Achieving Efficient Growth in a Competitive Patient Acquisition Environment

Client Challenge

The online therapy space is an ultra-competitive marketing environment, even for established industry-leaders like Talkspace. Every dollar saved on patient acquisition is one that can be reinvested in the company’s important mental health services, so improving cost-per-patient without sacrificing growth was Talkspace’s number one goal when partnering with ADM for their growth marketing program. 

ADM’s Solution

To combat high competition costs, ADM devised a multi-faceted approach that began with driving down cost per click (CPC) and overall cost-per-acquisition (CPA) for Branded search terms. We chose our bid strategy and targets with the goal of finding the best-yielding balance between search rank and maximum CPC. This approach reduced average CPC by 43% and improved cost-per-acquisition (CPA) by 62% from peak to trough, all while maintaining search rank and conversion volume.

This new efficiency in Branded search allowed us to invest more in Non-Branded search. We focused on the highest-intent keyword categories and Talkspace’s specific competitive advantages compared to many other digital therapy providers. ADM expanded keyword coverage related to those advantages, tailored ad copy to emphasize them, and linked those efforts to relevant newly-built landing pages. These changes produced a 32% improvement in conversion rate (CVR) for those queries and a 28% increase in conversions.