At A Glance
Healthcare marketers are spending record amounts on pharma advertising, but most still can't connect campaign exposure to prescribing outcomes. This article explains why fragmented data, identity, and measurement systems break the link between patient (DTC) and healthcare professional (HCP) audiences, and the infrastructure that closes that gap.Originally published in AdExchanger
Key takeaways
- Pharma digital ad spend is tracking between $22 billion and $26 billion in 2026, yet most brands still can’t connect ad exposure to prescribing behavior.
- DTC and HCP teams need to agree on a shared measurement framework before a campaign launches, not after, so performance can be judged on one standard.
- Experian’s identity infrastructure keeps DTC and HCP data governed separately through two distinct paths while still making cross-audience measurement possible.
- Experian’s Audience Engine connects audience building to activation, giving teams access to premium publisher inventory and a marketplace of 19+ verified health data partners.
Healthcare marketing teams are spending more than ever. Pharma digital ad spend is now tracking between $22 billion and $26 billion in 2026, with connected TV (CTV) overtaking search as the most noticed healthcare ad channel. Yet most brands still can’t draw a straight line from campaign exposure to a filled prescription.
The problem isn’t budget or creative. It’s a structural gap in how healthcare marketers connect data, identity, and measurement across patient (DTC) and healthcare professional (HCP) audiences.
That gap is widening as campaigns grow more complex. A brand running a simultaneous patient (DTC) push and healthcare professional (HCP) engagement program is running two disconnected programs with different data sources, identity schemas, agency relationships, and definitions of success. When a patient sees a CTV ad and their cardiologist receives a targeted digital engagement the same week, almost no brand can confirm that those two exposures happened, let alone measure their combined effect on prescribing behavior.
Why is data fragmentation becoming a bigger challenge for healthcare marketers?
Data fragmentation is becoming a bigger challenge for healthcare marketers because the accuracy pharma brands are paying for in digital media doesn’t match what most measurement stacks can deliver. As pharma shifts spend from linear television to digital channels, the expectation of accuracy comes with it. Brands can no longer accept “we reached the right demographic” as a measurement answer when they are paying programmatic CPMs and expecting outcomes measured in script lift.
The typical healthcare marketer is working with three or four disconnected data environments. Consumer data lives in one place. Claims and National Provider Identifier (NPI) records live in another. Media reporting from the agency is in a third. Analytics and measurement are downstream of all of them, often running on a different timeline. Each handoff introduces the potential for data loss, and those losses compound across a campaign flight.
This creates a reporting picture that tells you what happened in each channel but not what worked across them. That distinction matters enormously when the goal isn’t impressions but activation, adherence, or prescribing behavior.
The missing layer in pharma marketing. Watch our Q&A
Does fixing healthcare data fragmentation mean merging DTC and HCP data together?
No, merging DTC and HCP data together isn’t the answer to healthcare data fragmentation. Healthcare data environments have strict governance requirements, and the separation of DTC and HCP data is both a regulatory and a strategic necessity. Merging DTC and HCP data into a single undifferentiated pool is not a goal worth pursuing.
What healthcare marketers actually need is a shared infrastructure that lets disparate data environments speak a common language without eliminating the boundaries between them. Three elements make that possible:
Experian’s identity infrastructure is built on this principle, acting as a neutral, interoperable workflow layer. For DTC audiences, that means high-fidelity tokenized matching that preserves accuracy from onboarding through activation and into partner-enabled measurement. For HCP audiences, it means deterministic NPI-based resolution using verified professional attributes including specialty, practice location, and professional address. These are two distinct identity paths, governed to keep DTC and HCP data separate while enabling measurement across both.
From onboarding to outcomes
Pharma marketing teams need identity workflows that can support accurate audience creation, governed activation, and partner-enabled measurement without combining DTC and HCP identity paths.
Download our pharma marketing playbook to help your team:
- Plan DTC and HCP identity strategies with clearer separation
- Prepare audiences for activation across approved channels and partners
- Evaluate audience quality, usable reach, and governance
What does a connected view of DTC and HCP audiences look like in healthcare marketing?
A connected view means DTC and HCP audiences in healthcare marketing runs on identity workflows matched to what each requires, deterministic resolution for HCPs and high-fidelity matching for DTC, with both feeding into shared measurement instead of siloed reporting. Building this kind of connected infrastructure isn’t a one-quarter initiative, but three questions show you where your program stands today.
Why is infrastructure the foundation for durable healthcare marketing programs?
Infrastructure is the foundation for durable healthcare marketing programs because it’s what lets audience planning, activation, and measurement function as one connected system instead of three separate handoffs that break down under pressure. As healthcare marketing gets more competitive, regulated, and measurable, that connected system is what keeps campaigns from starting over each time.
A connected view of DTC and HCP audiences in healthcare, with the proper guardrails in place, is a strategic decision about how your brand wants to compete. The technology and the partner ecosystem exist to make it real. The question is whether your marketing organization is structured to take advantage of it.
Ready to build a connected healthcare identity strategy?
