Challenges of Healthcare Targeting

The healthcare advertising space is a dynamic world of its own in terms of marketing. A whopping 66% of internet users look online for information about a specific disease or medical problem. It has more rules and regulations to protect consumer privacy and rightfully so!

We at Dstillery see these rules not as barriers to sidestep and scheme against, but rather as conversation topics to discuss and analyze and then turn into new doors to open that are filled with possibility. Healthcare targeting is currently heavily regulated by HIPAA, NAI, and DSP rules. These guidelines prevent advertisers from focusing too heavily on demographic data and patient condition data. In the healthcare space, it is crucial to protect the patient both physically and informational. That said, naturally, Dstillery wanted to explore how best to serve advertisers and protect patient data at the same time. Like all things, it’s best to start with what we know and then set our sights on the future.

How Are Patients Being Targeted Now?

Healthcare companies’ global advertising expenditure is projected to increase by 4.3% in 2022. As it stands, patients are being targeted in a variety of ways across the healthcare space. Below are some of the current targeting solutions being deployed:

current healthcare targeting methods

There are at least 100 billion searches for healthcare on Google alone each year. That’s 273 million healthcare searches a day. While these targeting solutions are effective in their own individual ways, we wanted to develop something more effective. Born from our existing, trusted technology that best serves the patient and the advertiser. 

Enter Custom Patient Targeting. 

What Is Custom Patient Targeting?

Custom Patient Targeting is Dstillery’s solution to healthcare compliance and digital targeting solutions. Our targeting solution is categorized as predictive behavioral targeting. It’s built from the same technology as our patented ID-free targeting technology called MOTI, or the Map of the Internet. MOTI is built by a type of AI called a neural network. It constantly analyzes hundreds of millions of anonymous digital journey patterns and learns the behavioral signals underlying any web visit to build the map. It then takes your seed set and extends the patterns detected to all websites. The output is a model that scores and ranks every potential impression on the ad-supported internet and predicts the best patient impressions for your condition. Another important trait of Custom Patient Targeting is that it isn’t affected by cookie deprecation. Custom Patient Targeting is built on our ID-free targeting technology, meaning your patient targeting solution is future-proof.

Can You Tell Us More About How Custom Patient Targeting is Compliant?

Great question! Doctor Dstillery has the answer. Our core dataset consists of healthcare-specific websites and keywords from opted-in devices. When combined with non-healthcare-specific event-level data, we find that these signals allow us to more fully see patients’ journeys, resulting in more accurate and robust models.  Additionally, our healthcare targeting methodology doesn’t involve the creation of any health-related profiles. It uses a built-in de-identification to ensure that the data isn’t considered Protected Health Information under HIPAA. It also meets the requirements of the NAI sensitive data guidance by utilizing data minimization techniques that minimize the risk of inadvertently identifying a data subject.

Getting the Script

If you’re curious about our healthcare targeting treatment option, or rather, our healthcare targeting solution reach out to us and one of our data doctors will assess your condition and see what we can do for you. New health-related conditions will begin to flare from allergies to achy bones as we shed our winter bodies and move into an activity-filled summer. Dstillery is here to help you prepare.