Branded pharmaceutical websites drive conversions among prospects and patients

Conducted in conjunction with marketing innovation consultancy Evolution Road LLC, the study aims to provide marketers with insight into the impact of various online marketing activities on brand awareness, favourability, and sales.

Included in this study were results from exposure to banner ads, rich media, search marketing and branded sites, both among patients and prospects. The study examined data from surveys conducted over the past few years and comScore's permission-based one million person US panel.

"With online marketing as an integral part of any comprehensive pharmaceutical marketing plan, it's important to understand how various online channels affect consumers' knowledge of a brand and propensity to use that brand," said John Mangano, vice president of comScore health marketing solutions. "Our benchmarking data continue to show that branded websites have the greatest impact on conversions and also reinforce the significance of display and search advertising in increasing awareness and favourability toward a brand."

Branded websites most effective in driving conversions

Supporting previous findings, the study found that visitation to a branded website generated the greatest positive lifts in conversion. Existing patients increased their refill rate 15.5 percentage points more than those who did not visit the site. The percentage of prospects beginning treatment after visiting a branded site was 8.8 percentage points higher than prospects with no exposure to the branded site.

Incremental Effect on New Patient Starts and Adherence/Next Fill vs. Control Source: Online Marketing Effectiveness Benchmarks for the Pharmaceutical Industry (2011 Release)
	Prospects	Patients
	New Patient Starts	Adherence/Next Fill
Exposed & Interacted (Rich Media*)	No Statistically Significant Lift	No Statistically Significant Lift
Visited Branded Website	+8.8	+15.5

* Defined as interactive digital media

Exposure to display advertising causes increases in brand awareness and favourability

The study also found that exposure to online display advertising and branded websites have a positive impact on awareness and favourability among both prospects and patients. For prospects, exposure to a display ad increased both aided and unaided brand awareness by 2.8 and 1.8 percentage points, respectively. The impact is greater for exposure and interaction with rich media ads, showing a 3.1 percentage point increase for aided brand awareness and a 5.5 percentage point increase for unaided brand awareness. For patients, favourability was increased only by exposure and interaction with rich media ads, showing a 4.1 percentage point lift.

Apart from online advertising, branded pharma websites also continued to have a significant impact on awareness and favourability among patients and prospects. Prospects exhibited a 16.9 percentage point lift in favourability after visiting a branded website, while patients reported a 15.6 percentage point lift.

Incremental Effect on Brand Awareness and Favourability Over Control Among Prospects and Patients Source: Online Marketing Effectiveness Benchmarks for the Pharmaceutical Industry (2011 Release)
Marketing Activity	Prospects	Patients
	Aided Brand Awareness	Unaided Brand Awareness	Brand Favourability	Brand Favourability
Exposed Only to Online Ads	+2.8	+1.8	No Statistically Significant Lift	No Statistically Significant Lift
Exposed to and Interacted with Online Ads (Rich Media*)	+3.1	+5.5	No Statistically Significant Lift	+4.1
Visited Branded Website	+14.1	+13.4	+16.9	+15.6

* Defined as interactive digital media

The Online Marketing Effectiveness Benchmarks for the Pharmaceutical Industry also provides insight into lifts provided by various kinds of search-referred traffic to branded websites. To request a copy of the report or for more information on comScore Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Solutions, contact John Mangano at .

About comScore Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Solutions

comScore Pharmaceutical Solutions delivers in-depth information needed to understand the impact that brand, condition-specific, and health websites have on consumers' brand awareness, conversion, and patient compliance as well as insights into health care professionals' online usage. comScore's products deliver actionable insight to help refine consumer profiles, identify key alliances, optimise interactive marketing initiatives, benchmark against the competition and accurately measure the ROI of Web site and online marketing programs. For more information, go to www.comscore.com/Industry_Solutions/Pharmaceutical.

About Evolution Road

Evolution Road is a marketing innovation consultancy focused on helping brands leverage digital channels to drive their business. Evolution Road is bringing its vision to life - that digital marketing will dramatically improve how pharmaceutical brands are marketed for the benefit of consumers, physicians and healthcare brands. To that end, Evolution Road has helped millions of consumers and healthcare professionals make more informed healthcare choices and has delivered over US$1 billion (about R7 billion) in incremental top-line revenue for its clients at an ROI of over 4:1. For more information, contact Paul Ivans at , or go to www.evolutionroad.com.