PulsePoint’s Trader Hall of Fame: Kevin Williams

We are proud to partner with hardworking clients who are pushing the boundaries of programmatic and putting the right medications and services in front of HCPs and patients at the right time. PulsePoint established the Trader Hall of Fame to highlight their efforts and give others a closer look at the individuals shaping this quickly evolving industry. This month, we welcome Kevin Williams, director of paid media at Audacity Health, to the Trader Hall of Fame.

Kevin’s journey to programmatic healthcare marketing

Kevin’s path to programmatic started when he studied creative advertising at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. “I was one of those kids who luckily was able to utilize some of their learned skill sets in their actual field,” he said. His courses focused on creative messaging, which taught him how to reach audiences in interesting and imaginative ways.

After spending some time working in Washington, D.C., he made his way to Los Angeles. Facing the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, he knew he needed to find a remote-working opportunity. Enter, Audacity Health. “Once we found each other, it was like love at first sight,” he said. It’s been almost five years since then, and he’s now the director of paid media. 

Kevin’s favorite parts of the job

While programmatic marketing can often involve looking at numbers on a screen, Kevin said he enjoys making connections between the ad campaigns he’s running and real life. He also takes note of the ads and messaging he encounters and how remarketing can influence his own purchases and hobbies. 

He was drawn to healthcare programmatic and Audacity specifically because of their impact on people’s lives. “They’re not just selling shoes or anything like that,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with that, but their focus is on clients that commit themselves to things like health sciences, health research.”

He’s proud to work with clients who are engaged with important healthcare issues, such as those focused on cancer research. “That’s one of the things that really makes me glad to be able to work in this space—because I feel like I’m actually contributing to something better in the world.”

Kevin’s advice for newcomers to programmatic health marketing

For those trying to get into programmatic marketing, Kevin said it’s important to know your basics within paid media. “Familiarize yourself with clickthrough rate, CPM, cost per view, little things like that. Make sure you have your basics together.”

To get comfortable with the basics, it’s important to spend time actually using the system and clicking around, learning from mistakes and successes as you go along. “Create little tests here and there. Do that so you can make as many mistakes as possible and then just kind of go from there,” he said. “Utilize your learnings and it’ll be a benefit in the end.”

Programmatic marketing is a rapidly changing industry, so Kevin said he keeps up to date by following marketing and health science groups online, especially on LinkedIn. There’s a lot of information out there and it can be easy to get overwhelmed, but he said he views it all as a learning opportunity. “Just ebb and flow through it because there are different resources everywhere.”

Kevin said he’s received a lot of great advice in his life, and he tends to find and draw inspiration from new mantras on a rolling basis, but one piece of advice has always stuck with him: Happy people tend to have happy outcomes. “I really think that success is when you see opportunities to pour yourself into things that bring you joy,” he said. “So whenever you’re able to find those opportunities, don’t let them go because it’s something that’s meant for you.”

Kevin and PulsePoint

Having worked with PulsePoint for a few years now, Kevin said he appreciates how much he can rely on the PulsePoint team. “One of the things I like about working with PulsePoint is that I love the team that I’m working with,” he said. “They’re clearly hard workers and they’re there for any questions. They respond within a timely manner and they’re genuinely enjoyable to talk to.”

“It’s easy to maintain work-life [balance] when you have teams that actually work so well with you. So I lean on that perspective,” he said.

While working in the platform, he appreciates the many options that are specifically helpful within the healthcare field, especially the target criteria. “One thing I’ve enjoyed about PulsePoint is that they have a lot of options for charting criteria for reaching out to both healthcare professionals and direct to customers as well.”

“Whenever I go in [the platform], I like the fact that there’s so much I can actually dive into,” he added. “And it provides me the opportunity to go back to using my imagination to see what we can find.”

Kevin outside of work

To Kevin, success looks like spending time on things that bring him joy. “As much as we devote ourselves to our careers, at the end of the day, we’re human beings, and we have entire lives that exist outside of our jobs.

He acknowledged that this can be difficult in a world that demands much of our time, but he tries to carve out moments for the things that bring him joy. Earlier in his career, this led to him co-founding an organization that focused on increasing access to STEM opportunities for students from underrepresented communities.

In his free time, he enjoys playing video games, attending anime conventions, and following music. “In general, I’m pretty nerdy,” he said, adding that he’s lucky to now live in D.C., a city that hosts plenty of events where he can connect with others who enjoy the same things he does.

He also said that he’s always looking for spiritual opportunities, and he has dedicated himself to yoga and meditation. “I take opportunities to sit down, take a breath for five to ten minutes, and breathe deeply,” he said. “Oh my gosh, if you really allow meditation to sink in, it helps so much.”