SAN DIEGO – Power Digital Marketing has acquired Atlanta-based Cardinal Digital Marketing and approximately 100 of its employees, the business announced last month (Jan. 21). Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Private equity-backed Power Digital said it will use Cardinal Digital to serve the health care vertical market. Specifically, it will provide advertising and other digital marketing services to medical providers with an eye toward growing their practices.
Cardinal says it offers “next level strategies for patient growth.” Power Digital representatives say their firm brings powerful business intelligence and measurement capabilities to the table, giving clients an edge.
Many medical practices have not yet made the move to digital marketing, said Jeff Mason, CEO of Power Digital, adding that health care marketing is where retail e-commerce was 10 or 15 years ago. “It’s still evolving,” he said.
The total addressable market is $5 billion now and is expected to reach $17 billion by 2030.
Mason said the company goal is to connect 10 million patients to the right providers by 2028.
“Cardinal is a category leader that has earned authority in a complex market,” said Britney Schroeder, senior vice president of mergers and acquisitions at Power Digital. “Power provides a structure in which their expertise leads while enterprise intelligence accelerates growth.”
Power Digital says its intelligence platform, called nova, eliminates wasteful spending on advertising. More than 400 companies use nova to manage more than $800 million in advertising spending, according to the company. The platform uses both artificial intelligence and human insight.
Seeing Potential, Navigating Privacy Issues
Health care work has advantages because it is “recession proof,” Mason said. What’s more, “demand continues to expand.”
Companies working in the health care sector face a significant amount of regulation, including the privacy provisions of the federal HIPAA law. The letters stand for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
“Marketing in health care comes with challenges that marketers in other industries never have to think about,” Cardinal says in its marketing materials. “Privacy laws don’t just shape best practices – they define the tools you can use, the platforms you can advertise on, and how you track performance. Every decision is a compliance decision.”
One advantage Power Digital has in taking on Cardinal Digital is that the acquired company already has significant experience in the medical market.
Power Digital Marketing has 900 employees in all. The company works in seven vertical markets, including fashion, lifestyle, consumer products and emerging brands.
The Cardinal team will remain in Atlanta, which will serve as headquarters for Power Digital’s health care business.
Cardinal’s success stories include ATI Physical Therapy, billed as the largest physical therapy group in the United States with more than 850 locations in 24 states.
The business reportedly had a bad experience with digital marketing. Cardinal refined the message directed toward potential patients, changed the way the business used Google Ads and targeted advertising to markets where clinics needed more patients. Cardinal states that its work increased conversion rates by 77% while decreasing cost per lead by 54%.
Tracking return on investment can be tricky while complying with the privacy standards spelled out in HIPAA. Cardinal said it transitioned ATI Physical Therapy from Google Analytics to Mixpanel, providing a secure and compliant analytics framework.
Working with AllCare — another client that offers primary and intermediate care in Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia and Georgia — involved changing website technology on the front and back ends. On the creative side, Cardinal modified AllCare’s graphic design, including color choices, typestyles and artistic elements.
Cardinal serves primary care, specialty care, dental and behavioral health providers.
Mason said the company’s services differ from referral-heavy, mailer-based advertising. The impact of such outreach can be hard to measure.
Grayson Lafrenz founded Power Digital in 2012. Mason became president of the agency in 2020. Both Lafrenz and Mason had early career experience with Mr. Copy, later known as MRC Smart Technology Solutions, a Xerox company. When learning how to sell, Mason said, “there’s no better place than Xerox.”
Mason said Power Digital is “very active” in mergers and acquisitions. The business is also hiring.
Power Digital Marketing
FOUNDED: 2012
CEO: Jeff Mason
HEADQUARTERS: San Diego (Sorrento Mesa)
BUSINESS: Digital marketing agency
EMPLOYEES: More than 900
WEBSITE: powerdigitalmarketing.com
CONTACT: powerdigitalmarketing.com/work-with-us/
NOTABLE: The business announced a strategic capital partnership with Court Square Capital Partners, a private equity firm, in 2022.
