Brand Performance Drives Growth During Uncertain Times

Healthcare marketing saw a turbulent year with policy shifts, stricter governance, and saturation hindering profitable growth.

In an environment that was contracting, Assembly Global needed to ensure we extracted more value for every dollar invested. On behalf of a major healthcare client, Assembly approached the year with a deliberate mindset: performance survives pressure when strategy is disciplined. Instead of chasing new shiny tactics, we double-downed on what really mattered: business growth through profitable audiences.

‍Start With Real Outcomes, Not Proxy Metrics

The objective was clear from the outset; we had to drive meaningful healthcare leads. Conversions weren’t vanity clicks or passive views, but concrete actions such as form submits, click-to-calls, and submit-button interactions.

All media drove to a homepage landing page, creating a consistent destination and a clear performance signal. Rather than optimizing to surface-level engagement, campaigns were steered using landing page behavior and downstream conversion data. That decision would later prove critical as budgets tightened and every impression had to justify itself.

‍Predictive Audiences Changed Where Performance Showed Up

Historically, healthcare performance has leaned heavily on display, supported by demographic and retargeting tactics. That foundation remained intact, but we saw an opportunity to strengthen it by layering in predictive audiences built from first-party CRM data and on-site behavior.

Yahoo DSP enabled this shift by allowing predictive audiences to scale cleanly across display, online video, and CTV, but without fragmenting measurement or execution. The goal was to make proven strategies work harder in environments where attention and storytelling could do more of the heavy lifting.

‍Scale Revealed Something Unexpected

The real story emerged once performance data began to settle, with some surprising insights.

Online video quickly proved it could do more than drive awareness. With an 80% video completion rate at the most efficient CPM of the campaign, and delivered 7% more conversions than display. Video storytelling, paired with higher-intent audiences, was clearly driving real action.

We also saw that CTV followed a similar trajectory. It efficiently drove nearly as many conversions as display despite significantly fewer impressions, which challenged long-held assumptions about where lower-funnel performance comes from.

Display, meanwhile, continued to anchor efficiency. With a 2% conversion rate, it remained the most cost-effective traffic driver, even as other channels closed the conversion gap.

By mid-campaign, conversions were nearly evenly split:

• Video: 35%
• CTV: 32%
• Display: 33%

This proved our omnichannel approach perfectly balancing Brand Performance to drive profitable growth.

‍The Audience Strategy Behind the Shift

Predictive audiences were the difference-maker. CRM-based predictive audiences drove 14x more landing page visits and 11x more conversions than demographic, contextual, or site-retargeting tactics. Pixel-based predictive audiences delivered similar strength, driving 9x more visits and 6x more conversions.

By combining first-party data with predictive modeling, our team was able to scale reach without sacrificing intent, allowing video and CTV to perform in ways traditionally reserved for display.

‍What This Means for Marketers

This year reinforced a few hard truths:

• Performance doesn’t live on just one channel anymore. When audiences are right, video and CTV can successfully convert.
• Efficiency comes from clarity, not complexity. A single landing page and consistent conversion definition created cleaner optimization paths.
• Predictive audiences are foundational. Especially when budgets tighten, they determine where performance survives.

In a constrained environment, success didn’t come from chasing the newest format or over-optimizing to a single metric. It came from discipline, audience intelligence, and allowing each channel to earn its spot. That is what lives at the heart of our Brand Performance Approach.

For Assembly Global, we proved that when strategy leads, performance follows.