What is targeting and why do you need to be involved?
Pharma marketers need to stay close to targeting decisions - not because agencies can't do it, but because you know the disease area, the audience nuances, and the risks better than anyone else.
Where targeting goes wrong
>Targeting that's too broad, wasting budget on reaching the wrong audiences
>Static audience targeting strategies that don't evolve with campaign performance and data signals
>Unclear budget allocation across different audience segments
>Low transparency: Marketers aren’t given enough visibility into targeting strategies from their agencies.
How to take control
Your agency should be providing you with a plan with the targeting criteria, estimated audience size for the targeting criteria (unless it's an audience that relies on further data collection such as retargeting or lookalike audiences) and a recommended budget allocation. It’s good to challenge your agency around how confident they are that you will be reaching your target audience, and minimising exposure for unrelated audiences.
Review the targeting provided for accuracy and broad keywords
Avoid using broad keywords or interests that could expose your content to audiences beyond your target. For example, on X (Twitter), if you're targeting oncologists and use a keyword like #cancer, you risk reaching patients, advocates, or media. Instead, use clinician-specific terms like #SolidTumours, congress hashtags (e.g. #ASCO), or #MedOnc.
If disease-level targeting isn’t available on the platform you're using, be clear on the strategy for using overlapping or related interests. For example, if your target audience is young people with haemophilia and research shows they are interested in gaming, this could be a good interest targeting option to try to reach them.
3. Compare the estimated audience size with your expectations and KPIs
It can be helpful to compare the estimated audience size with the actual population of people in your audience. For example, if you know there are 1,500 Oncologists in the UK and you can reach 1,000 of them on LinkedIn, then you can see you are capturing two thirds of the specialists here. If the number you can reach is quite a low percentage, you might want to consider revisiting the targeting and looking at options to expand further. Or consider if you need additional channels in your mix to get decent penetration and reach with that audience.
Review the targeting provided for accuracy and broad keywords
Avoid using broad keywords or interests that could expose your content to audiences beyond your target. For example, on X (Twitter), if you're targeting oncologists and use a keyword like #cancer, you risk reaching patients, advocates, or media. Instead, use clinician-specific terms like #SolidTumours, congress hashtags (e.g. #ASCO), or #MedOnc.
On LinkedIn, double-check that suggested job titles, companies or skills align with your target audience.
For campaigns targeting patients, if you're working with a media agency that doesn't usually work with pharmaceutical or healthcare companies, apply extra scrutiny to ensure all interests or keywords are specific to your disease or therapy area, and haven’t strayed into unrelated conditions. If you’re intentionally starting broader with your targeting because you have a hard-to-reach audience, make sure you're clear on how the agency plans to narrow this over time to your specific group.
If disease-level targeting isn’t available on the platform you're using, be clear on the strategy for using overlapping or related interests. For example, if your target audience is young people with haemophilia and research shows they are interested in gaming, this could be a good interest targeting option to try to reach them.
3. Compare the estimated audience size with your expectations and KPIs
It can be helpful to compare the estimated audience size with the actual population of people in your audience. For example, if you know there are 1,500 Oncologists in the UK and you can reach 1,000 of them on LinkedIn, then you can see you are capturing two thirds of the specialists here. If the number you can reach is quite a low percentage, you might want to consider revisiting the targeting and looking at options to expand further. Or consider if you need additional channels in your mix to get decent penetration and reach with that audience.
You can also assess the size of the audience compared to the number of people you need to reach in order to drive business impact, to assess whether your paid campaign is likely to reach the desired number of individuals. For example, if you need to reach 50,000 patients with educational materials to be successful, then you can assess if that is likely with the channel plan and targeting you have developed.
4. If the audience is small, discuss if the size is viable for a campaign and what you can do to manage this smaller audience
In healthcare it’s not uncommon that we might be working with small audiences at times. You should assess whether the audience is large enough to run a paid campaign. If the audience is too small, you might need to consider expanding your targeting or channels, or reassessing your KPIs and expectations.
5. Set rules for changes: when and how targeting should be refined mid-campaign.
4. If the audience is small, discuss if the size is viable for a campaign and what you can do to manage this smaller audience
In healthcare it’s not uncommon that we might be working with small audiences at times. You should assess whether the audience is large enough to run a paid campaign. If the audience is too small, you might need to consider expanding your targeting or channels, or reassessing your KPIs and expectations.
5. Set rules for changes: when and how targeting should be refined mid-campaign.
You should understand exactly who you're targeting, why, and how often it's being adjusted or reported on.
The bottom line
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