Digital Marketing Strategies for Healthcare and Pharma

Healthcare and pharmaceutical marketers encounter challenges that few other marketers face. 

The patient and healthcare professional (HCP) journey is long and complex. Data privacy rules and regulations are stringent and continually evolving. And, as EMARKETER reports, healthcare marketers are increasingly expected to do “more with less” as budgets drop in practically every vertical, despite the average cost per lead now reaching $320 USD.

But as more doctors and patients go online to learn about new medications, treatments, and healthcare solutions, digital marketing is emerging as an antidote to the industry’s mounting pressures.

With digital advertising accounting for 72.2% of the industry’s total media ad spending, and healthcare and pharma digital ad spend projected to reach $24.71 billion USD in 2026, it’s clear that there’s a growing opportunity for marketers to reach high-intent audiences with precision and efficiency—especially with programmatic advertising.

Read on to learn the benefits of digital marketing in healthcare, trends shaping the industry, and strategies to connect with patients and HCPs throughout the entire research and decision-making journey.

But first, the basics.

What is Healthcare Marketing?

Healthcare marketing refers to the strategic promotion of healthcare services, products, and solutions to increase awareness, drive engagement, and build trust with patients, HCPs, and key stakeholders. It differs from other types of marketing, which may prioritize increasing brand visibility and sales over other considerations, in its commitment to patient well-being, adherence to ethical standards, and compliance with strict industry regulations, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and other data privacy laws.

Why is Marketing Important in Healthcare and Pharma?

With a strategic digital marketing strategy, healthcare organizations and brands can increase visibility across key digital channels, strengthening brand reputation and credibility while improving lead quality and lowering acquisition costs.

In pharma marketing specifically, digital advertising plays a crucial role in educating patients and HCPs about emerging therapies, treatment options, and new medications, increasing awareness while ultimately improving patient health outcomes.

By focusing on educating and supporting the end consumer, healthcare organizations can drive measurable business growth. According to McKinsey, healthcare providers that improved the consumer experience, including through better marketing, saw their revenue grow by up to 20% over five years.

Demographic and Audience Trends to Keep In Mind When Planning Your Healthcare Marketing Strategy

Shifts in consumer behaviour are constantly occurring due to evolving technology, demographics, and patient expectations. Here are some key trends to consider when developing your healthcare and pharma campaigns.

Women Are Consistently Underrepresented

According to a report from the Association of National Advertisers’ SeeHer initiative, women, who are responsible for 80% of all healthcare decisions made in the US, are accurately portrayed in only one-third of all pharmaceutical and healthcare ads, not to mention being underrepresented in clinical trials.

With women accounting for 85% of all purchase decisions and 50% of women seeking more realistic portrayals of themselves in pharma advertising, marketers are missing a significant opportunity by overlooking their influence. The report found that brands that accurately represent women in healthcare advertising can see a 10x increase in sales lift.

To help close the gap, healthcare marketers should ensure creative assets accurately reflect women’s experiences, needs, and roles as healthcare decision-makers to improve engagement, brand trust, and campaign effectiveness.

Different Generations Begin Their Patient Journey in Different Places

The patient journey—from initial research through treatment decisions and ongoing care—typically consists of three stages: 

• Researching symptoms and treatment options.
• Choosing where to get care and what to purchase.
• Building trust with healthcare providers and pharmacists. 

However, where they begin that journey ultimately depends on their generation. 

According to EMARKETER, while the majority of patients across all age groups go online when researching possible medical conditions, symptoms, and treatments, Gen Zers and millennials are more likely to start their journeys on social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube, while Gen Xers and baby boomers are more likely to turn to search engines and medical websites for information.

Healthcare and pharma marketers should tailor their strategies accordingly, balancing digital and traditional channels to ensure they reach the right audience at the right moment, regardless of what generation they’re part of.

HCPs Prefer Digital Educational Content Marketing Over Traditional Product-Focused Marketing

The traditional method of sending out a sales representative to meet face-to-face with an HCP and drop off a brochure no longer has the impact it once did.

According to a 2024 survey, more doctors want to receive information about new medications and treatments through online channels, such as digital video, email, and social media, and on their own time rather than during a meeting with a sales representative.

With six out of 10 HCPs saying they feel overwhelmed by the amount of digital content that’s focused on product information, marketers should prioritize clear, relevant, and educational content that directly supports clinical decision-making, rather than purely promotional materials.

Digital Marketing Strategies for Healthcare and Pharma Marketers

Healthcare marketing requires a strategic, privacy-conscious approach to reaching patients and HCPs across an increasingly complex digital landscape. Here are a few strategies healthcare and pharma marketers can use to build brand trust, drive engagement, and deliver measurable results while staying compliant.

Use Contextual Advertising for Privacy-Friendly Targeting

According to a survey from the Pew Research Center, a third of Americans go online to self-diagnose their health conditions.

Under HIPAA, marketers must adopt strategies that safeguard consumer and patient data with the highest privacy and security standards or risk substantial fines, penalties, and reputational damage.

That’s where contextual advertising comes in.

Contextual targeting solutions, like StackAdapt’s Page Context AI, help healthcare marketers target ads to people actively engaging with relevant content based on particular phrases and keywords that appear in specific articles on a publisher’s website. This allows them to reach target audiences when they’re already interested in (or browsing) a topic,  without relying on 3rd-party cookies or other identifiers.

In doing so, healthcare marketers can connect with audiences at the perfect moment without compromising privacy.

