TV creates awareness quickly when you have a big audience, but TV is a waste of money when your audience is small. I can get better results using digital laser targeting and targeted print ads, but DTC marketers are like TV because it makes them feel important within their company.
Category Archive: DTC Spending
Before most drugs are launched, much time and effort are spent developing marketing plans and getting approval. However, given the rapid changes in the market and the realization that too many tactics are more hype than reality, fixed marketing plans are a waste of time.
DTC marketing has evolved. Those DTC managers who use the exact roadmap will waste a lot of money when accountability is increasing. Challenges await, and there isn’t one set of guidelines for every product category.
The old model of looking at performance in the first six months of product launch isn’t relevant. Today, colossal budget product launches are not returning the same ROI as before. Product launches are going to need to be micro-targeted to specific audiences.
Many companies allocate an exponentially more significant percentage of their marketing budget to paid media over organic search. However, many brands are unaware of the waste inherently included in paid media. Organic search delivers results at a lower customer acquisition cost (CAC) than paid search — 87% lower cost, per research. According to Google, organic search also offers double the ROI that paid search does.
(Endpoints) Pharma TV advertising boomed in 2021 – to the tune of $3.91 billion across prescription meds, iSpot reports. That’s an increase of 4.8% year over year, which may not sound like much but marks pharma’s steady growth through the pandemic. And its continued growth of national TV ad spending while the rest of the industry is on the decline in the US. What a waste of money.
OPENING: TV is great at creating awareness, but it can also scare patients away if one of your side effects is “may lead to death.” This is one side effect that stands out when your target audience watches your spot along with “serious heart rhythm problems” and “new cancers have happened during treatment.”
SUMMARY: DTC marketing is evolving as patients become more thoughtful about choosing treatment options. The model of “heavy TV followed by a website designed to sell people isn’t going to work anymore.