KEY IDEA: Online metrics can paint an important picture for DTC marketers but either brand teams don’t have the headcount to adequately leverage insights or they are too focused on TV.

TV drives awareness but the web drives conversion. If you don’t understand this by now you need to contact your vendors to supply you with the information that clearly shows that TV doesn’t really drive patients into doctors to ask for an Rx.

I often get asked to review client website metrics to identify opportunities, but what I often find is those pharma websites are ignored. Bounce rates, tied to keywords, are inadequate and website visitors aren’t reading content.

Here are some things that you should be looking out beyond visitors:

1ne: Keywords – Which keywords are driving visitors and targeted actions. If, for example, a keyword has a bounce rate of 90% why are you still using it?

2wo: Cost per targeted action – Which keywords, or ads, are driving people to the desired pages within your website or which ones are leading to action like downloading a coupon.

3hree: Which pages are people reading and which ones are they ignoring? Website optimization is key to a great brand experience online but too often processes prevent brands from making key changes.

At the heart of all this is the continued importance of TV over digital, which is a huge mistake. People don’t make healthcare decisions based on a TV commercial. If you don’t have time to identify opportunities from website analytics, your agency should be doing it for you.

Total website visitors doesn’t mean a damn thing without an understanding of where they are going and how long they are are staying.