Insights

Healthcare CTV & Television Consultant Who Buys TV Like a Performance Channel

I'm Brendon Rowe, MBA — a freelance connected TV and television advertising consultant with 14+ years in growth marketing and 7+ years leading HIPAA-compliant acquisition in health and wellness. At TouchNote I bought CTV, cable, and news networks and led the creation of a new commercial that beat the previous spot by 8% and, cut down, became our best-performing Facebook ad. I'm currently advising Weill Cornell on CTV. TV is planned by geography, tested against holdout markets, and read on branded search, calls, and admissions.

Get a Free TV Plan ReviewRun the Geo Test
ON AIR · CONNECTED TV
CH 01
Reach the household, target the ZIP.
Streaming inventory bought by geography and audience, capped by frequency, with the response read in search and calls the same week.
BUY: PROGRAMMATIC · GEO + AUDIENCEREAD: BRANDED SEARCH · CALLS
Brendon Rowe, MBA
Performance-Minded TV & CTV Consultant · Queens, NY
MBA·Connected TV·Cable·News Networks·Geo Tests & Holdouts·Branded Search Lift·Call Tracking·$4M Paid Budget·Commercial Production·8% Better Spot·TV Cut-Downs for Social·HIPAA-Aware Creative·

How I Prove TV Worked Without a Click

TV doesn't leave a click, so I don't pretend it does. One market gets the flight; a matched market doesn't. Then I read branded search, calls, and admissions in both. Drag the flight and watch how the read changes. The numbers here are illustrative; this is how I'd design the test for a treatment center.

Branded search · weekly index
Test marketHoldout
W1W2W3W4W5W6W7W8W9W10W11W12
Flight starts week 4Runs 4 weeks
Read-out
+18%
branded search lift, test vs holdout, during and two weeks after the flight

Enough to read branded search and calls with confidence. Admissions lag two to four weeks, so the CRM read comes after the flight.

01
Matched markets
Test and holdout are paired on population, baseline search volume, and payer mix before the flight, so the difference is the TV, not the market.
02
Three signals, not one
Branded search lift is the fast read; call volume and inquiry quality follow; admissions from the CRM close the loop.
03
Decide with a number
Lift, cost per incremental inquiry, and payback against LTV. If it doesn’t clear the CAC ceiling, the next flight doesn’t run.

Where I've Bought and Directed TV

Buying it and making the spot at TouchNote; advising on it at Weill Cornell now.

2018–19TV bought & produced
TouchNote
Head of Growth (Contract)
+8%
new commercial vs. the previous spot

Bought CTV, cable, and news networks within a $4M paid budget and led the creation of a new commercial. It outperformed the previous spot by 8%, and the cut-down version became the best-performing ad on Facebook. Subscriptions doubled that year across the full channel mix.

2026–CTV advised
Weill Cornell
Advisory
CTV
current advisory engagement

Currently advising an academic medical center on CTV. Early in the engagement, so no results to report yet; the work is audience definition, the creative approach, and the measurement plan that come before spend.

A 30-Second Spot for Someone Who Is Not Watching TV

The person you're reaching is a parent or spouse who has the TV on while they search on their phone. The spot's job is to make the name they type next yours. That shaped the commercial I led at TouchNote, which beat the previous spot by 8% and, cut down, became our best-performing Facebook ad. One shoot, two channels.

Tap a creative rule to see the reason behind it.

01Say the name twice, show it once more

The response to healthcare TV is a branded search on a phone. If the viewer can’t spell the name, the spot didn’t work.

02One promise, in the language a family uses
+

Not “evidence-based continuum of care.” “We answer the phone at 2 a.m.” Clinical accuracy is checked afterward; the promise comes first.

03Show the building, the people, the phone number
+

Treatment is a trust decision. Real facility footage and real staff outperform stock, and the number on screen is the one call tracking can read.

04Shoot it so it cuts down for social
+

The TouchNote commercial was planned so the strongest moments stood alone. The cut-down became our best Facebook ad, so the production budget worked twice.

05Write for sound-off, phone-in-hand
+

Supers carry the message. The viewer is half-watching, and the copy is what they’ll type next.

06Clear compliance before production
+

Sensitive-category rules, network standards, and no implied outcomes. I’ve run compliant acquisition for seven years; the spot is reviewed before a dollar is spent on production.

CTV & Television Consulting Scope

01

Should TV be in the plan?

Market-by-market assessment: search saturation, CPC trend, competitor presence, and whether branded demand has room to grow.

02

Planning and buying

CTV, cable, and news-network plans by geography and daypart, with frequency caps and budgets sized to be measurable.

03

Commercial creation

Brief, script, and production direction for a spot built to be cut down for social, reviewed for sensitive-category compliance before the shoot.

04

Geo test design

Matched test and holdout markets, flight length, and the pre-registered read-out so the result isn’t argued about afterward.

05

Measurement wiring

Call tracking numbers, branded-search monitoring, and CRM admissions joined into one report; GA4 and Tag Manager configured HIPAA-aware.

06

Flight readout and next plan

Lift, cost per incremental inquiry, and payback against LTV, written up for leadership with a recommendation to scale, adjust, or stop.

Questions I Get on the First Call

Not anymore. CTV and cable zones let a single facility buy its own metro. What makes it work for smaller budgets is planning by market and measuring with a holdout, so you know within a flight whether to keep going.
Geo tests: one market gets the flight, a matched market doesn’t. I read branded search, call volume, inquiry quality, and admissions from the CRM in both. Admissions from the CRM close the loop.
I lead it: strategy, script, supers, and compliance review, then work with your production partner. At TouchNote I led a new commercial that beat the previous one by 8% and whose cut-down became the best-performing Facebook ad.
Creative avoids implied outcomes and stigmatizing language and clears network and platform standards before production. On the measurement side, patient detail never reaches the ad platforms; branded search and call tracking report the source, not the person.
TV creates the branded demand; search and SEO capture it. When TV is working, branded CPCs fall and organic branded traffic rises, which is why I read those first. Most clients pair this with the paid search and analytics work.

If Your Search CPCs Keep Climbing, TV Is Probably the Answer.

Send me your markets, your budget, and your last flight if you've run one. I'll tell you whether TV should be in the plan and exactly how we'd know if it worked.

Get a Free TV Plan ReviewBrendonRowe16@gmail.com