Healthcare leaders are feeling pressure to improve the overall patient experience, eliminate communication gaps, and demonstrate the return on investment of every education or marketing dollar spent. As a result, explainer videos have become one of the highest-return-on-investment (ROI) tools used by healthcare professionals for this purpose.
Explainer videos, when used throughout the patient journey, employee process, and digital marketing channels, create a return on investment for healthcare providers by helping them implement effective video strategies and identify, measure, and establish key benchmarks.
How Explainer Videos Drive ROI in Healthcare
Explainer videos match well with the needs of healthcare organizations as they provide an alternative method for presenting information that is complex or difficult to understand. By leveraging video as a medium that creates visual representations of information and combines it with audio narration and pacing that can accommodate the different literacy levels and learning styles of patients, explainer videos have the potential to establish trust more quickly than the use of lengthy bulletins or an abbreviated meeting with an employee.
- The complexity of healthcare topics combined with their intimidating nature presents additional challenges for healthcare organizations, but explainer videos help to make these topics accessible through visual presentations of clear information in everyday language.
- Finally, when used to support both the patient’s educational and marketing efforts, explainer videos have a proven ability to keep a viewer on the page longer and to retain their focus on the content more effectively than text-only content.
- Once produced, effective explainer videos can be used across several platforms, including websites, portals, waiting room screens, email, social media, and training materials. This multiplicative effect leads to the video generating a greater impact over time than would have resulted from using the same video across all of those platforms.
Key Outcomes Explainer Videos Influence
Across all Providers, Healthcare Systems, and Healthcare Technology Providers, Explainer Videos are the most effective measurement across three major areas of customer engagement.
- Patient Outcomes and Behavior – Patients have a much better understanding of their Care Plan through the use of an Explainer Video, which has been shown to increase adherence, reduce error rates, and improve Patient Satisfaction/experience scores.
- Marketing and Growth – Video has been shown to dramatically improve online-to-bookings, online-to-demo requests, and the rate at which patients enroll in a program.
- Operational Effectiveness – The process of automating prescription explanation through explainer video eliminates approximately 50% of the time that healthcare providers spend explaining a prescription to patients. An explainer video significantly reduces repeat phone calls by patients regarding the explanation of the prescription and training time for support staff, so that healthcare providers can spend their time on activities that generate the greatest value for the provider.
The Quantifiable Value of Video in the Healthcare Industry
Marketing and Education professionals frequently ask: Does video really pay off, or is it just a “nice to have?” The short answer is absolutely, and the evidence to back this up can be found in industry data.
- Multiple surveys of marketers across different industries across North America demonstrate that approximately 93% of marketers feel that the ROI of video is good, and that video marketers experience a higher revenue growth than their peers who do not use video.
- In healthcare and health technology, short-form video content has been established as one of the most sustainable/highest-ROI methods for acquiring new patients/customers because the value of the video is based not only on the CTR, but also on the clinical, operational and financial (lower readmissions, lower cost of acquisition, and more efficiency in workflow) outcomes associated with video marketing in healthcare.
- Healthcare organizations have been analyzing their return on investment with respect to video content as “marketing” only, which has led them to believe that this is how video impacts their ability to improve patient care or increase patient engagement with their providers. A more expanded view of video content includes three different types of ROI that work together.
Clinical, Operational, and Financial ROI Dimensions
Treating ROI as purely “marketing” underestimates video’s impact in healthcare. A more complete view considers three parallel dimensions
- Clinical ROI = Improved health literacy; Increased patient adherence to treatment plans; Improved preparedness (both physically & mentally) before procedural treatment; Reduced patient anxiety; All lead to improved outcomes & fewer readmissions.
- Operational ROI = Reduction in consultation length; Fewer repeated instructions provided by caregivers; Reduction in phone calls to caregivers for clarification of instructions; Accelerated onboarding of new staff through standard training via video.
- Financial ROI = Increased conversion rates from digital marketing campaigns; Reduced costs per acquisition of new patients; Increased patient retention/lifetime patient value; Cost savings (increased efficiency) to offset production costs.
Improving Communication with Patients through Explainer Videos
Safe/effective care begins with clear communication, and effective communication has been one of the most difficult issues facing the healthcare industry for many years. With explainer videos, complex or technical information (which are typically challenging to communicate, especially for non-medical professionals) becomes a visual representations that allow patients to replay at any time.
- Videos come in handy when explaining to a patient and/or family caregiver how to prepare for a scan, take a medication or what will happen during surgery, and present this information in a calm and organized manner.
