Healthcare growth has entered a new era.
Search behavior is evolving. AI is reshaping discovery. Privacy expectations are rising. Regulations are tightening. At hospitals, health systems, and provider practices across the healthcare spectrum, leaders are asking a fundamental question:
What actually drives sustainable patient demand now?
At Onspire Health Marketing, we dove deep into our own proprietary performance data to answer that question with accuracy, not assumptions. We emerged with an eye-opening snapshot of real patient behavior. In 2025 alone, Onspire-powered digital front doors generated:
- 31.1 million online care-seeking sessions (an average of 85,205 sessions/day)
- 53.9 million pageviews
- 1.05 million direct care requests
- 2,872 patients per day initiating contact (on average)
- An estimated $900 million to $1 billion in downstream patient value for our practice clients*
To us, these are not vanity metrics. They represent verified patient actions: more than 853,000 tracked calls and nearly 200,000 digital form submissions from individuals actively seeking care.
When marketing performance is tied to actual patient acquisition, real-world drivers come into focus.
Why Scale Matters in Healthcare Marketing
Many agencies discuss trends. Far fewer agencies analyze billions of healthcare-specific impressions and millions of patient interactions across diverse markets – from rural health clinics and critical access hospitals to competitive urban health systems to high-growth medical/specialty practices (and everything in between).
In 2025, Onspire’s organic search and paid media tactics spurred considerable consumer connections:
- Organic search generated 795 million impressions and 8.65 million clicks
- Paid media contributed an additional 215 million impressions and 3.34 million clicks
Far from the retail realm of impulse purchases, healthcare decisions are trust-based commitments. Fortunately, for something so intangible, trust does leave measurable patterns we can glean for smart strategy. This large scale provides clarity. It allows us to observe how patients behave in real time – how they research, compare, hesitate, and ultimately choose.
The Digital Front Door Is Now Critical Infrastructure
In 2025, Onspire-powered digital ecosystems engaged more than 31 million care-seeking visits – individuals actively exploring providers, evaluating credibility, and deciding where to initiate care.
Impressions open the door, making them essential building blocks. Care requests, however, are what ultimately drive impact. Across our digital marketing initiatives last year, more than 1 million patients initiated contact. That level of throughput only happens when:
- Messaging aligns with search intent
- Digital experiences reduce friction
- Reputation reinforces credibility
- Privacy-first tracking preserves trust
- Media strategy connects to measurable patient action
In other words, effective digital marketing is no longer just campaign-based marketing. Now, it is critical infrastructure for your healthcare enterprise.
The Human Factor Still Drives Healthcare Decisions
Despite the rise of AI-assisted discovery and digital-first behavior, one insight stands out:
81% of care requests were made by phone.
Even in a digitally influenced decision journey, patients still seek human confirmation before committing to care. That insight reshapes strategy. It tells us that optimizing your prospective patient experience should extend to:
- Call tracking and routing efficiency
- Front-desk responsiveness
- CRM integration
- Follow-up workflows
- Reputation alignment
After all, growth happens at the intersection of digital visibility and human interaction. High-performing healthcare marketing will reflect and respect both sides – being high tech and high touch.
Beyond New Patient Acquisition: Embedded Growth Systems
Sustainable growth begins at the first interaction – but it continues far beyond. In 2025, providers leveraging Onspire-integrated CRM systems:
- Stored 1.07 million patient contacts
- Executed 1.79 million outbound emails to patients
- Sent more than 122,000 outbound text messages to patients
When acquisition systems and patient communication systems align, performance accelerates. With smart automation from the right digital marketing partner, it’s easy to embed marketing into your operational workflow – and improving relationships with patients while relieving administrative burden is a win-win for everyone.
What 31 Million Care-Seeking Sessions Reveal About Modern Patients
Analysis at this scale reveals consistent behavioral shifts:
- Patients are researching longer before initiating contact.
- Patients are increasingly influenced by AI-curated search environments.
- Patients compare providers across multiple digital touchpoints.
- Patients prioritize reviews and credibility signals.
- Patients expect speed and clarity.
- Visibility without credibility underperforms.
- Traffic without trust fails to convert.
- Performance without integration leaks value.
The healthcare organizations winning in 2026 and beyond are those aligning:
- Brand strategy
- Search visibility (SEO and AEO)
- Digital experience
- Reputation management
- Privacy-first digital marketing
- Marketing automation and workflow integration
Not as disconnected tactics, but as one coordinated system.
[RELATED READING: 2026 Marketing Trends for Medical Practices]
Healthcare Exclusive. Strategy First.
Onspire is not a generalist agency with a healthcare vertical. We are a full-service marketing, branding, and advertising firm focused exclusively on healthcare.
That focus ensures our benchmarks, strategies, and insights reflect:
- Clinical realities
- Compliance requirements
- Service-line economics
- Referral dynamics
- Multi-location complexity
When we analyze performance, we evaluate it against patient lifetime value, operational efficiency, and long-term growth sustainability.
Nearly $1 billion in modeled downstream patient value* is evidence of what happens when healthcare-specialized strategy, integrated technology, disciplined measurement, and operational alignment function together as infrastructure.
Our top strategic takeaway is this: Healthcare is evolving rapidly. AI is reshaping discovery. Consumer expectations are rising. Privacy standards are tightening.
The organizations that thrive will not be chasing volume. They will be building aligned, measurable, and trusted growth systems. That is where sustainable advantage lives, and that is where Onspire’s experts operate… for 30+ years and counting. Contact us today.
* Estimate based on tracked direct care requests (calls + forms) and assumptions of 30% lead-to-visit conversion and $3,000 average patient lifetime value: care requests × 0.30 × $3,000. Not collected revenue; results vary and are not guaranteed.