Last week, I asked a question that seemingly had nothing to do with healthcare marketing (but it had everything to do with HMPS): Are acai bowls healthy or do they just taste good?
Well, you voted. The results are in. And it's exactly what I expected: 63% of you said, "they just taste good." Kudos to the folks who voted correctly.
For the 37% who said they're actually healthy, I respect the optimism. BUT, let's talk about it because diet, nutrition, and exercise are topics I love to nerd out about.
So...a base of acai? That's fine. It's low sugar, has some fiber, and the antioxidants are real. I'll give it that.
But here's the thing: acai tastes terrible on its own. So everyone adds granola, banana, honey, peanut butter, and whole bunch of other junk to make it taste good. By the time you're done, you're looking at 600-700+ calories, a massive sugar load, and almost no protein to show for it.
We could go down the rabbit hole of added sugars. But I won't. I'll just leave you with this: an acai bowl is ice cream with better branding.
ANYWAY, we're here to talk about healthcare marketing. Here's what I've got for you this week:
Fresh Data: The Awareness Gap
Product Update: Attribution Toggles
Fresh Take: Crisis as a Catalyst
Events: both virtual and in-person
Fresh Content: One Lawsuit, a Lot of Lessons
Jobs, jobs, jobs!
Last week's most clicked link
Let's get into it...
Fresh Data: The Awareness Gap
Here's a number that should make you uncomfortable: 79% of healthcare marketers aren't investing in awareness channels at all.
No DSP. No CTV. Just waiting for patients to show up at the bottom of the funnel and hoping Google has their back.
The other 21%? They're capturing 37% of first touches through those channels. Meaning they're reaching people earlier, before the competition even enters the picture.
This is from our State of Healthcare Marketing in 2026 Report, and it's one of the starkest gaps in the whole dataset. Most teams are fishing where the fish already are. A small group is building the lake.
Most attribution views flatten the story. This week’s product update helps you see how your channels actually work together to drive patient conversions.
Why it matters: Healthcare journeys are rarely linear. A patient might click a paid search ad, come back through organic, and convert after a retargeting touch. But most reporting forces you into a single-channel view, leading to over-crediting some channels and undervaluing others. That’s how budget gets misallocated.
This week's Product Update changes that. With the new attribution toggle, you can:
Compare performance across All Journey, Multi-Channel, and Single-Channel filter views to see which channels initiate, assist, and close conversions
Avoid double-counting conversions across platforms and get closer to a true source of performance
Defend and reallocate budget with confidence based on how channels actually influence outcomes
Less guesswork. More confidence in where to spend your next dollar.
If you’ve ever had to justify why a channel deserves budget or push back on “last-click” thinking, this gives you a clearer answer.
Reach out to your Account Manager to learn more, or contact sales for a walkthrough.
Fresh Take: Crisis as Catalyst
Hot take: The HHS guidance was the best thing that ever happened to healthcare marketing measurement. Not because it solved anything but because it forced teams to confront a problem they'd been ignoring for years.
Lauren Anderson, Senior Digital Strategist at Baptist Health, lived it firsthand. She came back from maternity leave in January 2023 to one directive: take down all tracking and analytics. When leadership started asking about performance, she didn't shrug. She drew them a diagram, and turned a compliance crisis into a measurement transformation.
Her conversation with Freshpaint CEO and Marketing Rounds host Ray Mina is a step-by-step account of how that happened. Hit play below to tune in.
Webinar: Safely Optimize Ads Using Epic Data
Most healthcare teams using Epic and MyChart are still optimizing Google Ads on proxy metrics like form fills and booked appointments. But revenue is driven by attended appointments.
In this live webinar, we’ll walk through a practical blueprint for connecting ad clicks to attended appointments in Epic MyChart so Google can optimize on true bottom-of-funnel outcomes. You’ll hear how a real organization navigated Epic, IT, and internal alignment, and leave with a clear plan to assess whether this is achievable in your environment.
Join us and our friends at Amsive Health and Invoca for a private reception during the HMPS26 Summit! Enjoy natural wines, seasonal cocktails, and Mediterranean tapas. Plus, connect with fellow healthcare marketers outside of the conference halls.
Amsive Health Reception
📅 Monday, May 4
⏰ 7:00PM MT
📍 Melancholy Wine & Cocktail Lounge (556 Gale St, Salt Lake City, UT 84101)
Escape the HMPS26 Summit hustle and join us for Freshpaint LIVE in Salt Lake City. We're gathering a small group of healthcare leaders for a relaxed dinner with great food, honest conversations, and the opportunity to connect with peers. Leave with a few fresh ideas worth bringing back and a few new friends!
Freshpaint LIVE Salt Lake City
📅 Tuesday, May 5
⏰ 6:00PM MT
📍 Laurel Brasserie & Bar (inside The Grand America Hotel)
Last month, Novartis got sued over allegations that patient data from its breast cancer drug websites was shared with third-party tracking tools.
If your first reaction is "that's a pharma problem, not mine," it might be worth a second look.
The Novartis case is less about one bad pixel and more about how most healthcare marketing infrastructure was built: tools layered on top of tools, each solving for a specific campaign need, with nobody owning a clear view of where data actually goes. Sound familiar?
This ties directly into a stat from our 2026 DTC and DTP Pharma Benchmark Survey: 62% of privacy leaders say they lack full visibility into how data flows through their analytics and advertising tools. And 83% of marketers can't connect website activity to prescription fills.
The teams making progress aren't adding more compliance checkboxes. They're fixing the underlying infrastructure so privacy and performance aren't in conflict to begin with.
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