HELIOS

Our Approach

Reaching UK patients on NHS waiting lists meant solving two problems at once. Most of these patients did not yet know that cross-border private healthcare in Germany was an option, so awareness needed building from cold. At the same time, patients who had reached the point of actively researching alternatives needed to be captured the moment their intent surfaced in search.

Priority Pixels designed a multi-channel paid media programme with Facebook driving top-of-funnel awareness and Google Ads catching bottom-of-funnel intent. Both channels funnel into the same Helios UK landing page, with cross-platform tracking allowing performance to be attributed accurately by channel.

The engagement followed a structured four-phase delivery model. Phase one was a full tracking and analytics audit covering Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager, consent management, CRM integration and conversion tracking on both Meta and Google, conducted before any media spend was committed. Phase two was campaign strategy and build across both platforms. Phase three was early optimisation and data refinement once campaigns went live. Phase four is ongoing monthly management with continuous bid, creative and audience optimisation.

Healthcare Advertising Compliance

Promoting elective surgery and cross-border healthcare to UK patients sits within tight platform and regulatory boundaries. Google’s Healthcare and Medicines policy, Meta’s Restricted Content policy and the UK Advertising Standards Authority guidelines all govern what can be said and to whom. Personal health conditions cannot be used as targeting signals; copy cannot reference specific diagnoses; landing pages must meet healthcare-specific trust and disclosure standards.

Priority Pixels structured every element of the programme to operate within these rules without losing persuasive impact. Campaign messaging centres on the NHS waiting list problem and faster access to surgery abroad rather than referencing diagnoses. Targeting uses contextual intent through search terms plus broad demographic and interest categories rather than medical conditions. The landing page meets GDPR consent and disclosure requirements with cookie banners, privacy policy and data retention rules in place from launch.

Facebook Awareness Campaign

The Facebook Awareness UK campaign targets UK patients waiting for orthopaedic surgery on the NHS, introducing Helios as the private alternative in Germany. The campaign is optimised for link clicks and reach, with creative built around the NHS waiting list problem and Helios’s two-week scheduling promise.

The campaign has reached over 500,000 UK patients to date, generating more than 34,000 engaged link clicks at an average cost of €0.13 per click. Over half the all-time reach has been delivered in the last 30 days alone as the campaign has scaled. The creative resonates and the audience targeting is sound.

Google Ads Campaign Structure

The Google Ads programme runs three campaigns serving different stages of patient intent. Two Performance Max campaigns named NHS/Germany and Private Healthcare drive conversion across Google’s full inventory, both bidding on Maximise Conversions. A standard Search campaign called “Awareness Helios Privatkliniken” sits alongside them, optimised for clicks, capturing branded and category-level search behaviour.

Across all three campaigns the account has generated 506,195 impressions and 9,024 clicks, with 55 tracked conversions at €98 cost per conversion. For private healthcare enquiries, where each enquiry has high commercial value, this cost per conversion is highly efficient.

Cross-Channel Tracking and Reporting

Conversion measurement runs across both platforms through the Helios reporting dashboard built by Priority Pixels. The dashboard pulls daily-synced data from Google Ads, Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Microsoft Clarity into a single view. Meta Ads integration is in development.

The setup gives Helios a transparent live view of campaign performance at all times, with automated anomaly detection flagging spend or performance changes, budget pacing projections and plain-English interpretation of what the numbers mean. The same dashboard supports monthly reporting and quarterly business reviews.

Results

Scale Reached

Over half a million UK patients on NHS waiting lists have been reached through the Facebook campaign, with the campaign continuing to scale month-on-month. The most recent 30 days delivered more than half the all-time reach as the campaign has hit its stride.

Efficient Conversion Cost

Google Ads has delivered 55 tracked conversions at an average cost of €98 per conversion. For private healthcare where each enquiry represents potential surgical revenue measured in thousands of euros, this represents an exceptional return on advertising spend.

Multi-Channel Cohesion

Facebook reach and Google intent capture work together rather than competing. Awareness campaigns build the audience that later searches; the search campaigns convert that audience. The shared landing page means every channel funnels into the same conversion environment, so creative testing on either platform benefits the whole programme.

Scalable Foundation

The infrastructure built for orthopaedics is designed to scale. The landing page template can be cloned for new specialties. The tracking architecture covers all medical service lines. The campaign structures can be replicated and adapted as Helios expands the UK programme into cardiology, oncology and other elective specialties. What started as a single-hospital, single-specialty pilot is built to grow.

Transparent Reporting

Helios has live access to the Priority Pixels dashboard at any time, with cross-platform data refreshed daily. Combined with monthly client reports and quarterly business reviews, the reporting infrastructure gives Helios the confidence to scale ad spend further as performance demands.

Helios needed a UK landing page that did more than describe their services. It had to convert. Patients arriving from paid media campaigns had to be reassured that cross-border private healthcare was a credible, fast and transparent option. They had to understand the process, see the pricing and trust the clinical team before they would be willing to enquire.

Priority Pixels designed and built a conversion-first landing page hosted at uk.helios-international.com. The page leads with the NHS waiting list problem, positions Helios’s two-week scheduling promise as the alternative and walks patients through a seven-step process from initial enquiry to discharge. Multiple “Request a Consultation” CTAs appear throughout the page, anchored to the same enquiry form so patients can convert from whichever section resonates.

Trust signals are layered through the page. Six named consultants appear with their roles and specialisms. Three patient testimonials are surfaced from real Helios surgical patients. Pricing is published transparently across six procedures, ranging from €6,000 for hallux valgus correction to €12,300 for total knee replacement, with optional rehabilitation costed separately. The Ortho-Campus capability is given its own section to demonstrate the on-site rehabilitation infrastructure that supports faster recovery.

The page was built on our WordPress healthcare framework, keeping the code clean and performance-focused, with WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility built in from the start. Mobile-first responsive design was a priority. Paid social traffic arrives predominantly on mobile, so the conversion flow had to work just as well on small screens as on desktop.

The landing page is structured as a reusable template. As the Helios UK programme expands from orthopaedics into other specialties such as cardiology and oncology, the same conversion architecture can be cloned and adapted with new content, accelerating future launches without rebuilding the foundations.

• Conversion-first design with multiple anchored CTAs
• Seven-step process explainer pre-empting patient objections
• Direct NHS comparison positioning
• Transparent procedure pricing across six orthopaedic treatments
• Six named consultants with roles and specialisms
• Three patient testimonials from real Helios cases
• Mobile-first responsive build optimised for paid social traffic
• Custom WordPress development without page builders