- Visuals, with narration for individuals with low health literacy and/or language barriers, provide an alternative source of information that allows them to understand the same concepts quickly and with less confusion; therefore, continuing to advance Health Equity.
- Patients have the opportunity to review and share explainer videos with their family caregivers and utilize similar videos when required, which ultimately results in better retention and confidence related to their treatment plan.
The Effect of Explainer Videos on Health Literacy and Patient Outcomes
Video has been shown to have significant advantages over text when it comes to retaining information and changing behavior.
- Research studies as well as industry evidence demonstrate that individuals can recall more from a message conveyed through a video media format than from just reading the same message via text; this is particularly important for self-management of their health at home.
- Once patients understand their care plan in detail, they will be more willing to adhere to their treatment, ultimately resulting in better health outcomes, fewer complications, and potentially a decrease in hospital readmissions.
- Increased comprehension regarding the care plan equals reduced anxiety and higher satisfaction; these factors can result in positive reviews online and greater patient loyalty.
Additional Read:
Why & How to Calculate ROI of Corporate Video Production?
How Explainer Videos Build Trust, Engagement, and Conversions
Explainer videos are not just informative; they serve as effective tools for building trust and motivating individuals to take action. By humanizing complex services and describing real-life examples of service delivery, explainer videos help decrease the perception of risk and increase the ease of transaction for consumers.
- Storytelling with a combination of education is very effective at helping engage audiences and showcase innovation in healthcare video campaigns.
- Increases in average time spent on the page (i.e., average number of page views), increased engagement with the website lead to higher rates of (…) complete appointment booking, completed lead generation/form fill requests, completed demo requests, etc.
- In dermatology, telemedicine, and specialty care, patients use animated explainers to engage with their brand, making it seem more friendly and relatable.
Conversion and Revenue
Video-based marketing has shown the ability to generate highly measurable results for conversions.
- According to marketing data, compared to marketers who use only static content, marketers using videoised content are producing higher rates of conversion and faster growth in revenue.
- ROI Frameworks related to healthcare state that over 60% of individuals who view healthcare videos proceed to book an appointment or otherwise continue the use of the provider, making marketing dollars spent on media very effective.
- Healthcare organizations have been able to leverage both organic traffic and improvement in conversion by way of the increased education offered via video to reduce reliance on higher-cost paid media to acquire patients.
A Trust Benefit to Your Brand and Reputation
The most important asset healthcare organizations have is trust. When a potential customer sees a video of a doctor, a nurse educator, or an owner, they are more likely to trust them than if they read written text.
- By seeing these professionals on video, the organization appears more human and approachable, which is essential for certain types of business decisions, such as surgery and chronic care management.
- A company can show its expertise and reliability to customers over time by consistently utilizing a well-produced explainer video in all forms of communication.
- Clients who have positive experiences watching explainer videos will also leave better ratings and provide better reports about their interaction with the organization, which creates an increased return on investment.
Operational Efficiencies: Decreasing the Number of Patient Calls and Emails for Support
Apart from the marketing aspect, explainer videos also provide operational changes that make health care providers more efficient at delivering services.
- As long as patients have watched a video that clearly explains what to expect before their office visit or how to follow up with their provider after the visit, providers can spend less time repeating the same instructions to every patient and more time addressing specific patient concerns.
- The standardized messaging that occurs through explainer videos also decreases the variability in how the information is communicated by clinicians, thereby improving the consistency of this communication and decreasing the likelihood of a patient misunderstanding something.
- Due to the number of questions posed by patients related to logistics, preparation, and follow-through as a result of watching a video, health care organizations that place these types of videos on appointment booking pages (or other digital portals) significantly decrease the number of inbound telephone calls and emails that they receive related to those topics.
Video for Internal Audience:
Explainer Videos can be used in the Medical Sector to onboard new procedures, devices, and/or software platforms by offering a 24/7, consistent training method.
- Demonstrating visually with an Explainer Video how to comply with workflows, operate equipment, and practice safety is more helpful than a large volume of reference material.
- The amount of time spent on Live Training is decreased; Family Errors are reduced; and the facility will adopt new technology at a quicker rate, resulting in a Better return on Investment.
- To validate and verify your claims of Return on Investment, you will need to establish a logical connection between your Explainer Video and the Metrics for which the JS Foundation and Senior Leadership are already interested.
The most common place to begin is with the basic Return on Investment formula:
Return on Investment = Total Benefit – Total Cost / Total Cost
Return on Investment = Total Cost / Total Benefit – Total Cost
In the case of Healthcare, your definition of Benefit should include Marketing, Operational,a nd Clinical Dimensions.
