Endemic Content: Why It’s Important and How to Secure the Best Placements for Your Health Ad Campaigns

As a pharma marketer, you can advertise on all types of content to reach healthcare professionals (HCP) and direct-to-consumer (DTC) audiences. The kind of content your ads run adjacent to is primarily guided by how you buy your media. As you decide which media buying type is right for you, it’s important to remember that not all ad inventory is created equal. Everything from premium inventory, or the highest-quality ad placements, to clickbait, often seen on controversial Made for Advertising sites that generate large amounts of traffic using lower-quality content for a lower cost than selling ad space, is up for grabs.

Endemic content is another crucial aspect of successful digital advertising as a health marketer. This term refers to content that is specifically relevant to the audience of a particular brand or client. For example, a health-related ad placed on a health and wellness site is considered endemic media. Endemic advertising ensures that your message resonates more deeply with the target audience, as it aligns with existing interests and the context in which they encounter your ad.

Endemic marketing also allows you to better mine engagement data captured from these campaigns for more effective segmentation and targeting strategies going forward. By understanding how your target audiences interact with endemic media, you can refine your targeting to engage users already primed for your message. With the proper health advertising partners and tools, like Endemic Research SmartList offered by PulsePoint, marketers can target known and unknown HCPs based on their real-time brand engagement with endemic digital content and filter results by any contextual MESH category and content engagement recency.

The Benefits of Endemic vs. Non-endemic Advertising 

Endemic media, particularly in advertising and marketing, is crucial because it connects with health audiences in a relevant and natural way, mapping to their interests and context. For a health brand, this content enhances the effectiveness of marketing efforts by placing ads on platforms and within content already applicable to HCP or DTC audiences, increasing engagement and conversion rates. Other benefits of endemic vs. non-endemic advertising for health audiences include:

• Increased trust and credibility: When ads appear within trusted and relevant content, users will likely perceive them as credible and trustworthy. This increased trust in endemic vs. non-endemic advertising often increases brand awareness and positive associations with your brand. 
• Improved conversion rates: Endemic advertising can effectively drive conversions and sales by placing contextually relevant ads connected to the user’s interests and shopping mindset. 
• Enhanced brand recall and stickiness: Endemic media, when well-executed, can increase brand recall and create stronger emotional connections with your audience. Your target audience will likely remember and engage with your brand going forward. 
• Effective targeting: Endemic marketing allows brands to leverage the data and insights of specific platforms to target users with laser precision, ensuring that ads are shown to the most receptive audience.

Endemic ads are essential because they leverage the power of contextually relevant marketing to create more engaging advertising experiences for the target audience. Endemic vs. non-endemic advertising improves brand perception, engagement, and conversions. 

Why Premium Ad Inventory and Endemic Ads Matter

Securing premium ad inventory and marketing alongside endemic media can significantly boost the success of a digital advertising campaign for health brands. 

Premium ad inventory ensures that target users see ads in a quality environment, reducing the risk of brand safety issues and increasing the likelihood of reaching a more engaged audience. Endemic marketing further enhances these benefits by ensuring contextually relevant ads, which can improve ad recall, engagement rates, and overall campaign performance.

By strategically choosing the right programmatic buying modality, health advertisers can maximize their access to premium ad inventory and ensure their marketing is placed within the most contextually relevant content. This approach drives better results and strengthens brand positioning and trust among HCP and DTC audiences.

Endemic Ads in Programmatic Media Buying

Several programmatic buying modalities enable advertisers to access endemic media and premium ad inventory to meet or exceed their health marketing goals.

First, there are Open Exchanges. While open exchanges provide the broadest reach, they often come with a mix of quality. However, advertisers can still access premium ad inventory and endemic media with the proper targeting and tools. Careful bidding strategies and advanced targeting options can help brands place ads on reputable sites with content that resonates with the target audience.

Then, there is Programmatic Direct, which includes two subtypes of media buying. The first, Programmatic Guaranteed, enables pharma marketers to secure premium ad inventory by negotiating directly with publishers. The deal guarantees a specific amount of ad impressions and placements on high-quality sites, often involving endemic media that aligns with the brand’s target audience. The second, Preferred Deals, allows advertisers to access premium ad inventory at a fixed price before it becomes available on the open market. While the ad inventory is not guaranteed, advertisers have the advantage of exclusive first-look opportunities to place ads within endemic media areas.

Next are Private Marketplaces, or PMPs. PMPs offer a more controlled environment where advertisers can only access premium ad inventory by invitation. These deals often include high-quality endemic media, allowing brands to place ads in contextually relevant settings that enhance campaign effectiveness. PMP deals are ideal for advertisers seeking a balance between scale and exclusivity, as they provide prioritized access to valuable ad placements before publishers offer them in open exchanges. 

