3 Key Trends in Aged Care to Maximise Your ROI

The Challenge

More than 1.5 million Australians receive some form of aged care service, with around 240,000 people living in permanent residential aged care. Australia's population is ageing, resulting in a significant increase in demand for aged care services. In 2023, around 16% of Australians (about 4.2 million people) were aged 65 or over, and this number is projected to increase to 23% by 2066.

With rising demand for aged care, more customers than ever are researching and looking for services. The critical questions facing aged care marketers are: Who is that customer and where are they looking?

At ADMATIC, we understand that a customer's aged care decision-making process is both a complex journey and an emotional one. Aged care marketers need to truly understand who they are targeting and their media consumption behaviours. With a growing emphasis on data, multi-channel strategies, and precise targeting possibilities, navigating the media landscape has become more complex than ever.

However, it is simplicity that your customers yearn for when navigating the aged care information landscape. The challenge lies in cutting through the complexity to deliver clear, accessible information at the right moments throughout their decision-making journey.

Our Strategy

ADMATIC has developed a comprehensive three-pillar approach to help aged care providers gain a competitive edge and boost market share presence:

1. Understanding the Entire Customer Journey

The customer journey in 2024 is far more intricate than it was a few years ago. In the digital landscape, Google refers to the "messy middle",a complex and often non-linear decision-making process that consumers undergo between the initial stimulus and the final purchase. It highlights how users loop between exploration and evaluation as they navigate through content.

If you limit your marketing strategy to just Google or Meta, you overlook critical steps along the customer journey, effectively taking your marketing investments out of parts of the market when consumers are ready to make a decision. Modern consumers are active across a multitude of platforms, from social media to search engines, digital out-of-home billboards, and a variety of digital TV/streaming/video networks.

A customer searching for an aged care service might initially research options on Google, but their path to purchase extends far beyond this one platform. They could encounter recommendations in TV ads on 9Now or 10Play, engage with your company site on LinkedIn for insights, or even view ads on digital billboards at their local Westfield.

To drive high performance, marketers must first map out the entire customer journey, identifying the touchpoints that matter most at every stage,from evaluation to exploration. This allows brands to optimise engagement, reduce wasted ad spend, and ultimately boost conversions by meeting customers where they are.

2. Expanding Digital Beyond Google and Meta for Greater Reach

As of 2024, nearly half of all customer engagement happens outside of Google and Meta ecosystems. While 52% of customer activity still occurs on these platforms, 48% happens on a wide array of other platforms including digital TV/streaming/video networks, Spotify podcasts, TikTok, LinkedIn, Reddit, digital out-of-home, and many more.

Relying solely on Google or Meta limits your reach and overlooks growth opportunities. Marketers often over-invest in these platforms without considering their audience size and overall reach, leading to missed insights. While Google is essential for marketing,especially during the evaluation phase for aged care facilities,there exists greater awareness and engagement potential through a multi-platform strategy that includes emerging and niche channels.

At ADMATIC, we advocate for a bottom-up funnel strategy to determine optimal investment in conversion channels, which then frees up budgets for reaching audiences across the wider landscape. While these platforms can effectively target middle-aged demographics, other channels such as podcasts, print, or educational content play crucial roles during the exploration phase. Recognising the diminishing returns from single-channel investments and expanding beyond Google and Meta is vital for enhancing your marketing strategy.

3. Implementing Smarter Targeting Strategies

Targeting lies at the core of successful marketing, and we must investigate targeting options across various platforms that offer distinct opportunities for segmentation and personalisation. With the decline of cookies and increased targeting restrictions on platforms, a data-driven approach is essential.

The critical questions must be asked: Who is an aged care marketer actually marketing to? Who is researching aged care options? Who is the eventual decision maker?

With years of aged care marketing experience, ADMATIC knows this more often than not to be the carer,the son, usually the daughter,who might be aged anywhere from 30-50 years. This cohort of carers are typically time-poor and digitally savvy, making them prime targets for a digitally-centric aged care marketing campaign.

For instance, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, and LinkedIn all offer targeting capabilities based on user demographics, interests, and behaviours that differ from what is available on Google and Meta. TikTok allows marketers to target users by age groups, interests, and engagement behaviour, while LinkedIn's targeting focuses more on professional data that can guide investments to those ages who may be researching for their elders under their care.

First-party data has emerged as a key component of effective multichannel targeting strategies. Utilising predictive modelling and creating lookalike audiences based on first-party data can greatly enhance targeting accuracy within multichannel campaigns. New solutions based on ID identification, rather than relying on cookies, DMPs, or CDPs, will help address the complex issue of targeting segmentation.

ADMATIC recommends developing a targeting framework that supports your omni-channel strategy, broadens reach, and engages customers at various stages of their journey through intelligent inclusions, exclusions, and predictive audiences that reflect the consumer journey.

The Results

ADMATIC's data-driven approach to aged care marketing delivers measurable outcomes that maximise ROI:

• Comprehensive journey mapping ensures presence at every critical touchpoint in the aged care decision-making process
• Multi-platform engagement strategy reaches the 48% of customers active outside Google and Meta ecosystems
• Precision targeting of the key decision-makers,typically carers aged 30-50 who are time-poor and digitally savvy
• Enhanced reach and awareness through strategic expansion beyond traditional platforms to include digital TV, streaming services, podcasts, LinkedIn, and out-of-home advertising
• Optimised budget allocation using bottom-up funnel strategy to identify optimal investment in conversion channels
• Reduced wasted ad spend by meeting customers at the right touchpoints throughout their exploration and evaluation phases
• Increased enquiries and conversions through simplified messaging that addresses customer needs for clarity in a complex landscape

With proven experience in aged care marketing and a deep understanding of the complex, emotional customer journey, ADMATIC helps providers stay competitive and capture market share in Australia's rapidly growing aged care sector.