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
Dextro clients to achieve increased accuracy in cross-device consumer measurement and engagement NEW YORK, Feb. 6, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Dextro Analytics, a pure play analytics company that harnesses the power of human learning and artificial reasoning to drive more informed and effective consumer marketing, is partnering with Tapad, the leading provider of unified, cross-screen marketing technology solutions and now a part of Experian. The deal is effective immediately and the scope of the partnership covers North America. Additional terms were not disclosed. Leveraging Tapad’s privacy-safe Device Graph™, Dextro Analytics will be able to significantly bolster its insight engine to decode complex customer journeys. Armed with more relevant, actionable insights, marketers can use Dextro’s cross-screen, closed-loop measurement systems to reach and engage the right customer at the right time through the right channel. “Being able to accurately map consumer preferences, behaviors and journeys in a privacy-safe and unified way across devices is still one of the biggest pain points for marketers,” said Ajith Govind, co-founder of Dextro Analytics. “At the same time, this partnership engages customers with the right message at the right time.” “Detecting latent patterns and signals, and tracing backward- and forward-looking behavioral characteristics, are keys to sustaining a competitive advantage in a crowded space,” said Manmit Shrimali, co-founder of Dextro Analytics. “With the proliferation of data and devices, connecting the dots is of paramount importance.” “Dextro is solving some of the biggest challenges in analytics today,” said Pierre Martensson, GM of Tapad’s data division. “Our partners consistently see notable improvements in both budget allocation and device optimizations after integrating with the Tapad Device Graph, and I have every confidence that Dextro will be among them.” For more information about Dextro Analytics’ revolutionary approach to using human learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to solve business and analytical problems, please visit http://dextroanalytics.com/. For more information about Tapad’s cross-platform advertising solutions, please visit https://www.experian.com/marketing/consumer-sync. Contact us today
NEW YORK & LOS ANGELES / BUSINESS WIRE / Jan. 30, 2017– Tapad, part of Experian, and Rubicon Project (NYSE: RUBI) announced today a new global partnership offering a unified, cross-device campaign delivery solution within an automated advertising marketplace. Tapad is the leading provider of unified, cross-screen marketing technology solutions and Rubicon Projectoperates one of the largest advertising marketplaces in the world. The Tapad Device Graph™, which enables buyers to expand their high-value display data signals to associated mobile devices, will be integrated across Rubicon Project’s leading advertising exchange and Orders platform, significantly improving consumer mobile reach. The new global partnership will empower Buyers within Rubicon Project’s exchange to find and engage audiences across their entire digital experience. Rubicon Project operates one of the world’s largest mobile exchanges connecting to approximately 1 billion unique mobile devices globally. “We’re excited to partner with Tapad to continue to provide our customers the very best data for managing their advertising businesses,” said Harry Patz, Chief Revenue Officer, Rubicon Project. “Cross-device delivery is crucial for buyers today with more than 81% of internet users currently relying on more than one device for digital access[1]. Through our partnership, buyers will be able to extend their desktop private marketplace campaigns to mobile, allowing them to find and engage their audience across devices, anywhere in the world. The net result will also benefit sellers; the increase in mobile reach will better position publishers and app developers to strategically capitalize on their inventory, ultimately increasing bid rates and mobile revenue across the board.” “Our partnership with Rubicon Project marks the first time advertisers and publishers alike are able to use cross-device solutions at significant scale outside of Google and Facebook,” said Pierre Martensson, GM of Tapad’s Data Division and APAC. “Our Device Graph will help Rubicon Project’s advertisers make more informed buying decisions and find the audiences who matter most.” Barry Adams, VP of Commercial Development at Bidswitch, said, “As digital advertising moves away from desktop and increasingly toward a mobile-first model, cross device data becomes critical to finding consumers. The rich data buyers will now be able to leverage at scale through the Tapad and Rubicon Project integration will enable us to provide a state-of-the-art cross-screen solution for the 150+ buying platforms that use our service, and the tens of thousands of advertisers they represent.” For more information about Rubicon Project’s inventory, please visit www.rubiconproject.com. For more information about Tapad’s cross-platform advertising solutions, please visit https://www.experian.com/marketing/consumer-sync. Contact us today
Tapad expands linear TV analytics solution, enabling optimal reach and frequency across TV and digital platforms NEW YORK, Jan. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Tapad, now a part of Experian, has partnered with WideOrbit, the leading provider of advertising management software for media companies, to develop the industry’s first programmatic TV-buying platform powered by a device graph. Tapad is the leading provider of unified, cross-screen marketing technology solutions and was first to market with a device graph, the Tapad Device Graph™. WideOrbit’s robust supply platform and industry-leading footprint offers access to premium TV inventory on top networks, reaching more than 99 million households across local affiliates. The partnership pairs Tapad’s demand-side technology with WideOrbit’s supply-side inventory. As a result, marketers can leverage cross-device audiences in their TV buys for the first time. Additionally, integrating the Tapad Device Graph™ with digital feedback loops and audiences both accelerates optimization and enables precise audience discovery for TV marketers. “The integration of WideOrbit’s quality TV supply takes orchestrated cross-screen media buys to the next level,” said Marshall Wong, Tapad’s SVP of TV market development. “Marketers can now optimize TV campaigns within days instead of weeks. This also untethers them from buying against generic demographics like age and gender. By allowing brands to employ their own CRM or third-party data, we can move them much closer to audiences who will take action.” “Integrating Tapad’s device graph with WideOrbit’s programmatic marketplace delivers enormous value to marketers looking to add TV to cross-device campaigns,” said Ian Ferreira, EVP of programmatic at WideOrbit. “Television still delivers the most efficient reach of any medium, and Tapad’s platform now allows marketers to purchase premium broadcast inventory that extends the power of cross-screen campaigns to TV with a single, unified solution.” “Our clients build lasting relationships with consumers through thoughtful and pioneering marketing,” said Jeff Giacchetti, VP of digital at Mediavest Spark. “The strategic partnership of demand-side technology and supply-side inventory makes it easier for brands to find efficient, incremental reach and are critical in this endeavor.” For more information about Tapad’s cross-platform advertising solutions, please visit https://www.experian.com/marketing/consumer-sync. Contact us today