Eighth Annual Online Marketing Effectiveness Benchmarks for the Pharmaceutical Industry

Transcription

1 Eighth Annual Online Marketing Effectiveness Benchmarks for the Pharmaceutical Industry July 2014 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: John Mangano comscore, Inc. +1 (703)

2 Introduction A New Challenge for Health and Pharmaceutical Marketers Direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical marketing has never been more challenging given today s reality of reduced budgets, competing marketing channels, and regulatory restrictions on what and how a message can be communicated. With such constraints, measuring success in digital marketing is particularly crucial for any campaign to justify the activity. Pharma companies, their agencies, and the web publishers who service them must constantly prove the return these activities are driving in terms of brand awareness and favorability, doctor discussions, and scripts filled. For the past nine years, comscore has measured these metrics for its clients on a campaign-bycampaign basis to help optimize each brand s success. To provide insight and benchmarks to the industry, a meta-analysis was conducted on the results of more than 163 studies. The goal: To better understand the evolution of these metrics and the evolving multi-platform digital media environment. comscore, Inc., in conjunction with Evolution Road, is releasing the Eight Annual Online Marketing Effectiveness Benchmarks for the Pharmaceutical Industry. Released annually, these benchmarks provide the ongoing context needed to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the incremental effect of online marketing activities within the pharmaceutical industry. With this analysis, brands will be able to more effectively: 1. Measure the impact and performance of their digital advertising compared to industry norms; 2. Determine the appropriate allocation of resources between various types of digital DTC advertising; 3. Take advantage of proven strategies to increase ROI and use the full body of knowledge to develop new strategies for maximizing ROI of future campaigns; and 4. Quantify how an individual campaign compares to the industry average. Methodology These benchmarks are based on survey data collected over the past several years. As of 2013, these benchmarks include data from 163 pharmaceutical studies. Evaluations in this analysis are conducted on audiences grouped by: Exposure only to display banners (static/flash/interactive banners) Website visitation o Search-referred Referred by paid or natural search engine results o Media-referred Referred by banner ad, text ad or other campaign/link PAGE 2

3 o Non-referred/Direct Traffic from typing a URL directly into a browser or clicking on an existing bookmark Online marketing effectiveness is defined as an increase in the following metrics: Brand awareness Aided and unaided Brand favorability Intent to take action (e.g. intent to discuss treatment with a health care provider) Physician visits Treatment discussions Scripts attained Offline prescription activity Conversion and adherence, used to calculate incremental revenue generated by an online campaign The Online Marketing Effectiveness benchmarks evaluate the impact on two distinct populations: prospects and patients. Prospects are defined as sufferers who have not received treatment with the respective drug within 12 months prior to their exposure to the online marketing campaign, while patients have received treatment with the respective drug within 12 months prior to their exposure to the online marketing campaign. In addition to the benchmarks, comscore began incorporating measurement of viewable impressions (i.e. display ad impressions that are actually visible in the web browser s active viewing pane) in 2012 and 2013 to get a better understanding of online advertising in the health industry. Online Health Industry Overview Health Information Category Continues Growth in Audience and Engagement Over the years, consumers have become increasingly comfortable seeking out health information online. comscore Media Metrix Multi-Platform data reveals that not only has the audience for health information continued to grow, but they have also become more comfortable using different platforms to do so. In February 2013, comscore started measuring multi-platform audiences. Comparing April 2013 to April 2014, the growth in unique visitors came from mobile devices, up 36 percent year-over-year. In a given month, more than half of the entire U.S. web population will access health information online. PAGE 3