Our team works with pharma brands to align identity, audience, and measurement across DTC and HCP programs. If you’re ready to close the gap between data and outcomes, let’s talk.
About the author
Kevin Dunn
Chief Revenue Officer, Experian
Kevin Dunn joins Experian Marketing Services with more than 20 years of leadership experience across marketing and advertising technology, most recently serving as Senior Vice President of Brands and Agencies at LiveRamp. In that role, he led growth across retail, CPG, travel, hospitality, financial services, and healthcare, overseeing new business, account expansion, and channel partnerships.
Kevin is known for building cohesive, accountable teams and leading with optimism, clarity, and a strong sense of shared purpose. His leadership philosophy centers on empowering people, driving positive outcomes for clients and fostering a culture where teams can grow, take smart risks, and succeed together.
FAQs
Most pharma brands can’t connect a CTV ad exposure to a prescribing decision because their DTC and HCP data runs through three or four disconnected environments: consumer data, claims and NPI records, agency media reporting, and downstream analytics. Each handoff between those systems introduces potential data loss, and those losses add up across a campaign flight, leaving brands with channel-level reporting instead of a connected view of what actually moved prescribing behavior.
Building a connected identity strategy doesn’t mean combining DTC and HCP data into one data set. Healthcare data environments carry strict governance requirements, so DTC and HCP data need to stay separate for both regulatory and strategic reasons. A connected identity strategy links those separate environments through interoperable workflows rather than merging them into one data set.
Experian helps pharma brands connect DTC and HCP measurement without merging their data by running two distinct, governed identity paths: high-fidelity tokenized matching for DTC audiences and deterministic NPI-based resolution for HCP audiences, built on verified professional attributes like specialty and practice location. That structure lets brands measure performance across both audiences while keeping the underlying data separate.
The difference between deterministic and probabilistic matching in healthcare marketing comes down to certainty: probabilistic matching can support large-scale DTC reach where some statistical estimation is acceptable, while HCP targeting calls for certainty that only deterministic matching, typically based on verified NPI data, can provide. As healthcare audiences get more specific, the cost of an unverified match rises, which is why HCP resolution leans deterministic.
If a healthcare marketing team’s audience strategy isn’t translating into activation, the first thing to check is whether those audience segments can actually reach live publisher inventory. A lot of audience development happens in a spreadsheet or analytics tool and then stalls at activation because the IDs never connect to real media. Experian’s Audience Engine builds audience creation, onboarding, and activation into one workflow, backed by a marketplace of 19+ verified health data partners.
Latest posts
Brands can leverage non-clinical factors, like the social determinants of health, to gain a holistic view of their patients and increase access to care.
Next up in our Ask the Expert series, we hear from Sarah Ilie and Lauren Portell. Sarah and Lauren talk about the internet’s value exchange – what we gain and lose when it’s so easy to share our information. Is convenience hurting or helping us? The age of connectivity Today, it’s almost unimaginable to think about how your day-to-day life would look without the convenience of the internet, smartphones, apps, and fitness trackers; the list goes on and on. We live in the age of connectivity. We have the convenience to buy products delivered to our homes on the same day. We can consume content across thousands of platforms. We also have watches or apps that track our health with more granularity than ever before. The internet’s value exchange In exchange for this convenience and information, we must share various kinds of data for these transactions and activities to take place. Websites and apps give you the option to “opt in” and share your data. They also often let you know that they are collecting your data. This can feel like an uncomfortable proposition and an invasion of privacy to many people. What does it mean to opt-in to a website or app’s tracking cookies? What value do we exchange? What opting in means for you Opting in to cookies means that you are allowing the app or website to track your online activity and collect anonymous data that is aggregated for marketing analytics. The data provides valuable information to understand users better to create better online experiences or offer more useful products and content. Granting access to “tracking” offers several benefits to users such as a customized, more personal user experience or advertising that is more likely to be relevant. For example, let’s imagine you have recently been using an app or website to plan a camping trip. By sharing your data, the website or app has visibility into what is interesting or useful to you which can lead to related content suggestions (best campsites) or relevant advertising and product recommendations (tents and camping equipment). It’s important to know that the marketing data collected when you opt in is extremely valuable. The revenue that advertising generates is often very important to websites and apps because this is how they make money to continue providing content and services to consumers. Data privacy practices Privacy concerns regarding how companies and developers use tracking information have risen over the last couple of years and have resulted in additional protection for consumers’ privacy while still allowing companies to improve their products and advertising. One big step in this direction has been simply making people aware that their data is being collected, why it’s being collected, and providing users with the option to share this data for marketing analytics through opting-in or not. Other important steps to maintain online privacy include formal legal legislation and self-regulation. The right to privacy is protected by more than 600 laws between individual states and federal legislation and the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce recently voted to pass the American Data Privacy and Protection Act. Additionally, marketing organizations such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Association of National Advertisers regulate themselves with codes of conduct and standards given there is so much attention on privacy issues. Is the internet’s value exchange worth it? The data that we choose to share by opting in has a lot of benefits for us as consumers. There are laws in place to protect our data and privacy. Of course, it’s important to be aware that data is collected and used for marketing purposes, but it’s also reasonable to share a certain amount of data that translates into benefits for you as well. The best data unlocks the best marketing. Contact us to tap into the power of the world’s largest consumer database. Learn how you can use Experian Marketing Services’ powerful consumer data to learn more about your customers, drive new business, and deliver intelligent interactions across all channels. Meet the Experts: Lauren Portell, Account Executive, Advanced TV, Experian Marketing Services Sarah Ilie, Strategic Partner Manager, Experian Marketing Services Get in touch