Key Metrics to Track
Well‑designed measurement plans usually blend quantitative and qualitative indicators.
- Marketing and growth: Video view‑through rate, click‑through from video to call‑to‑action, conversion rate (appointments, registrations, demo requests), cost per lead, and patient acquisition cost.
- Patient experience and outcomes: Pre‑ and post‑video knowledge scores, adherence indicators, patient satisfaction (e.g., survey scores), and readmission or no‑show rates.
- Operational efficiency: Average consultation length, number of repetitive clarification calls, staff training hours, and time‑to‑competency for new workflows or systems.
Cost Components to Include
To avoid underestimating investment, factor in both production and deployment.
- Production: Strategy, scripting, medical review, storyboarding, animation or live‑action production, voiceover, and revisions.
- Localization and accessibility: Subtitles, translations, alternate language voiceovers, and accessibility adaptations (e.g., captions, descriptive audio).
- Distribution and optimization: Implementation on websites and portals, integration into email or automation journeys, paid promotion if used, and ongoing A/B testing.
Example ROI Scenarios (Marketing vs Clinical vs Operational)
The table below illustrates how ROI can manifest across different use cases.
Sample ROI Dimensions for Healthcare Explainer Videos
Explainer Video Lifecycle Uses: Patient Journey
The reason for having such a high return on investment (ROI) for healthcare explainer videos is due to their multiple uses throughout the total patient journey, or “lifetime”.
- Awareness: Using educational videos about diseases, prevention, and health behaviours would draw people to your website and establish credibility as a health authority.
- Considerations: Service explanation videos about your procedure, specialty clinics, or digital tools will help potential patients understand what they are considering and reduce their uncertainty before choosing.
- Decisions and onboarding: Including videos in your patients’ booking workflow, welcome emails, or in their patient portal will assist your patients with the next steps and prepare them for their procedure. This will reduce patients from being no-shows, as well as clarify any questions that may arise.
The most efficient methods to maximize return on investment through explainer videos in healthcare:
Just because an organization creates a video does not mean it will achieve its maximum potential return on investment; maximizing the return on investment associated with these types of videos requires careful planning and execution that takes into consideration the uniqueness of healthcare.
- Identify your desired outcomes before developing your video (e.g., reduce missed appointments, increase portal usage, improve appointment volume for a specific service line) and use these desired outcomes to guide the production of your video.
- Incorporate input from physicians and compliance officers when determining messaging content to ensure that the videos provide a medically correct, ethically sound, and regulatory-compliant message.
- Keep your videos short, as most explainer videos do their best in durations that are between 60 and 180 seconds long. For in-depth training videos, you can exceed 180 seconds in duration.
Effective Explainer Video Messaging, Storytelling & Design Principles:
The most effective healthcare explainer videos are those that evoke empathy, provide clear-sighted thinking, and structure the information for effective dissemination.
- Utilize a strong patient-centric story to develop an initial connection with the fears of patients and address their questions, and assist them in understanding and gaining control of their health.
- Minimize the use of medical terminology by providing visual representations (e.g., diagrams, illustrations) as well as simple definitions when using the terminology.
- Develop the design of your videos with consideration to accessibility for the largest audience possible, and ensure that you use clear audio and text on the screen as well as provide closed captions and design with color contrast for maximum impact.
Where to Use Healthcare Explainer Videos: Distribution Strategy
Videos will be underutilized if not used properly. ROI can either be gained or lost at the point of distribution. Therefore, a poorly utilized video will not be able to recover the amount that was spent on it.
- Websites – Place explainer videos on high-intent web pages such as service lines, patient education hubs, or on key landing pages.
- Patient Portals & Apps – Insert videos into the workflows that are most critical to a user (registration, test results, treatment plans). Users will be able to see and use videos directly before they influence their behaviour.
- Waiting Rooms & On-site Screens – Utilise a looping video to educate users and prepare them for future one-on-one consultations during their idle time.
Cross Channels Will Help Maximise Reach
- The primary goal of cross-channel promotion is to fully recover production costs. Videos should be used on social media platforms and linked back to the original content to encourage full engagement.
- The following are additional ways that videos can be used in an e-mail marketing programme: as part of email drip marketing and as part of a marketing automation sequence for new patients, program enrollees, or trial users.
- Healthcare technology, device, and B2B offerings also cover the following areas: presentation/education (sales deck); webinars; and trade shows/conferences.