Optimize for Organic Search to Reach Patients Actively Seeking Care

Pre-pandemic, 7% of Google’s daily queries were health-related. These days, that number is likely even higher.

In addition to running paid search and contextual advertising campaigns, healthcare marketers can use search engine optimization, which involves optimizing website content around relevant keywords and improving site structure, to boost their visibility in organic search results.

This is especially important for healthcare organizations with physical locations or regional services. Because many healthcare-related searches are location-based (for example, “urgent care near me” or “pediatrician in Denver”), optimizing for local search through high-quality, patient-centred content, such as blog posts, FAQs, and service pages, can help you increase visibility to patients seeking nearby providers and drive more appointment bookings.

Reach Audiences Beyond Linear TV With CTV Advertising

According to EMARKETER, healthcare and pharma marketers spend more of their budget on traditional channels (27.8%) than any other industry they measure. That’s because they typically target older demographics who require more medical care and are more likely to consume traditional media (and for longer periods of time) than younger generations.

But marketers who run traditional TV campaigns are often restricted to show-level and geographic targeting, limiting their ability to reach specific audiences.

CTV advertising offers a more targeted, data-driven alternative.

For instance, StackAdapt’s Incremental Reach Forecasting helps you understand who else you could be reaching through CTV campaigns. It allows you to make more informed decisions about where to allocate your advertising budget, helping you plan and optimize campaigns more effectively to reach the right audience, regardless of where they’re watching content.

Use DOOH to Reach Patients at the Point of Care

When reaching patients at key moments in their decision-making journey, digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising is increasingly playing an important role.

According to a 2023 study, 55% of US consumers said the doctor’s office was the most appropriate environment for seeing an ad for a prescription drug.

Healthcare and pharma marketers can use point-of-care inventory to deliver messaging in contextually relevant environments, such as doctors’ offices, hospitals, or clinics. When combined with other digital advertising channels, DOOH can help you build brand awareness during early research stages and drive patient acquisition closer to the point of care than traditional billboards alone.

Personalize Your Outreach With NPI Targeting and Email Marketing

For healthcare and pharma marketers, reaching decision-makers responsible for prescribing medications or recommending treatments is essential to driving brand growth and improving patient outcomes. But doing so while staying compliant can be difficult.

Using fully deterministic National Provider Identifier (NPI) data, healthcare and pharma marketers can segment and reach HCPs based on detailed criteria like their medical specialty, clinical behaviour, and prescribing history.

Email marketing can be used in tandem with programmatic advertising to share clinical updates and educational resources with HCPs, promote plan options and enrollment deadlines during open enrollment season for health insurers, and announce new technologies, research findings, or product launches for healthtech and biotech companies.

For example, let’s say a healthcare brand runs a programmatic campaign targeting HCPs with native and display ads promoting a new treatment. When an HCP engages with an ad and submits a form to request more information about a particular pharma product, it can be set up to trigger an automated email drip campaign that shares additional clinical data, patient testimonials, and prescribing information. 

These strategies keep the treatment top-of-mind, increase HCP engagement, and drive higher prescription intent over time by ensuring each campaign is highly relevant and reaches the right audience.

Connect With HCPs and Healthcare Consumers Throughout Their Day Using a Multi-Channel Strategy

Due to the increased scrutiny healthcare and pharma marketers face because of privacy regulations, some marketers may hesitate to move beyond familiar channels when running programmatic campaigns. But taking a multi-channel approach can help ensure you connect with HCPs across every touch point while staying compliant.

For example, a healthcare brand could engage HCPs by running programmatic audio ads as they listen to a podcast during their morning commute, followed by CTV ads as they relax while streaming TV at the end of a busy work day.

Similarly, on the patient side, brands could promote general condition awareness through native and video ads during lunch breaks and reinforce messaging with DOOH ads near clinics and pharmacies as they head to pick up prescriptions or attend appointments.

Using a coordinated, multi-channel approach, brands can stay top-of-mind and drive stronger engagement across various touch points without over-relying on any single channel or device.

Track Healthcare Campaign Influence With Brand Lift Studies

A major benefit of digital marketing is the ability to track performance and make campaign adjustments in real time. But because multiple touch points may be needed before a prescription gets filled or a treatment decision is made, measuring success in healthcare marketing requires a more strategic approach. Strict privacy regulations limit the amount of data marketers collect and analyze, making matters even more challenging.

With patients researching conditions and treatment options more and more before visiting a doctor, and HCPs increasingly relying on digital channels for clinical information, brand lift studies can be used to measure changes in consumer perception against key incrementality metrics specific to healthcare and pharma. 

For example, marketers could gauge patients’ and physicians’: 

• Treatment awareness
• Treatment favourability
• Intent to treat
• Intent to fill a prescription

And other healthcare-related behaviours that can help you measure campaign influence, even when direct conversions aren’t immediately apparent.

Putting It All Together

According to McKinsey, most healthcare providers struggle to deliver a seamless, personalized marketing experience due to siloed systems, limited data, and a lack of integration.

If you’re not already…

• Using privacy-conscious targeting solutions like Page Context AI.
• Building a multi-channel programmatic strategy to reach HCPs across multiple touch points and devices.
• Measuring campaign lift and sentiment impact to gauge brand perception and treatment awareness.

…then it’s time to evolve your approach. 

Learn more about our healthcare marketing solutions and speak with someone on our team.

And, if you’re new to the programmatic space, learn the basics and level up your skillset by enrolling in free courses and certifications with the StackAdapt Academy.