Pharma Digital Ad Spend Numbers are Elusive & Confusing

Over the years I have tried to determine what portion of pharma's total marketing budget is devoted to digital and if that portion is increasing (see here, for example). Various sources look at various channels and it's not easy to compare one source with another. Even data from the same source may not compare apples to apples.

Last month, for example, one pharma trade publication claimed that data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau showed that the pharma industry's digital ad spending in 2015 was "about $3 billion." But the data really applied to "Pharma and Healthcare," which includes "personal care, toiletries, and cosmetic products", etc. Since the latter product categories may be responsible for 50% of the $3 billion, I estimated the pharma Rx drug-specific digital ad spending was more like $1.5 billion, excluding search advertising (see "Did Pharma Really Spend $3 Billion on Internet Advertising in 2015?").

I just came across some data from eMarketer, which seems to verify my estimate (see chart below).

Sourced via Klick Wire (here).

Again, the pharma trade publication that published this chart said the data refer to "US pharma ad spend," so one would assume pharma spent $1.67 billion on digital advertising in 2015, which is close to my $1.5 billion estimate derived from the IAB data. But is that true and what forms of advertising are actually included in eMarketer's estimate?

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