The online world is changing and so too are the expectations from HCPs. Today, new policies and legislation like GDPR and CCPA are making it clear that people care about their online privacy and how brands engage with them. Therefore, it’s on you to provide more thoughtful experiences. One way to do that is by investing in native advertising,1 a tried-and-true tactic proven to engage people online. According to studies, people look at native ads 53% more than display ads. 2 They also create an 18% increase in purchase intent and even greater engagement than the original editorial content. With all that said, it’s clear why native advertising in healthcare is a smart investment.
Learn more about native advertising in healthcare.
What’s Native Advertising in Healthcare?
Native advertising is a creative way for healthcare companies to promote their product and services and connect with HCPs in a natural and non-intrusive way. These ads use contextual, relevant content to entice readers, using a subtle branded element that matches the feel, form, and function of the content they appear alongside.
Native healthcare ads will naturally entice HCPs to learn more about the ad because, hopefully, they won’t immediately peg it as one. Instead, they’ll see it as the next progression in learning more about your new Rx drug, medical device, etcetera.
Because of this, native healthcare ads need to deliver some value to HCPs; they should take a topic your target audience is interested in and use it to promote how your product and service can help them.
Native Ads in the Healthcare World
Native healthcare ads come in various shapes and sizes, allowing you to gear them in a way that makes the most sense for your campaign objectives and your target audience.
In-Feed/In-Content Ads
In-feed or in-content ads appear alongside other content in a newsfeed or list of content. HCPs will see this type of native ad while scrolling the listings of article summaries, typically occurring in content feeds, product feeds, and social feeds.
Content Recommendation Ads
Content recommendation widgets are a form of native advertising where an ad or paid content link is delivered via a widget, typically at the bottom of an article, displayed beside, between, or below editorial content or other paid content.
Branded/Native Content
Branded/native content is published in the same format as the publisher’s site. These editorial-style ads are generally created in conjunction with the publisher’s content teams.
Native Advertising in Healthcare: A Smart Investment with Tons of Staying Power
Now that you understand more about native healthcare ads, you may be asking yourself—why are they a smart investment?
For starters, evolving public policy, the advent of GDPR and CCPA make it abundantly clear that the online community is serious about their privacy and how brands engage them with programmatic media. Therefore, it’s on you to provide more thoughtful experiences that don’t cross the line. Native advertising can do that.
Native advertising is also set up nicely to continue evolving with the programmatic ecosystem—this means broadening its scope to play well with immersive environments like augmented and virtual reality and up-and-coming channels like voice advertising.
Plus, native advertising works. Native ads containing rich media can elevate conversion to 60% while driving a CTR of 40X compared to other formats.3
You can no longer consider native advertising a separate cog in your programmatic strategy. Moving forward, native ads need to be an intrinsic part.