To maximize the advantage of PMPs, however, programmatic media buyers need to take on a lot, such as expertise in terms of publishers, specific supply, and negotiations on premium placements and priority access across many publishers. Most advertisers either lack these areas of knowledge or the headcount to manage PMP deals, but advertisers who bring the right expertise will realize a lot of value from buying through PMPs. 

Curated PMPs work to solve some of the challenges associated with traditional PMPs. Curation selects and then packages premium media and data on the supply side via supply-side platforms into its curated private marketplaces. Having the optionality of endemic PMPs vs. curated endemic PMPs are two things to consider. Curated Endemic PMP deals are sourced, negotiated, and maintained directly between the platform and endemic publisher, eliminating advertisers' need to negotiate each deal manually. 

Curated Endemic PMPs

HCP ad campaigns are now following the trend of DTC health advertising in becoming more deal-based due to the importance of improving reach and engagement with highly valuable, engaged audiences. However, PulsePoint acknowledges that buying media is complex without the right partners and tools. 

That’s why we make PMP activation easier than other programmatic healthcare partners. We seamlessly integrate purchasing and running PMP deals alongside other media-buying strategies and secure endemic media and premium content relevant to health audiences. Endemic advertising is effective because it appears in places naturally pertinent to their target audiences.

PulsePoint’s new Curated Markets PMP suite includes Endemic Markets, which source premium endemic media. These markets specifically curate and optimize supply for tactical and health outcome marketing goals, allowing health brands to activate high-value endemic media publishers without the level of effort associated with procuring and maintaining deal IDs. Curated Market deals are sourced, negotiated, and maintained directly between the platform and publisher, eliminating the need for advertisers to negotiate each deal manually. PulsePoint leverages its publisher relationships and buying power to secure the best rates for these deals.

Our Endemic Markets include:

• DTC Endemic: Turnkey access to premium endemic publisher ad inventory whose audiences skew toward consumers.
• HCP Endemic: Turnkey access to premium endemic publisher ad inventory whose audiences skew toward physicians and ability to target by NPI.
• EHR Endemic: Turnkey access to premium endemic publisher ad inventory whose audiences skew toward physicians, specifically in an Electronic Health Records environment.

The great thing about programmatic platforms like PulsePoint is that brands can change how they buy media based on business needs, toggling between programmatic guaranteed or non-guaranteed, for instance, as needed to drive results. This capability helps us achieve a two-for-one punch when sourcing premium and endemic health brand ad inventory. Get in touch with us today to learn more.

‍
Frequently Asked Questions:

What is endemic content in advertising?

Endemic content refers to contextually relevant content to the audience and the platform where it appears. For example, health-related ads placed on health and wellness websites are considered endemic.

Why is endemic content important for health marketing campaigns?

Endemic content aligns with the interests and needs of the target audience, and placing ads in relevant and credible contexts increases engagement, trust, and conversion rates.

How does endemic content differ from other types of ad placements?

Endemic content targets audiences in their natural digital environment, while other placements might prioritize scale or cost efficiency over contextual relevance.

What are the main benefits of using endemic content for health brands?

Key benefits include increased trust and credibility, improved conversion rates, enhanced brand recall, and more precise targeting.

How does endemic content improve ad performance?

Endemic advertising ensures that ads resonate more deeply with the audience by aligning them with contextually relevant content. This leads to higher engagement and better results.

How can I secure premium endemic ad placements?

Premium endemic placements can be secured through programmatic buying methods like Programmatic Guaranteed, Preferred Deals, and Private Marketplaces (PMPs).

What is the difference between endemic content in Private Marketplaces (PMPs) and Open Exchanges?

PMPs provide controlled, invitation-only access to high-quality inventory, often including endemic content. Open Exchanges offer a broader reach but require careful targeting to access premium endemic inventory.

What are Curated Endemic Markets, and how do they help health marketers?

Curated Endemic Markets streamline access to high-value endemic publisher inventory tailored to HCP or DTC audiences, simplifying the media-buying process and ensuring contextual relevance.

How can I determine which endemic sites are best for my brand?

Look for sites that align closely with your brand’s target audience and content. Use audience engagement data and insights to identify platforms where you will resonate most.

How does data from endemic content engagement inform future campaigns?

Engagement data helps refine targeting strategies, ensuring that future ads reach audiences who are more likely to convert.

What tools can help me access and manage endemic content placements effectively?

Programmatic platforms like PulsePoint offer solutions for activating endemic and premium ad inventory while streamlining the process through curated markets.

‍