Optimize DTC Health Marketing Engagement with PulsePoint’s Lookalike Audience Solution

As digital channels and consumer touchpoints continue to expand, and instant access to information grows, the cost of acquiring new customers rises across industries. For healthcare marketers, the challenge is even greater- identifying the most relevant direct-to-consumer (DTC) audience in real time is increasingly complex as consumers can effortlessly research and explore alternative treatment options with a single tap or click.

This dynamic landscape makes static audience segments, historical insights, and traditional brand loyalty less reliable for future campaign forecasting. The problem is further compounded by siloed systems that separate real-time behavioral and engagement data from omnichannel activation platforms, leading to fragmented insights and inefficiencies in DTC healthcare advertising strategies.

‍Additionally, research shows a 222% increase in customer acquisition costs (CAC) between 2013 and 2022, mainly due to two reasons. First is the growing demand for online advertising, which has increased costs across media channels. The second is growing privacy restrictions, significantly limiting advertisers’ ability to serve consumers with targeted advertising, let alone convert with a brand. These changes have especially impacted DTC advertising efforts, including those in the healthcare industry. 

No healthcare brand can afford to stop trying to win over new consumers. What they can afford, however, is to optimize precision targeting solutions to target consumers with the greatest relevance and likelihood of converting. But how do they find them efficiently and effectively in a privacy-safe way?

Lookalike Modeling: Finding new customers that look and behave like your best ones

PulsePoint can leverage a brand’s first-party consumer data - individuals who have taken key digital actions, such as visiting a website or completing a form - to create the Lookalike Audience models. These models help identify and reach high-value consumers who share similar behavioral, demographic, and engagement characteristics, enhancing targeting and driving conversions.

Lookalike Audiences use machine learning to analyze patterns from a brand’s historical DTC campaigns, identifying traits that define high-value audience segments. By doing so, they pinpoint new audiences with a high likelihood of engagement and conversion.

At the core of a Lookalike segment is a seed audience, which is the group of users who have already interacted with the brand, such as those captured through conversion or retargeting pixels. These engaged users serve as the foundation for expanding reach to similar prospects.

The Lookalike model then applies machine learning algorithms to compare this seed audience against a larger user pool, identifying key traits such as browsing behavior, geographic location, and purchasing habits to match and target new potential consumers effectively.

The benefits of Lookalike Audiences

In health advertising, Lookalike Audiences offer major benefits. They allow you to target visitors with characteristics similar to your existing ones. This increases the likelihood of these prospects engaging with your brand and can lead to higher conversion rates and improved marketing campaign performance.

• Expanded reach: By targeting Lookalike Audiences, DTC health brands can effectively reach new potential patients who are likely to be receptive to their brand, increasing their marketing reach beyond their existing customer base.
• Higher conversion rates: Lookalike Audiences allow health advertisers to target users with preferences and behaviors similar to those of their engaged audience, increasing the likelihood of conversion. 
• Efficiency: Because Lookalike Audiences automate audience segmentation and optimization and focus on more relevant prospects, you can optimize ad spending, save time, and achieve better results from your marketing campaigns.

PulsePoint’s Lookalike Audiences

Reaching the right audience is everything in DTC healthcare marketing. But in a competitive space with ever-changing consumer behaviors, relying on outdated or static audience segments won’t cut it. That’s where PulsePoint’s Lookalike Audiences come in, leveraging machine learning and real-time health insights to expand reach and engage new, highly relevant consumers.

Users start by selecting a conversion or retargeting pixel as a basis for the seed audience creation, and adjust a similarity slider to control how closely a Lookalike Audience mirrors the original seed audience. A well-balanced Lookalike Audience helps you scale your campaign without sacrificing quality, ensuring you reach people most likely to engage with your brand.

How Lookalike Audiences Work

Using data from historical DTC campaigns, PulsePoint’s platform identifies patterns in consumer behaviors, demographics, and interests to create a Lookalike Audience - a group of new users who closely resemble your original audience. This ensures you’re reaching the people most likely to engage with your brand at critical decision-making moments. PulsePoint’s Lookalike Audiences are:

• Scalable & Customizable: Choose a high-similarity match for precision or expand reach while maintaining relevance.
• Real-Time Updates & Fast Activation: Your active pixel continuously collects new users, refreshing Lookalike Audiences daily. Partial audience access is instant, with full population within 36 hours (optimal performance in one week).

Smarter, More Scalable Targeting

What sets PulsePoint apart is our ability to enhance Lookalike Audiences with real-time health insights. Unlike traditional third-party data, our approach ensures you’re engaging consumers when they’re actively researching health topics.

Why this matters:

• Real-time, brand relevant data keeps targeting precise and up to date
• Scalability & flexibility are achieved with the ability to adjust audience size pre-launch or mid-campaign
• Higher relevance & engagement are achieved in optimized targeting based on real behaviors, not just historical data

By fueling machine learning-driven Lookalike Audiences with PulsePoint’s deep data foundation, brands can reach the right consumers at the right time - when it matters most.

More powerful prospecting with Lookalike Audiences

Lookalike Audiences can help health advertisers broaden their DTC audience reach and drive conversions based on behavioral similarities—all while saving time, optimizing ad spend, and producing better campaign results. If you’re ready to find more customers like your best ones using Lookalike Audiences, contact us today to learn more.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Lookalike Audience in healthcare marketing?

A Lookalike audience is a group of potential customers who share characteristics and behaviors with your existing audience, helping healthcare marketers expand their reach to more qualified consumers.

Why are Lookalike audiences important for DTC health marketing?

They allow healthcare brands to reach new, high-quality audiences who are more likely to engage with their messaging, improving ROI and reducing wasted ad spend.

How accurate are Lookalike audiences in healthcare marketing?

PulsePoint leverages real-time health audience data, programmatic insights, and machine-learning to ensure accuracy and compliance in audience targeting.

How can pharma and healthcare brands use Lookalike Audiences effectively?

Brands can use Lookalike modeling to expand reach for condition awareness campaigns, prescription drug education, telehealth services, and over-the-counter health products.

What kind of data is used to create a Lookalike Audience?

Data sources may include first-party data, digital engagement insights, health-related browsing behaviors, and compliance-approved health audience data.

Can Lookalike Audiences be customized for different healthcare verticals?

Yes, they can be tailored for pharma, telehealth, medical devices, health insurance, and wellness brands to optimize campaign performance.

How do Lookalike Audiences improve engagement rates?

They ensure ads are shown to users with similar behaviors and needs, leading to higher click-through rates (CTR), better conversion rates, and increased patient engagement.

How does PulsePoint ensure privacy and compliance in healthcare audience targeting?

PulsePoint adheres to applicable laws and regulations, and uses aggregated data to protect consumer privacy.

How do I measure the success of a Lookalike Audience campaign?

Key performance indicators (KPIs) include click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, engagement rates, cost-per-acquisition (CPA), and return on ad spend (ROAS).

How often should I update or refine my Lookalike Audience strategy?

Regular updates are recommended based on campaign performance, audience behavior shifts, and new data insights.

Can Lookalike Audiences be used for both awareness and conversion-driven campaigns?

Yes, they can be optimized for brand awareness, lead generation, and direct conversions depending on campaign goals.

How do Lookalike Audiences compare to retargeting strategies?

Retargeting focuses on users who have already engaged with your brand, while Lookalike audiences help expand reach by finding new users with similar characteristics to those that have historically engaged.

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Want to learn how PulsePoint’s Lookalike Audience Solution can improve your healthcare marketing strategy? Contact us  today for a free consultation!