Reaching healthcare providers (HCPs) programmatically is about more than just volume. It’s about achieving meaningful scale—connecting with HCPs where and when they are most receptive. However, doing that effectively presents a unique challenge. Unlike broad consumer advertising, only specific doctors diagnose, treat, and prescribe for certain conditions. As a result, HCP target audiences tend to be much smaller than those in consumer goods or retail. 

So, how can healthcare marketers ensure both media and health KPIs are achieved while simultaneously maximizing scale? The key lies in optimizing inventory strategy. Here are five tips for boosting reach, efficiency, and impact when running programmatic HCP campaigns.

Many HCP campaigns rely heavily or exclusively on display ads, limiting available inventory and valuable engagement opportunities. Remember, doctors are consumers too: they watch connected TV (CTV), scroll through apps, and listen to podcasts. Expanding to multiple device types (mobile, desktop, and tablet) and diverse channels can significantly enhance reach and impact. 

For example, incorporating CTV and online video (OLV) can increase message retention; native ads can drive seamless in-feed engagement; and audio ads can capture attention during commute or work hours. The more formats your creative agency can support, the greater your opportunity to connect with HCPs in the moments that matter.

Recent analysis of DeepIntent HCP campaigns demonstrated the following reach by channel:

Audio is a particularly popular channel within some specialties.

HCPs frequently visit medical websites, but many endemic publishers prioritize direct sales, limiting the amount of inventory that’s available programmatically. A balanced strategy using both endemic and non-endemic sites ensures broader reach and budget efficiency. 

At DeepIntent, most HCP campaigns allocate their spend across both inventory types, with non-endemic sites delivering 65% higher reach on average, while endemic sites offer the advantage of engaging HCPs during moments of intent. Advertisers can report performance and healthcare metrics across both, ensuring a data-driven approach to optimizing spend and impact. To further enhance endemic reach, advertisers can leverage targeted endemic packages, facilitating a more refined and effective strategy. Both contribute to overall script performance, but it’s important to find a breakdown that optimizes your spend and impact. 

Recent analysis of DeepIntent HCP campaigns demonstrated the following programmatic reach:

Given their ability to attract highly valuable healthcare visitors, endemic sites can command much higher CPMs than traditional media sites. Additionally, targeting certain specialist segments can drive CPMs even higher. A recent analysis of HCP campaigns targeting specialists revealed:

• Family Medicine, Pediatrics, and Endocrinology: CPMs were 2.9x higher than consumer benchmarks.
• Neurologists, Pathologists, and Cardiologists: CPMs were 3.8x higher than consumer benchmarks.

To maintain efficiency while securing high-value placements, programmatic tools can refine your approach. For example, DeepIntent provides real-time alerts if you’re consistently being outbid, allowing you to apply bid factors to increase bids specifically for endemic publishers without overspending elsewhere.

Additionally, DeepIntent’s SmartBid automatically optimizes bid prices, ensuring you secure the best possible rate while maintaining strong win rates. When paired with DeepIntent Outcomes optimization, this strategy helps achieve meaningful scale and drive key healthcare performance metrics.

When a target list of NPIs is too small to achieve the required budget scale, consider using health-claims data to build a secondary audience of HCPs with similar patient profiles and prescribing behavior. This “audience extension” technique expands reach to providers who mirror the target list audience, enhancing the potential for meaningful scale without sacrificing relevance.

When targeting smaller HCP audiences (fewer than 100,000 providers), your targeting is already highly precise, thanks to opted-in NPI data and a cross-device HCP graph. To ensure maximum scale and efficiency, limit excessive pre-bid targeting layers like contextual, geographic, device type, and time-based flighting.

By keeping the focus on your core audience, you avoid unnecessary over-segmentation that can limit reach. This ensures your campaign fully benefits from the precision already built into your audience without sacrificing scale. 

Programmatic HCP campaigns require a specialized approach due to their niche audience and pricing dynamics. However, with thoughtful targeting, omnichannel execution, and intelligent bidding, they effectively drive awareness and advocacy for new treatments among key healthcare providers. 

Discover how next-gen data strategy and optimization are shaping the future of HCP engagement—download our latest white paper, Health Intelligence™: The Next Era of Healthcare Advertising.