With the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning, new innovations in healthcare advertising seem to crop up every day. But it can be challenging for marketers navigating this ever-evolving landscape to determine which combination of platforms and solutions will improve pharma campaign performance in a way that translates to their real-world business objectives.

With annual planning in full swing, this is a timely concern for marketers and agencies evaluating potential partners for the upcoming year. To help you make your decision, here are five differentiators to look for to ensure you’re achieving the results you need throughout 2024 and beyond.

1. One unified platform for all your healthcare advertising needs.

Whether you’re looking to reach healthcare providers (HCPs) or patient audiences, using a holistic approach is one of the best ways to improve your pharma campaign performance. Simply put, you need to be able to execute your campaign across multiple channels and devices and then assess the impact of all your combined tactics.

If you’ve run campaigns across a dozen or more point solutions in the past, you know this is easier said than done. That’s why you should prioritize any partner that enables you to plan, activate, and measure your campaigns in one unified platform. Not only will this help narrow your list of potential vendors, but it will also ensure your advertising efforts are more streamlined going forward.

2. The right data to power connections and elevate your pharma campaign performance.

Each day, a remarkable amount of data is generated from various sources and used to power ad campaigns; the U.S. healthcare system alone generates 30% of the world’s data (approximately one zettabyte) every year. But we, as pharma marketers, know that not all data is created equal, or equally transparent for that matter.

When evaluating a healthcare advertising partner, look for proposals that clearly indicate:

• Where they source their health data from.
• How frequently their pharmaceutical data is refreshed.
• The percentage of prescribing HCPs they can reach.
• The steps they’ve taken to preserve patient privacy.
• Any capabilities that help you pre-optimize your audience mix.

Remember, transparency in data goes hand in hand with transparency in measurement and reporting. With the right data, you can feel confident your campaigns are set up for success in reaching clinically relevant HCP and patient audiences.

3. Real-time campaign measurement and optimization.

If you want to improve your pharma campaign performance, measurement and optimization should be top of mind when shopping around for potential solutions. Thanks to advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, it’s now possible to optimize your campaigns at every stage of planning and activation using AI-powered insights and recommendations delivered in real time.

To ensure you’re investing your dollars wisely, seek out a platform that ties real-time media data to clinical outcomes and focuses your investment on the impressions that drive deeper performance metrics, like audience quality and script lift.

4. The right media mix for reaching healthcare audiences.

Healthcare audiences today consume a variety of media across channels and devices, so it’s never been more important to customize your strategy based on where you’re most likely to reach them. As the media landscape becomes increasingly complex, pharma advertisers will continue to adopt an omnichannel approach in 2024.

With more vendors now offering CTV advertising capabilities, here are a few musts for maximizing your reach among HCP and patient audiences:

• Curated, brand-safe inventory from top apps and programmers.
• Device-agnostic reach across smart TVs, streaming devices, and game consoles.
• A platform that uses health data in a privacy-compliant way.

5. Innovations with healthcare marketers in mind.

As marketers in the highly regulated pharma industry, we face many unique challenges that require unique solutions. Healthcare advertising innovations need to power connections between HCPs and patients, solve problems like fragmentation, and drive efficiencies that improve performance and outcomes. Additionally, special considerations must be made to preserve privacy at every stage of a campaign.

Improving your pharma campaign performance ultimately comes down to choosing the right partner and how well they can meet your healthcare advertising needs in the years to come. As is the case within the larger advertising industry, the platforms and partners using generative AI to connect data, systems, and solutions are the ones that will lead you into the future.

Learn how DeepIntent Copilot, built into the DeepIntent Health Advertising Platform, can help you achieve your best campaign performance yet.