Smarter Targeting for Smarter Pharma Campaigns: Key Insights from Fierce Pharma Week Panel

At this year’s Fierce Pharma Week, our President, Chris Neuner, joined industry leaders on the panel “Programmatic Advertising: Smarter Targeting for Smarter Pharma Campaigns.” The conversation dove into how programmatic strategies are evolving to meet the unique challenges of healthcare marketing. 

Here are the key themes explored during the discussion: 

1. Activating privacy-safe, health-specific audience segments 

Reaching healthcare professionals and patients in a compliant way is one of the greatest challenges in pharma marketing. The panel stressed the importance of leveraging privacy-safe data that allows brands to build highly relevant health-specific segments without compromising patient confidentiality or running afoul of regulations. 

2. Driving smarter media buying with real-time bidding 

Real-time bidding is no longer just about efficiency, it’s about intelligence. By tapping into advanced programmatic platforms, brands can better allocate their budgets, ensure spend goes toward the right impressions, and capture opportunities at the exact moment they matter most. 

3. Fine-tuning campaigns with contextual triggers & dynamic optimization 

The days of static campaigns are over. The panelists highlighted how contextual triggers, such as specific healthcare content or prescribing patterns, can be used to dynamically optimize campaigns in real time. This level of adaptability ensures campaigns stay relevant and maximize engagement across channels. 

4. Aligning media partners for seamless execution 

Programmatic success isn’t achieved in isolation. Collaboration across media partners is essential to ensure data flows seamlessly, targeting strategies align, and campaigns are executed without fragmentation. Building stronger partnerships allows pharma marketers to deliver a consistent and impactful message. 

5. Consistency and transparency as cornerstones of trust 

The panel emphasized that consistency in messaging and transparency in data practices are critical to maintaining credibility with healthcare professionals and patients. By being clear about how data is used and ensuring campaigns deliver steady, reliable experiences, pharma brands can strengthen trust while driving results.  

6. Tracking impact with robust, channel-specific metrics 

Traditional metrics are no longer enough to measure success in pharma campaigns. The discussion emphasized the need for robust, channel-specific KPIs that move beyond clicks to reflect meaningful engagement, script lift, patient adherence, and overall health outcomes. 

The panel underscored one clear message: programmatic advertising, when done thoughtfully, can unlock smarter, more effective campaigns that benefit both healthcare brands and the audiences they serve.