Advertising Pharmaceutical Products
From Google Ads to detailing, here is a list of common methods for advertising pharmaceutical products.
The advertising of pharmaceutical products is complex and difficult because, unlike other sectors, it brings with it a number of considerations related to regulations. Regulations of which differ country-by-country.
And these regulations aren’t always straightforward. For example, in the UK, you can advertise any over-the-counter medicine and pharmacy medicines to the general public, but you can’t advertise prescription-only medicines, even though you can promote them to healthcare professionals and others who can prescribe or supply the product. Head over to the US, and things are very different.
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This is just a taster of such regulations, as when you dive deeper, you can find a long list of guidelines related to naming, transparency and disclosure of information. It gets a little easier when manufacturing organisations need to advertise their products because this advertising is likely not aimed at the general public or HCPs, rather at researchers, scientists and scientific procurement staff.
This post isn’t about regulations, more so about potential avenues for the advertising of products associated with pharmaceuticals. But we would state that everything should have full regard for the needs of public health, that all of the advertising claims are backed by scientific evidence, and that the information is up-to-date and is provided in an accurate, clear and ethical manner, and be void of deception tactics that have previously been seen in the wider pharmaceutical sector.
Ideas for advertising pharmaceutical products
Here are some ideas and avenues for promoting and advertising pharmaceutical-based products and services.
1. Third-party editorial content (supported with advertising)
Trusted third-party magazines, publications and websites all provide the perfect platform to advertise your organisation’s pharmaceutical products and services to an already engaged audience. Professionals in and out of the laboratories will access such publications, and in most cases subscribe, to discover the latest news, innovations, ideas and developments within their particular scientific or therapeutic area. And such magazines and websites consist of various editorial-based content, supported by advertising.
If an organisation’s core offering can be featured within such publications, then it can significantly increase the awareness of its offering with a highly targeted audience. Editorial content or collaborative content can be difficult to achieve, but it provides a non-bias method of indirectly promoting your offering. We would always recommend - to increase awareness - that a featured organisation carry out some paid advertising alongside such content. Full-page spreads and website banners are amongst the most common methods in this respect. Both will significantly increase the effectiveness of the advertising campaign with that third-party provider. Often, packages and deals can be agreed upon with vendors, making such campaigns vital for a pharmaceutical organisation looking to advertise its products and services.
Find out more about our Media Planning services.
2. Public relations initiatives and sponsorships
Promotional activities that do not directly advertise the organisation and its pharmaceutical products can do a world of good in the eyes of the public and its target market. Public relations (PR) activities - the practice of managing and disseminating information in order to affect their public perception - can range from charity work, supporting non-profit initiatives and local events, partnerships as well as sponsoring events and other organisations. Such “feel-good” activities can then be translated into other forms of content, such as news articles, which can be promoted on the website and on its supporting channels.
3. “How-to” content
Almost any article - on the internet, or even on this blog - that details various marketing and advertising methods will contain content marketing in some form - you can argue that all the ideas here are forms of content marketing as well. To educate a scientific audience, or to educate the public about the benefits and side effects of using a product, then content (in a written or visual form) is required. We find that “how-to” content, so content that explains in detail how to achieve something or complete a task, is highly effective in generating views as well as generating a call-to-action.
Such content will contain factual and educational information, and will include statistics and facts, are highly useful for the majority of target audiences within the pharmaceutical sectors. How-to content is often easy to read and follow and is highly effective regardless of how and where the user is browsing, as well as where he or she may be within the traditional buyer’s journey. A typical how-to content piece is likely to provide all the information required to complete a task, such as the tools required, the steps for completing that task, and the likely outcome of undertaking the steps. A prime example, albeit irrelevant to our sectors, is online cooking recipes - they detail the ingredients, how to use them and what the final product looks like. How-to content is also highly valuable from an SEO perspective, as you are likely speaking in the same manner as common search queries - this is also the case for voice search.
4. Paid social media
Paid social is the process of displaying sponsored social content and updates on social media networks. Social media provides a platform to promote an organisation to those already following your organisation or is searching for something where your organisation might appear in the feed. The problem, of course, is that very rarely will your social updates appear outside of these circles. Paid social media overcomes this challenge and is a great advertising channel for promoting your pharmaceutical-based product offering. This is the case for B2B social platforms (that are great for news and updates) such as LinkedIn and Twitter, as well as other more consumer-friendly such as Pinterest Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TickTock. Each platform has its own demographics, targeting abilities and rules for advertising pharmaceuticals but still, each can be used in pharmaceutical advertising.
A key challenge with such platforms, however, is that they all impose some form of restrictions when explicitly promoting pharmaceutical-based products. As Twitter states, for example: “Twitter restricts the promotion of health and pharmaceutical products and services. These restrictions are based on the specific product or service being promoted, as well as the country that the campaign is targeting.” This said, organisation awareness and other brand-based campaigns can be promoted on such paid social channels, and targeted campaigns with efficient bidding strategies can provide a great ROI for pharmaceutical marketers, especially when done within a wider marketing strategy.
Find out more about our Paid Social services.