4 200, ,000 Trend in Unique Visitors (000) to Health Information Category* Source: comscore Media Metrix, U.S., April April 2014 Total Unique Visitors PC (000) Total Unique Visitors Mobile (000) 138, ,140 59,605 81, ,000 50,000 94, , , ,292 97,070 0 Apr-2010 Apr-2011 Apr-2012 Apr-2013 Apr-14 *The Health Information category includes sites such as WebMD, Everyday Health, HealthGrades, etc. Those who access health content are also doing so using more than just PCs. In April 2013, 35 percent of visitors used mobile devices to consume health information. A year later, almost half of health information-seekers used mobile devices to consume health content. This uptick in mobile usage suggests two things: an increased reliance in managing one s health issues on-the-go, and an increase in tablet usage at home instead of the PC. For those using mobile devices out-of-home to manage health issues, uses included understanding symptoms, treating a condition, or achieving one s health goals. Our research indicates more specifically that on-the-go mobile users seek health information at doctor s offices and while waiting for prescription refills at the pharmacy. As the American population continues to age, as tablets become more prevalent in the home, and as people become increasingly comfortable with using digital platforms for seeking information, we can expect these underlying trends for the category to grow. Pharmaceutical Online Advertising Has the Highest Viewability Rates of Any Industry Health marketers continue to be more comfortable using digital channels to reach consumers, especially as the audience for health information is more targetable than in other media. Between three and seven billion display ads are delivered in the pharmaceutical sector every month, and the number is growing each year. From January 2013 to January 2014, the volume of display advertising for drugs and medications nearly doubled. PAGE 4

5 May-12 Jun-12 Jul-12 Aug-12 Sep-12 Oct-12 Nov-12 Dec-12 Jan-13 Feb-13 Mar-13 Apr-13 May-13 Jun-13 Jul-13 Aug-13 Sep-13 Oct-13 Nov-13 Dec-13 Jan-14 Feb-14 Mar-14 Apr-14 Online Marketing Effectiveness Benchmarks for the Pharmaceutical Industry June ,000 Drugs & Medication Display Advertising (MM) comscore Ad Metrix, U.S., May 2012-April ,000 6,000 7,513 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 4,369 3,402 3,743 3,650 3,409 3,348 3,247 2,852 3,656 3,373 2,786 4,583 3,379 3,174 3,095 2,743 3,075 3,107 3,668 3,769 4,569 4,182 4,835 0 However, it is not enough for health and pharmaceutical marketers to simply rely on the volume of their advertising as a way to reach their audiences. In 2012, comscore began measuring advertising viewability to better quantify the percent of display ads that had a chance to be seen and the average time they were viewable. Across a study of billions of pharmaceutical advertising impressions spanning 15+ brands, 51 percent of the ads were viewable with viewability being defined as 50 percent or more of the advertisement appearing in the viewable frame of the web browser for at least one second. Pharmaceutical advertising impressions had the highest viewability rates of any industry. This is important as pharmaceutical marketers often place media on more expensive sites and this helps justify the returns in terms of the effect on awareness. PAGE 5

6 51% Online Display Ad Viewability Source: comscore vce Benchmarks, Q % 48% 47% 47% 46% 45% 40% 40% Internet Average: 46% 36% Pharma Travel Health Computer / Technology Consumer Goods Media & Entertainment Retail Auto Finance Telecom Online Marketing Effectiveness Benchmarks The online marketing effectiveness benchmarks included in this report represent the aggregated observed attitudinal and behavioral lifts associated with exposure to online advertising and/or branded website visitation. Two of the most common and useful attitudinal outcomes are increased brand awareness and favorability. Awareness is measured in two forms: aided and unaided. With aided awareness, a survey respondent is provided with a prompt or list of brands. In contrast, unaided awareness is measured through the respondents recalling the brand without any aid or prompting. Exposure to Online Banners Increases Brand Awareness The results continue to indicate that simply exposing a prospect to an online ad has a positive impact on brand awareness. Such exposure created a 1.9-point lift in aided awareness and a 0.8-point lift for unaided awareness across the studies. Exposure of prospects to display advertising also delivered a 7.3- point lift in intent to discuss treatment with a healthcare provider, an indicator that display advertising drives treatment discussions. PAGE 6

