Retargeting ads have long been a key tool used by health marketers to direct brand awareness messaging to their target audiences. These online ads target consumers based on their previous internet behavior. For instance, a customer abandons a product in their shopping cart, after which the company selling that product displays it when the customer checks social media or browses the internet. Retargeting allows businesses to target consumers who have previously shown interest in their product, service, or company, making this type of ad extremely effective.

However, retargeting ads rely on third-party cookies to function. A cookie is a small piece of data stored in your web browser. It records information such as the websites you’ve visited and your browsing behavior. First-party cookies are stored directly in your browser and are used to prepopulate form fields such as name and email. Third-party cookies, however, can track users across multiple websites and collect data about long-term web browsing activity.

Death of the third-party cookie?

Privacy advocates have been lobbying for online privacy protection, and third-party cookies are a primary target. Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox browsers already block third-party cookies. Now Google has announced its plan to eliminate third-party cookies from Google Chrome. Chrome is currently the most popular web browser in the United States; if Chrome eliminates third-party cookies, it will eliminate more than 50% of web users as potential targets of retargeting ads. According to Google’s current timeline, third-party cookies will cease functioning by late 2023.

In other words, the targeted advertising you’ve used to reach specific healthcare providers (HCPs) will no longer be able to identify customers that fit your advertising profile.

Targeted ads are highly effective because they can be customized based on the individual customers’ preferences, which have been inferred from their online behavior. As a marketer, you will be challenged to figure out how to deliver highly targeted digital messaging to the correct audience without third-party cookies.

In this article, we’ll look at one option for delivering approved promotional messaging to a targeted audience—even after third-party cookies disappear.

Alternative ways to reach your target healthcare providers

In the wake of the death of third-party cookies, you will need to explore alternative ways to identify and target the right audience for your product or service. One potential avenue is electronic health record (EHR) point-of-care digital marketing. Point-of-care digital media vendors can deliver your approved messaging to physicians throughout their EHR workflows.

However, it’s important to note that not all point-of-care media vendors are created equal. They differ in the types of solutions they offer and, perhaps more importantly, they differ in their abilities to reach your target audience. Unlike many traditional media vendors, Veradigm uses proprietary EHR data to help inform when and where the messages appear, and as a result will be unaffected by the death of the third party cookie Two primary types of messaging can be displayed in EHRs:

• Promotional messaging is designed to promote brand awareness within your target audience. This messaging type displays banner advertisements during the EHR workflow. These ads leverage EHR data insights and can be hyper-targeted to specific medical specialties or to providers with certain patient population characteristics.

• Financial messaging is not necessarily meant to increase brand awareness. Unlike promotional messaging, it does not link to promotional materials and does not appear during the EHR workflow. This messaging is purely financial, often presenting providers with printable or electronic coupons they can pass along to eligible patients.

Point-of-care media vendors and actionable market share

Different point-of-care media vendors can reach different audiences with your messaging. It is important to estimate the size of a vendor’s “actionable” market share—that is, the segment that fits the criteria describing those individuals you are trying to reach.

For instance, say there are one million EHR prescribers in the United States. If a vendor claims to reach 25% of them, the numbers suggest they have a market share of 250,000 HCPs. However, you need to ask how many of those 250,000 HCPs are using media accessible EHR platforms? Among those using media accessible EHR platforms, how many fall into your target medical specialty or therapeutic area? Whatever your result, it’s always a good idea to validate market share claims with a publicly available third party.

Once you’ve identified a point-of-care media provider who can reach your target audience, you need to confirm the size of this actionable market share. Verify that this specific audience can benefit from your targeted, approved promotional messaging and that this specific point-of-care media vendor operates with sufficient compliance oversight for the EHR platforms in its’ network.

If you navigate these steps with care, you will be able to deliver the same brand awareness messaging you previously delivered through retargeting advertising. With EHR point-of-care marketing, your messaging can be targeted toward specific medical staff, in a specific medical specialty, so that your messaging reaches the audience it will benefit the most.

Deliver targeted brand awareness messaging to the right audience

It’s critical to reach providers where and when they practice. It’s also critical to reach the right audience. Veradigm TouchPoint Media not only reaches your target audience—it does so in a manner compliant with HIPAA and other applicable laws at the point-of-care, through a channel HCPs use daily.

Some healthcare media vendors can deliver some types of communication to providers using their EHR system; however, only Veradigm TouchPoint Media delivers highly targeted brand awareness messaging. Veradigm TouchPoint Media differs from all other existing solutions because it:

Makes use of de-identified EHR data to help deliver highly targeted awareness messaging

Delivers awareness messaging at multiple key touchpoints during the provider’s EHR workflow in an iframe window that is separate and distinguishable from the clinical and practice management workflow. Consistent with applicable law, no biopharma or device advertisements appear during the prescribing workflow.

Reaches one of the largest audiences of EHR providers in the United States

To learn more about Veradigm TouchPoint Media and how it could help you reach your marketing targets, click here.