How a Public Healthcare Campaign Supported 100K+ Enrollments Despite a Six-Figure Budget Reduction

At a Glance

Organization: Statewide public health insurance marketplace
Campaign: Annual open-enrollment period
My Role: Director of Performance Marketing at the organization’s agency
My Responsibilities: Media strategy, budget allocation, media planning, campaign execution, vendor management, team leadership, and performance reporting
Media Mix: Programmatic display, paid search, paid social, connected television, broadcast television, radio, print, digital out-of-home, and traditional out-of-home
Result: More than 100,000 completed enrollments, within a few hundred of the prior year, despite a six-figure reduction in the marketing budget

The Challenge

The organization needed to reach people across an entire state during a limited annual enrollment period while working with substantially less marketing funding than it had the previous year.

The campaign also needed to reach several distinct audiences with different barriers, motivations, and media habits. Rural communities and young men had particularly low adoption rates, while families, individuals, and independent contractors each required different messaging and media considerations.

Maintaining the previous year’s enrollment volume would require more than spreading a reduced budget across the same media plan. We needed to determine which placements meaningfully supported enrollment and which were consuming budget without providing enough value.

My Role

As Director of Performance Marketing, I owned the paid media strategy, budget allocation, planning, execution, vendor management, team leadership, and reporting.

I managed three internal teammates as well as every media vendor involved in the campaign. I was responsible for coordinating an unusually broad media mix, evaluating channel recommendations, allocating the reduced budget, and keeping execution aligned across digital and traditional placements.

Client communication and creative direction were led by other members of the agency team. My role was to determine how, where, and when the campaign’s messages should reach the audiences most likely to need coverage.

The Approach

Reevaluate the Existing Media Plan

The reduced budget made it necessary to challenge legacy decisions rather than automatically renewing every previous placement.

I evaluated the media mix based on each channel’s likely contribution, audience reach, geographic relevance, and ability to support the enrollment objective. Placements that offered visibility without enough strategic value were reduced or removed, even when they were supported by longstanding vendor relationships.

Prioritize Higher-Impact Channels

Budget was concentrated in channels and placements most capable of reaching priority audiences during the enrollment window.

The campaign included:

• Programmatic display and demand-side platforms

• Google paid search

• Paid social across multiple platforms

• Connected television

• Local broadcast television

• Local radio

• Print partnerships

• Digital out-of-home

• Traditional out-of-home

The breadth of the plan allowed the campaign to reach people across different stages of awareness while still reserving budget for the placements most likely to influence action.

Build Around Audience Needs

The campaign did not treat the public as a single healthcare audience.

Media planning accounted for several priority groups, including:

• Rural residents in areas with lower adoption rates

• Young men who had historically enrolled at lower rates

• Independent contractors

• Families

• Individual plan seekers

These audience pillars influenced geographic priorities, platform selection, placement decisions, and how the budget was distributed throughout open enrollment.

Manage an Integrated Statewide Campaign

With digital, broadcast, print, radio, and out-of-home partners running simultaneously, execution required consistent coordination across vendors and the internal performance team.

I managed the vendor relationships, directed three internal teammates, oversaw campaign execution, and consolidated performance reporting so that the media plan could be evaluated as one integrated strategy rather than a collection of disconnected placements.

Results

• More than 100,000 people completed enrollment in a health plan

• Enrollment finished within a few hundred of the previous year’s total

• The campaign operated with a six-figure reduction in marketing budget

• Priority outreach included rural communities and demographic groups with historically lower adoption

• The media plan spanned digital, broadcast, audio, print, and out-of-home channels

The enrollment total represented the organization’s overall result and cannot be attributed exclusively to paid media. However, maintaining nearly the same enrollment volume while working with substantially less marketing funding indicates that the revised media strategy supported a more efficient open-enrollment effort.

What This Demonstrates

This campaign demonstrates my ability to manage a large, complex media program without defaulting to “more channels” or “more spending” as the solution.

Faced with a substantial budget reduction, I made difficult allocation decisions, moved investment away from lower-value placements, protected the channels most likely to influence enrollment, and coordinated a statewide campaign across numerous vendors and audience groups.

The result was a disciplined media program that supported more than 100,000 completed enrollments while preserving the previous year’s overall enrollment volume with fewer resources.