7 Exposed to Online Ads Visited Branded Website Aided Awareness Lift on Awareness and Favorability over Control Source: comscore Health Solutions, 2014 Prospects Unaided Awareness Favorability No Statistically Significant Result Intent to Discuss Treatments +7.6 Patients Intent to Favorability Discuss Treatments No Statistically +7.3 Significant Result Brand Site Visitation is Most Impactful Form of Online Marketing According to the 2014 study, site visitation to a branded pharmaceutical site continues to provide the most sizeable lifts in both brand awareness and favorability. Prospects who visited a branded website showed a 13-point lift in aided awareness and 5.3 in unaided awareness, supporting the findings of previous years and quantifying the value of the branded website. Branded site visitation also showed a sizeable effect on favorability, driving a 14.2-point lift among patients. By having more educational information readily available on demand, brand websites may have significant impact on favorability toward a brand because they have no limitations on the amount of information they can provide. Brand Site Visitation Drives Strong Lifts in New Patient Starts and Adherence The benchmarks also reveal the impact of online marketing on offline prescription activity. For prospects, this is defined as the beginning of treatment with the branded medication and becoming a patient. For those already classified as patients, impact indicates one extra refill of (or adherence to) the branded medication. For prospects, branded website visitation drove a 9.4-point lift in new patient starts compared to those in the control group, indicating the likely effectiveness of these marketing efforts. Since a branded website tends to occur further down the marketing funnel, when a prospect has moved beyond awareness towards consideration, it can be particularly effective in helping convert a prospect into a patient. PAGE 7

8 Site Visitor Incremental Effect on New Patient Starts and Adherence Over Control Group Source: comscore Health Solutions, 2014 Prospects Patients New Patient Starts Adherence/Next Fill Visited Branded Website While online marketing efforts were effective at driving new patient starts, they showed an even greater impact on patients refilling their prescriptions. A 14.7-point lift in adherence as defined by prescription refill activity was observed among patients who had recently visited a branded website. The results reinforce the importance of site visitation as an optimal vehicle for conveying relevant branded information and driving conversion, particularly among those already taking the medication. Natural Search-Referred Traffic Most Impactful in Conversion among Prospects For prospects, there is a clear hierarchy among different referral types based on the lifts they produce in terms of prescriptions filled. The benchmarks show that while all types of referrals drove significant lifts, natural search-referred traffic had the highest lift at 13.9 points. Non-referred visits yielded a smaller yet still sizeable impact with a 9.9-point lift. Paid search-referred traffic provided a comparable effect, with a 9.3-point lift. Incremental Conversion for Prospects for Prescriptions Filled and Taken Source: comscore Health Solutions, 2014 Conversion Rx Filled Conversion Rx Took Site Visitors Media-referred Natural Search-referred Paid Search-referred Non-referred Display media that drove traffic to a branded website via a click-through showed the most modest lift, indicating that while online banners can be helpful in increasing brand awareness among prospects, they do not appear to deliver the immediate impact that search referrals have on conversions. This discrepancy between lifts for search and online banner referrals suggests that search is a more powerful marketing tool for driving new patient starts, likely because search ads appear to prospects that have demonstrated some level of intent due to their searching behavior. PAGE 8

9 Drug Category Benchmarks Show Treatment Type Affects Conversion Rates With the increased number of effectiveness studies conducted over the past few years, more granular benchmarks across brand subgroups can be established. Recent analysis of pharmaceutical study data according to 10 different categories has shown varying conversion rates for both patient and prospect groups according to their respective classifications. The brands studied were broken out into the following sub-categories: Chronic, Painful, Branded, Launch, Sensitive Condition, Blackbox, Lifestyle, OTC Competitors, Injectable and Specialty. A comparison of lifts in conversion for Lifestyle and Blackbox drugs highlights the variability seen across categories. Incremental Conversion for Lifestyle and Blackbox Drug Categories Source: comscore Health Solutions, 2014 Drug Category Discussed Rx Treatments Discussed Brand Rx Received Lifestyle Blackbox Site visitation for Blackbox drugs, or medications which have serious side effects or life-threatening risks, showed a significantly higher lift in driving prospects to discuss the brands (+24.3 points) with their physicians versus Lifestyle drugs (+15.5 points), which treat non-life threatening and non-painful conditions such as baldness. Prospects tend to discuss Blackbox drugs with their physicians because they need to balance the benefits and risks of taking these medications. Lifestyle drugs, on the other hand, show more modest lifts in driving discussion, which is not surprising as the benefits of a lifestyle drug by definition are about quality of life as opposed to being a necessity. Interestingly, however, both Blackbox and Lifestyle drugs show approximately the same rate of overall conversion when it comes to prospects actually receiving a prescription. PAGE 9

