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CMI Media Group delivers sweet results for oral health brand

  Article , Health and wellness , Success stories

Search provider teams up with Microsoft Advertising to drive innovation

CMI Media Group logo

A pioneer amongst health and wellness marketing agencies

Based in the United States, CMI Media Group brings together the industry’s best technology, data, and people to deliver exceptional results for the world’s top healthcare, pharmaceutical, and life sciences companies. This full-service media agency activates highly efficient outreach strategies, connecting brands with the right audiences using the right messaging on the right channels at the right times.

To keep their clients ahead of the curve, CMI Media Group prioritises innovation and invests in key partnerships and platform solutions. As a top provider of paid search in the health and wellness space, the SEM and Emerging Media team at CMI Media Group combines a highly developed, proprietary approach with an agency-wide passion for pioneering leading-edge solutions that drive outcomes for their clients.

We saw cost-efficient audience impressions that drove site traffic. …The pilot yielded high-quality performance based on cost efficiencies and site engagement data.

— Cliff Covey, Vice President of SEM & Emerging Media, CMI Media Group

Drilling into a new audience

CMI Media Group’s client, a global healthcare company, researches, develops, and manufactures pharmaceuticals and consumer healthcare products. Their client wanted to expand sales of its over-the-counter oral healthcare brand and reach more consumers in a cost-efficient manner.

To accomplish this goal, the CMI Media Group team needed to formulate an approach that their client’s competitors hadn’t yet tapped. So, the account team proposed targeting dental providers, a novel move for a conservative industry traditionally focused on direct-to-consumer marketing. Using this new approach, CMI Media Group hoped to convince dental providers to recommend the oral healthcare brand to their patients.

But targeting this niche audience across channels can be challenging. There was no existing solution for ensuring that ads would be seen primarily by healthcare professionals (HCPs). While CMI Media Group had done plenty of audience targeting previously through Remarketing, In-market Audiences, and Custom Audiences, they had been focused on search and keywords.

They needed to innovate a new HCP audience targeting solution. And they knew exactly who they could partner with to build it.

Making impressions with health care providers

CMI Media Group approached Microsoft Advertising about piloting HCP targeting in the Microsoft Audience Network — a capability that had not yet been added to the platform. Powered by Microsoft AI, the Microsoft Audience Network enables advanced audience targeting and native ad placements on reputable, brand-safe sites. It allows brands to connect with specific audiences as they move across channels, and informs a rich audience understanding through Remarketing, In-market Audiences, Custom Audiences, and LinkedIn Profile Targeting.

To enable targeting for the pilot, CMI Media Group provided use cases to Microsoft Advertising based on audiences they had used in search engine marketing. Microsoft Advertising enabled HCP targeting, and CMI Media Group ran native ad placements across the Microsoft Audience Network, including Microsoft Edge, MSN, Outlook.com, and select publishing partners.

Delivering results to smile about

CMI Media Group and their client couldn’t be more pleased with the results. Since launch, the Microsoft Audience Network pilot garnered more than 20 million impressions, 127,811 clicks, and 2,401 conversions, yielding an impressive $13.25 CPA, which is 24% lower than their CPA benchmark. Cost efficiency was another big win with the Audience Campaign bringing in an 80% lower CPC than other platforms. “We saw cost-efficient audience impressions that drove site traffic,” says Cliff Covey, Vice President of SEM & Emerging Media at CMI Media Group. “The pilot yielded high-quality performance based on cost efficiencies and site engagement data.”

In fact, the Audiences Campaign drove a 140% increase to remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA). By extending reach via the Microsoft Audience Network, the media team has been able to increase their search reach by layering on new remarketing lists, and has capitalised on the new audience pool the Microsoft Audience Network drove for their search efforts by increasing awareness on core terms. The audiences built across Audience and Search all sit within the same Microsoft audience ecosystem which allows for cross-channel exposure. Additionally, from the success achieved from the remarketing pool, additional audience pools have been activated: In-market Audiences and Custom Audiences utilised by CMI Media Group show the value of the HCP audience and connect with HCPs throughout the marketing funnel.

graphic showing CMI Media Group's offerings

Custom Audiences is one of the most innovative efforts CMI Media Group has executed to date, as they’re leveraging clients’ first-party data and matching it to doctors and nurses that are self-identified on Microsoft. These audience pools are crucial for both search and the Microsoft Audience Network, as they’re first party and helping to set up clients for future success with cookie deprecation.

Andrew Miller, Senior Vice President of Search and Emerging Media at CMI Media Group, notes that, “It can be notoriously difficult to accurately target HCPs within the traditional Search space. By using In-market Audiences, we had a new, targeted way to ensure we were reaching the HCP audience with our campaigns.”

Collaborating closely with partners like Microsoft allows CMI Media Group to bring new opportunities to clients and elevate their brand in relevant and compliant ways. Innovative approaches like this pilot power first-to-market and early-adoption strategies, further separating CMI Media Group clients from their competitors.

“The pilot showcases the value of our partnership with Microsoft Advertising and our joint commitment to innovation. We identified an opportunity for a product that wasn't available and provided use cases. Microsoft Advertising enabled the new functionality, and together we executed a successful pilot,” says Cliff. He adds that, “This was true innovation resulting from strong partnership.”

Based on the success of the US campaign launch, global marketing partners in the UK and elsewhere are leveraging their work and have launched similar campaigns to drive results for their client. “We're constantly working together,” says Andrew. “Microsoft Advertising is always working to identify new products and features to reach new audiences, and we are doing the same.” Cliff agrees. “At CMI Media Group we aim to be innovative for our clients. It’s critical to find valuable partners like Microsoft Advertising who find a way for us to do more for our clients.”

The pilot showcases the value of our partnership with Microsoft Advertising and our joint commitment to innovation. …Microsoft Advertising enabled the new functionality, and together we executed a successful pilot.

— Cliff Covey, Vice President of SEM & Emerging Media, CMI Media Group

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