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Branded Websites Are The Most Effective Online Marketing Tactic For Pharmaceutical Marketers, comScore Study Finds

comScore, Inc., in conjunction with pharmaceutical marketing consultancy Evolution Road, today released results from the second annual study: e-Marketing Effectiveness Benchmarks for the Pharmaceutical Industry, which is designed to help pharmaceutical marketers assess the success of their online marketing activities.

The study evaluated the impact of banner ads, search marketing, and visits to a brand Web site on a brand's awareness, favorability and sales results among both patients and prospects.  The study found that getting a patient to visit a branded Web site is the most effective form of online pharmaceutical marketing, with an incremental patient adherence rate nearly 20 percentage points higher than among those who did not visit the Web site and an incremental new start rate for prospects nearly 5 percentage points higher than the control. Meanwhile, exposure to, and interaction with, online ads also improved adherence rates among existing patients. Patient's exposed to an ad showed a 4.0-point lift in adherence and patients who interacted with an ad exhibited a 9.5-point lift.

Using comScore's one million person U.S. panel to passively observe behavior, with an overlay of survey questions to gather perceptions about the brand, the benchmarks study summarizes the performance of 32 individual studies involving more than 10 prescription brands.

"The most effective online marketing tool for both patients and prospects is the brand's Web site.  It's important to realize, though, that visits to a brand Web site are achieved through the use of a variety of offline and online tactics, such as online banner ads, search and offline advertising," said Bridget O'Toole, comScore executive vice president. "This is why it is essential for marketers to develop fully-integrated campaigns that not only raise awareness and educate consumers but that also drive visitation to a site." 

Although brand Web sites are the most effective online marketing tactic, there is also a positive result from online advertising. The study found that exposure to, or interaction with, banner ads yields an incremental lift in brand awareness and favorability among existing and prospective patients.  For prospects, exposure-only to an ad had a significant impact on both aided and unaided brand awareness, with increases of 5.1 and 5.7 percentage points, respectively. An even greater incremental lift in aided awareness (9.4 points) and unaided awareness (7.7 points) was achieved when consumers interacted with a rich media ad.