Compliance, Privacy, and Ethics
There are various ways healthcare organizations can engage their audiences without violating any established laws regarding patient privacy and other privacy.
- Identifiable patient information should not be included unless the patient has given consent and there are appropriate legal protections around it. It is best practice to use de-identified or illustrative scenarios.
- All claims, risk disclosures, and references to outcomes need regulatory review in order for organizations to comply with local laws and regulations.
- When hosting or embedding video content, organizations should use compliant, secure platforms, especially when dealing with patient information or sensitive topics.
Access, Inclusion, and Health Equity
By designing their videos thoughtfully, organizations can expand their reach and increase their ROI by creating an experience for all users.
- Organizations should provide written captions, written transcripts, and, if possible, provide the same content in different languages so that a larger audience can benefit from the same information.
- When designing their visuals, healthcare organizations should represent a variety of patients so that different patient populations feel more comfortable and build more trust in their organization.
- Organizations should consider the literacy levels of their audiences when writing their scripts, ensuring the script is written in simple, understandable language while maintaining medical accuracy.
Obstacles In Experiencing the Full Value of Your Health Care Explainer Video
The failure of a health care explainer video to produce effective results is a problem not of the quality of the video itself, but of the lack of strategic vision or focus.
- Ambiguity in Purpose: When a video is made simply out of the need to have one, without being clear on its purpose (call-to-action) and the methods of measuring success, it will produce little impact.
- Inaccessibility: Videos that are embedded deep within a portal or not included within an organization’s main journey will not be effective due to low levels of exposure.
Low Levels of Testing: Not testing (i.e., creating a thumbnail, title, or placing links to a video on your website) represents a huge opportunity to increase the effectiveness of your explainer video.
Ways to Mitigate These Problems
To increase your healthcare explainer videos’ ROI significantly, follow these three important steps:
- Clearly define what you are trying to achieve, and identify your resources available to achieve this. Determine what Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and baseline types of measures you will use to evaluate the video (i.e., number of views, downloads, etc.).
- Consider that your video is a living document and requires periodic updates, as changes occur in your office regarding protocols, branding, services, etc., as opposed to recreating a new video each time a change occurs.
- Create an integration plan, mapping each video to specific channels, audiences, and touch points, and periodically check the performance of each video against the baseline.
When Will I See a Return on Investment (ROI) from My Healthcare Explainer Video?
Because the healthcare decision-making process takes longer than in most consumer markets, many people believe that healthcare explainer video ROI will very likely take longer to be seen.
- While this may be true for many organizations, several studies have shown that, in fact, when using explainer videos for marketing, organizations will be able to see an immediate impact on employee engagement and conversion rates through web traffic, bookings, and inquiries made by potential patients who have seen the organization’s explainer video.
- The impact of operational efficiencies, such as reduced time for patient consultations and reduced time for requests for clarification, may take months to be realized as employees begin to implement the new processes associated with the organization’s healthcare explainer video.
- The improvements in clinical outcomes require longer periods of observation and careful planning and design of the experiments; however, if done correctly in value-based care environments, these improvements can yield extremely high potential value.
Developing a Long-Term Return on Investment (ROI) Model
- Health Systems that view healthcare explainer Videos as a “long-term resource” rather than a “one-time project” tend to see the most value from their explainer video programs.
- Develop Planners/Strategists to Create Roadmaps Prioritized by Organizational Strategic Plan/Goals: Chronic Care Programs, High-Value Procedures, Digital Front Door Initiatives, Corporate Changes, etc.
- Utilize Modular, Reusable Visual Elements for Efficient, Cost-Effective Future Production of Healthcare Explainer Videos.
Use Quantitative Data and Qualitative Feedback from Patients and Staff to Continuously Improve the Content and Distribution Mechanism of the Videos.
Final Thoughts
Video is one of the most powerful means for healthcare organizations to improve patient advocacy, increase confidence, reduce workload, and speed up the patient journey. Viewing video as a measurable resource – not just a one-time asset – has enabled healthcare organisations to achieve multiple advantages in delivering clinical, operational, and financial results over time.
KrishaStudio offers support in planning, scripting, and shooting effective explainer videos for healthcare providers, health-tech brands, and medical marketers alike. Our professional team has accumulated vast experience in producing videos that simplify complex medical concepts, are congruous to your brand image, and optimise audience exposure through your websites, digital marketing portals, and digital advertising campaigns for maximum return on investment (ROI). Our partnership provides you with a scalable system for creating video content that supports education, increases conversion,s and builds lasting trust between patients and providers.
