As Healthcare professionals are increasingly pressed for time and attention, it's more important than ever for pharmaceutical brands to make the most of their limited online engagement. On average, HCPs spend only 36 seconds per visit on each healthcare-related website, which works out to only around 5 minutes of "active web engagement" per week. With dozens of other pharma brands vying for their attention, how can your brand stand out? Data collected from Digital Tracker (PERxCEPT), ZoomRx's omnichannel intelligence offering, tells you how.
#1: Go where your customers are - choose the right websites
Direct ad buys on high-traffic websites such as Medscape, NEJM, and Onclive are still powerful ways to reach HCPs. In fact, in 2022, 65% of branded ad impressions came from the Top 10 websites as observed in our panel of 108 oncologists.
The top three ad campaigns of 2022 were each hosted primarily on NEJM, which offers high reach, high engagement, and relatively lower "crowdedness" (as measured by the number of unique brands advertising on the website) compared to other sites.
#2: Coordinate promotion across channels, but use the right partners
Coordinating ad campaigns with email and social media can amplify their impact. Third-party email senders can increase reach significantly, with 58% of branded emails sent by third-party email providers. However, some third-party websites are better than others - for example, in 2022, WebMD covered 34% of all oncology brands that use email to promote their brand.
#3: Don't focus only on impressions - remember that content matters, too
A case study of two campaigns, Xalkori vs. Ibrance (previously published here) highlights the importance of quality content in driving engagement and impact among HCPs.
While Ibrance had high impressions, that did not necessarily translate into action from HCPs. In contrast, Xalkori had far fewer impressions, but its high-quality content led to higher impact and stated actions. In particular, HCPs indicated that they are likely to seek more info and/or discuss the product with a colleague after viewing the ad.
Further, this correlation between ad quality and stated impact manifested itself downstream in actual sales - Xalkori had a 19% increase in US revenue in Q3 ‘22, while Ibrance revenues remained stable.
HCPs' time and attention are limited. Pharma marketers can get the best out of their display ad investment by choosing the right websites - websites that are not crowded, frequented more, and engaged with more by their target audience. Coordinating ad campaigns with email campaigns by partnering with the right agencies and prioritizing the quality of their ads rather than the number of impressions will help their brand stand out.
All data in the report was collected using Digital Tracker (PERxCEPT). Interested in seeing more? Submit your information below to receive the full report.