While the weather outside is frightfully hot this summer, it’s never too soon to start thinking about the holidays – and consumers are more likely to start their holiday shopping early this year. To get you ready for the 2022 holiday shopping season, we looked back at consumer shopping trends from 2019-2021. What did we learn and what trends do we expect to see this year? Let’s look back. A look back Over the last three years, average consumer spending has increased. Record 2021 holiday sales came amidst a wave of COVID-19 cases, rising inflation, labor shortages, and supply chain problems. Despite these challenges, consumers continued to let it snow when it came to spending during the holiday season. 2022 has been a year with its own economic roadblocks – the war in Ukraine, rising gas prices, and recession concerns. Yet 2021 was a banner year for holiday sales despite its obstacles, and we predict similar trends in the 2022 holiday shopping season. What trends do we expect to see for the most wonderful time of the year? 2022 predictions While consumer spending remains strong, changing economic conditions continue to shape shopper behavior. To develop our predictions for 2022 holiday shopper behavior, we focused on four key areas: When consumers shop Where consumers shop What consumers purchase Consumer media preferences Now, let’s make our holiday campaign planning checklist and check it twice. When consumers shop Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Jack Frost nipping at your nose. Those aren’t the only ways to know when the holiday season has begun. Shoppers tend to spread out their holiday purchases across multiple months and were more likely to start shopping earlier. To understand holiday retail sales trends from 2019-2021, we identified four shopper segments: Early Shoppers Traditional Shoppers Late Shoppers Random Shoppers What differences did we see between our four shopper segments? Early shoppers made almost half of their holiday purchases in October Random shoppers spread out their holiday purchases evenly across multiple months Late shoppers made almost half of their holiday purchases in December Traditional shoppers made almost half of their holiday purchases in November While December continues to dominate holiday sales, October has started to gain traction over the last three years, and November remains a core shopping month. Everybody knows a turkey and a mistletoe help to make the season bright but knowing when your consumers are most likely to shop will help deck your campaign planning halls. Jingle bell rock your way to holiday sales that shine bright with our tips to prepare for earlier shoppers: Offer targeted promotions earlier in the shopping season Target your ads based on the shopping habits of your customers throughout the season Where consumers shop There’s no place like home for the holidays but most consumers aren’t shopping from home. Despite the rise in online shopping, brick and mortar locations continue to dominate holiday sales. October is the most popular month to take a one-horse open sleigh to a store, and consumers gather around the fire to online shop in November and December. With most shoppers preferring to shop in-store, and e-commerce popularity growing, it’s critical to think about bridging the gap between your online and offline presence for the consumer. Are you offering multiple paths to purchase with solutions such as BOPIS (Buy Online, Pickup In-Store)? Go down in history like Rudolph with our tips to prepare for more in-store shopping: Focus on in-store shopping experience technology (self-checkout, VR, QR codes, scan to pay, etc.) Offer multiple paths to purchase to connect your online and physical presence through methods such as BOPIS (Buy Online, Pickup In-Store), BORIS (Buy Online, Return In-Store), and ROPO (Research Online, Purchase Offline), etc. What consumers purchase When it comes to holiday gifts, for some, only a hippopotamus will do. Compared to pre-pandemic, shoppers are spending more at apparel stores and mass retailers. Spending at specialty retailers, warehouse clubs, and on office, electronic, and games is almost the same across holiday and non-holiday shopping months. Time for toys and time for cheer may be year-round, but are there any correlations between where consumers shop (online vs. in-store) and what they purchase? Our data found that shoppers who bought from mass retailers were more likely to shop online, while shopping for apparel and warehouse clubs was done at a physical store location. Put this insight to the test by thinking through how you can target your consumer based on where they shop in-store and online. You just might find that hippopotamus at a brick and mortar mass retailer location! Consumer media preferences Do you see what I see? While we are seeing a shift to digital media channel preference, consumers still engage with traditional media channels like direct mail and the traditional newspaper. Successfully connecting with your customers involves capturing their attention through the right channel. We found that our four shopping groups prefer a mix of traditional and digital media channels. What does your media channel mix look like? Hark! The herald angels sing of ways to adapt to the change in holiday spend and media preferences: Align your activation efforts to digital, but don’t forget about traditional channels Expand your targeting and activation focus beyond in-store vs. online Download our new 2025 report For a deeper dive into our predictions and actionable insights you can use to take your holiday campaign planning home for the holidays, download our new 2025 report, in collaboration with GroundTruth. Experian data can help you refine your content and creative strategy to achieve maximum ROI for each campaign across all your channels. Download now Get in touch