10 Conclusion The effectiveness benchmarks included in this report demonstrate that online pharmaceutical marketing has had a positive impact not only on brand awareness and favorability, but also on conversions among prospects and patients. For prospects, the recent benchmarks have shown that exposure to online banners alone can produce nominal lifts in both aided and unaided awareness, and intent to discuss medication with a healthcare provider. Branded website visitation continues to have the greatest impact on prospects, yielding significant lifts not only in aided and unaided awareness, but also on the most important performance indicator: filling prescriptions. Similar to what is seen for prospects, site visitation yields the greatest impact, showing higher lifts in metrics like favorability and Rx refills for patients. Visitation to branded websites continues to produce the greatest lifts in Rx conversion for both prospects and patients. More detailed analysis suggests that the lifts produced by different site referral sources vary in impact depending on how consumers access the site. Natural search-referred traffic shows the highest lift for prospect conversion, while referrals from media banners showed a more modest lift. As comscore continues to conduct a growing number of these studies for pharmaceutical brands, there is a greater ability to segment study benchmarks across distinct categories to produce more actionable insights. Different drug brand segments, such as Lifestyle and Blackbox drugs, can produce greatly varying rates of consumer response to marketing stimuli. Armed with more detailed benchmarks, pharmaceutical marketers can gain a better understanding of their own marketing campaign performance in relation to comparable brands. PAGE 10

11 About comscore Health Solutions comscore Health Solutions delivers in-depth information needed to understand the impact that brand, condition-specific, and health websites have on consumers brand awareness, conversion, and patient compliance as well as insights into health care professionals online usage. comscore products deliver actionable insight to help refine consumer profiles, identify key alliances, optimize interactive marketing initiatives, benchmark against the competition and accurately measure the ROI of website and online marketing programs. For more information, please visit: About comscore, Inc. comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in digital measurement and analytics, delivering insights on web, mobile and TV consumer behavior that enable clients to maximize the value of their digital investments. A preferred source of digital audience measurement, comscore offers a variety of ondemand software and custom services within its four analytics pillars: Audience Analytics, Advertising Analytics, Digital Business Analytics and Mobile Operator Analytics. By leveraging a world-class technology infrastructure, the comscore Census Network (CCN) captures trillions of digital interactions a month to power big data analytics on a global scale for its more than 2,000 clients, which include leading companies such as AOL, Baidu, BBC, Best Buy, Carat, Deutsche Bank, ESPN, France Telecom, Financial Times, Fox, LinkedIn, Microsoft, MediaCorp, Nestle, Starcom, Terra Networks, Universal McCann, Verizon, ViaMichelin and Yahoo!. For more information, please visit: About Evolution Road Evolution Road is a marketing innovation consultancy focused on helping brands leverage digital and marketing innovation to drive their business. Evolution Road is bringing its vision to life - that digital marketing will dramatically improve how pharmaceutical and OTC brands are marketed for the benefit of consumers, physicians and healthcare brands. To that end, Evolution Road has helped millions of consumers and healthcare professionals make more informed healthcare choices and has delivered $3+ billion dollars in incremental top-line revenue for its clients at an ROI of over 4:1. comscore Contact Evolution Road Contact John Mangano Paul Ivans Vice President, comscore, Inc. President and CEO, Evolution Road +1 (703) (973) jmangano@comscore.com pivans@evolutionroad.com PAGE 11