5. Video and video explainers
Video marketing can capture a wide audience and it works on many levels to engage with audiences in an entertaining and time-efficient manner. Video content takes information and presents it in a visual form. They can be used to promote and market products or services, increase engagement on digital channels, educate consumers and customers and reach new and existing audiences. This type of advertising option has emerged as hugely popular in the last few years but creating videos - from explainer videos to talking-head interviews to presentations to behind the scenes at events - are time-consuming and often costly. This said, video advertising can be highly efficient to explain complex pharmaceutical products and manufacturing processes and can be used for specific campaigns and events that might be prioritised within the organisation.
As internet infrastructure, mobile data plans and recording devices have improved and become cheaper throughout the world, video content has become incredibly easy to distribute. Consequently, advertisers have adopted it for their product and brand marketing because it gets noticed. Pharmaceutical organisations, similarly, can use video content to great effect. They can create animations to simply explain how their products and technologies work, making them even more accessible than text alone. Gearing up for video advertising will be critical if you are unsure about investing in such content to promote. If you have content that is suitable, video format is a hugely powerful search opportunity. If you have no video content optimised, it’s well worth getting some created, similar to these examples from pharma.
6. Podcasts
As far as pharmaceutical advertising tactics go, podcasts are possibly amongst the strongest B2B marketers have in their armoury for 2022. The main difference between podcasts and webinars is purely multimedia. Webinars contain both audio and video, while podcasts normally only include audio. Podcasts are usually live virtual events executed online and are an educational or instructive session that includes communication between a speaker and attendees. Demand for such live events can be high, and as the episodes are usually recorded, they can also be released after the event and made available for a period of time, or even transcribed into other content formats.
Podcasts are similar to panels but are different in form. Podcasts are also a great way of discussing certain topics alongside an organiser or host, usually from a publication or vendor which you can partner with similarly to webinars. Delivered via audio, it differs in its delivery for those who prefer to listen to content or consume content whilst on the go. Podcasts are usually released on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis, involving a host and a guest speaker that provides information on subject matter that often channels per podcast episode. The conversation with the host can also open up to the listeners, where questions can be answered, and the brand can be positioned within a market.
7. Detailing
Whether you’re advertising your product offering to HCPs or to purchasing/procurement managers or even directly to the lab managers, there will always be the need for face-to-face contact. Physician detailing involves one-to-one selling of pharmaceutical products, and whilst such an activity is often questioned within this sector, in many cases it is required, certainly if the HCPs and lab professionals have requested that the pharmaceutical organisations keep them up-to-date with new products or new uses of the products. Often, and again something that is questioned, is the practice of providing freebies, coupons, direct mail, gifts, medical textbooks or other forms of relationship-building activity that could be classed as bribery, in the process.
E-detailing digitalises this process and enables pharmaceutical organisations to connect with their audiences in the same manner but via technology, giving birth to “hybrid reps.” Taking these meetings online means more time saved, where appointments can be set at more convenient times, and supporting software, tools and programmes - such as microsites, portals and on-demand content - and digital advertising tactics (similar to those in this post) can be deployed and tracked, providing more data for the marketing teams to assess. And this need not be just for HCPs - why not create portals and microsites specifically for your target audience, whoever they may be?
8. Google Ads
Similar to social media advertising, Google restricts advertising for pharmaceutical products and the health conditions that they treat. Google’s policies in this respect can be found here. However, this doesn't mean that you can’t advertise your products and services on Google. Far from it. Depending on your location, you may need to become certified and submit some details (along with your ads) to Google for approval. Once this process is complete you will likely be free to advertise on Google.
Google Ads provides a range of advertising options, which is great for pharmaceutical advertisers as we know too well that our highly methodical audiences are very capable of conducting independent research, and often, this independent research starts on search engines like Google. Google offers standard text ads (as well as responsive and dynamic search ads) that appear on search engine result pages (SERPs) when a user conducts a particular search. Display (also referred to as image or banner ads) ads, app promotion ads, video ads and shopping ads are amongst the other options Google provides for marketers. Search ads are the most common types of ads we see in B2B pharma, however, display ads - via remarketing - are also common, and both can significantly help promote your pharmaceutical-based organisation.
We would highly recommend that you engage a Google Partner agency operating in the pharmaceutical sector (yes, we happen to be one) to understand your patient or HCP or scientific buyer’s journey so that ads can be optimised in line with the specific aims of your marketing strategies. Of course, the aims of the ads will be to drive users to your website, but as the journeys are likely to differ per organisation and audience type, the keywords, ads, landing pages and subsequent website journeys are going to differ. Google Ads is a highly complex channel, therefore, we wouldn’t recommend that you use it as a conduit for testing advertising methods in the pharmaceutical sector.
Find out more about our Google Ads and PPC services.
Advertising in B2B pharma
The ideas above detail some advertising avenues for pharmaceutical organisations. Whilst the options for such organisations include far more than what is disclosed, the specialist nature, as well as the associated regulations, make adopting such options risky to say the least. The B2B nature of the relationship also would indicate that some common marketing channels and tactics which we might see in a general consumer environment are also irrelevant. Each pharmaceutical advertising avenue mentioned would need to be included within a wider marketing plan, however, based on our own activities for our clients, we would certainly suggest that they be explored.
For more on advertising products in the pharmaceutical sector, and how we can help you do so, see our section on media planning and buying.
