page, for example). The pixel simply sits on a website page and asks itself - was this user exposed to my orthopedic audio ad on Pandora - the answer is yes and the conversion is confirmed.
Such probabilistic modeling is ideal for healthcare marketers because it maximizes accuracy of campaign attribution, while preventing the ability to create a unique persistent or permanent identifier that can be used to identify a user and/or device. In this model, a user’s identity exists only within the context of the campaign, and cannot be used to track users across multiple campaigns, websites, or the Internet at large.
Using machine learning methodology and probabilistic modeling, an advertiser can maximize the accuracy of campaign attribution, while minimizing the impact on the privacy of specific users or devices.
A Pixel-less Future?
With the enthusiasm for unbiased, probabilistic attribution, there is hope for a future that could in fact be pretty pixel-less. There will eventually be new tech acronyms for the healthcare industry to memorize. And given recent class action lawsuits against some HIPAA violaters, it’s important for healthcare marketers to understand the measurement technology they are leveraging and consider whether a pixel-less option makes sense.
As cookies and MAIDs retire a pixel-less alternative could arrive on the scene and healthcare marketers will be among the first to welcome it.
Campaign Pulse Check
As healthcare marketers execute campaigns today, it’s important to continue to leverage and seek out a pixel that doesn’t mine data. Independent measurement providers have their own pixels and are not designed to collect sensitive data, protected health information, or other extraneous data points. Such technology is valuable and common practice as it helps marketers better understand effectiveness of a channel and the role advertising plays to produce website actions.
Also valuable is to lean into a cookie-free targeting solution - like targeting podcast listeners based on predictive behaviors - which allows advertisers to reach desired audiences in a privacy-friendly manner through contextual signals.
Streaming audio and podcasts ads have become a go-to solution for healthcare marketers. The ability to personalize a campaign with HIPAA-compliant targeting or predictive audiences, along with the ability to attribute an appointment registration back to a campaign on Pandora, Stitcher or the SXM Podcast network, is imperative to the healthcare industry as it navigates today’s economic challenges.
Reach out to Anna Clement for more information: aclement@pandora.com