Today, the vast majority of U.S. consumers have connected TVs in their homes, which means connected and over-the-top TV (CTV and OTT) ads have become essential tools for reaching brand-eligible patients. To make the most of OTT advertising, pharma brands need precise targeting capabilities for this channel but also the ability to seamlessly integrate tracking and optimization across the entire omnichannel journey.
Even as pharma brands are realizing the value of OTT, many are looking for a new targeting solution to replace the third-party cookies they rely on across other channels. Because OTT is already a cookieless channel, this period of transition provides an excellent opportunity to not only replace third-party cookies but find a solution that is more deterministic than probabilistic across targeting and measurement.
Many have turned to first-party data as their answer to the cookieless targeting question. But there are a number of downsides to this approach. Let’s explore how deterministic identity resolution – Medicx | An Optimize Rx Company's approach to privacy-safe precision targeting — compares to first-party data for CTV specifically.
Why Deterministic ID Resolution vs First-Party Data for OTT?
Pharma brands have typically used third-party cookies to track user behavior and preferences, which allows them to serve targeted ads and measure campaign performance across multiple channels. But while cookies have played a vital role in the emergence of omnichannel marketing, their relevance is rapidly fading amidst widespread cookie deprecation.
OTT advertising, on the other hand, has never supported targeting via third-party cookies. Historically, the absence of cookies on this channel has limited brands’ ability to target specific user groups or accurately track audience behavior post-campaign exposure and viewer behavior. This disconnected measurement experience has made it harder to achieve the unified, data-driven omnichannel journey pharma brands need to stay competitive today.
Brands considering or increasing investment in OTT advertising are confronted with the same question as they are on other channels: what targeting approach will give them precision and audience quality at scale if cookies aren’t an option?
Many in marketing believe that first-party data is the answer, but this approach comes with a host of challenges that will make it difficult to maintain and scale. Although targeting with first-party data gives brands more control, it also makes achieving seamless, authentic engagement across multiple channels difficult and time-consuming to execute.
First-party data often relies on contact information such as email addresses:
- Requiring significant upkeep to maintain reliable records
- Demanding behavioral changes from every stakeholder in the digital marketing ecosystem (e.g., asking consumers to sign in over and over).
- Dependence on publishers to connect and share data with compatible advertising IDs
Instead of taking on the operational burden of this approach, pharma brands can instead rely on deterministic ID resolution. When done in a privacy-safe way, this ID resolution process allows brands to create digital audiences that connect real-world data (RWD) from medical records to consumer data ready for targeting across multiple channels — including OTT and CTV.
How Medicx | An OptimizeRx Company Delivers High Audience Quality with ID Resolution
Life science marketers need targeting solutions that allow them to stay in compliance with data privacy regulations while marketing complex products to highly specific patient cohorts. That’s a difficult balance to achieve, especially because new brand-eligible patients can arise every day.
The consumer data that most brands rely on for omnichannel targeting don’t have robust data, which means the lookalike audiences often fail to achieve audience match rates over 60%. Even when using highly cost-effective channels like OTT, many pharma brands are paying for a greater volume of low-quality impressions, rather than engagement with more brand-eligible patients.
To solve this challenge for the life sciences industry, Medicx | An Optimize Rx Company has developed a completely unique approach to deterministic ID resolution that resolves RWD from medical and prescription claims with consumer identities. The end result? Pharma brands can achieve precision targeting at scale and create a connected omnichannel experience across digital channels, including CTV.
Advantages of Executing OTT and CTV Media with Medicx | An OptimizeRx Comapny and Madhive
Once a brand has created a patient profile into an integrated data asset, that data can then be used on Medicx | An Optimize Rx Company's Micro-Neighborhood® targeting platform. Using the router as the digital mailbox, the platform allows brands to safely target patients at the household level, across more than 35 million hyperlocal areas.
Medicx | An Optimize Rx Company combines robust RWD into one integrated, high-fidelity data asset
Working with Medicx | An OptimizeRx Company and Madhive allows pharma brands to launch a completely new campaign for OTT and CTV in 10-14 business days. Additionally, working with Medicx | An OptimizeRx Company and Madhive for CTV ad buying gives pharma brands the advantage of:
- Launching ads across a robust footprint of more than 100 million households and 600 million devices.
- First access to premium inventory from supply partners with large-scale viewer bases such as A&E, Hulu, Roku, ESPN, Discovery, and more.
- The industry’s only real-time CTV and fraud detection infrastructure, with media buys authenticated through cryptographic fingerprinting.
- The ability to control the number of daily impressions to households across any channel, including linear TV.
- Always-on access to platform dashboards and campaign reports that are updated with new performance data in real time.
Together, Medicx | An OptimzieRx Company and Madhive help pharma brands break down the silos that create advertising inefficiencies and prevent real-time measurement and campaign optimization. Our combined solution allows your brand to build custom audiences that are ready for forecasting, activation, and reporting through an all-in-one CTV & OTT platform.
And it all starts with a foundation of deterministic ID resolution. To learn more about why deterministic ID resolution is an essential ingredient for successful omnichannel marketing at scale, download our ebook.
You can also contact us to learn more about how Medicx | An OptimizeRx Company uses deterministic ID resolution to create an engaged omnichannel experience across digital channels like CTV, OTT, and more.