Solving Pharma’s Audience Targeting Challenge with Zero-Party Ads
Why Finding the Right Patient is Harder Than Ever — and How to Fix It
Pharma advertisers invest billions each year trying to reach qualified audiences—yet many brands still struggle to connect with the right patients and caregivers.
The challenge? Traditional targeting methods are inefficient, often resulting in wasted ad spend on people who don’t need or want a specific healthcare product. Finding addressable audiences for niche or rare diseases is even tougher. Layer in complex data privacy laws and the problem only grows.
So how can pharma brands engage real patients, at the moment they need information, while staying privacy-compliant?
The answer: Zero-Party Ads.
What Are Zero-Party Ads?
Zero-Party Ads are interactive digital ads that invite consumers to share information directly and willingly with brands.
Unlike third-party data, zero-party data is volunteered—meaning you know exactly what they care about, rather than making assumptions. It’s also different from first-party data because it’s collected anonymously without personally identifiable information (PII data).
Imagine you have a new migraine treatment and you embed this simple optional question inside an ad:
“Are you satisfied with your current migraine treatment?”
- Yes – satisfied
- Neutral
- No – not satisfied
- Never get migraines
In addition to capturing real-time insights on treatment satisfaction, ViralGains’ survey also powers precise audience segmentation:
- “Yes,” “No,” or “Neutral” responders → Likely migraine sufferers.
- “No“ responders → A key audience: migraine sufferers struggling with their current treatment and potentially open to new options.
- “Never get migraines” → Not your audience: avoid targeting them in the future to reduce waste and spare them irrelevant ads
Since answering is optional, users who respond are more likely to provide honest, meaningful insights—leading to higher-quality audience segmentation and more relevant messaging.
The VG Health Solution: Zero-Party Ads + VoiceAlike® AI
VG Health by ViralGains goes beyond simply asking questions. Our approach combines Zero-Party Ads with VoiceAlike® AI, allowing brands to build and scale audiences with real intent—without compromising privacy.
Here’s how we do it:
- Engage: Ask high-value optional questions directly in display or video ads to anonymously collect zero-party data.
- Segment: Build real-time, self-qualified audiences based on responses.
- Optimize: Use VoiceAlike® AI to scale zero-party data and optimize ad sequencing so you only retarget people who are most likely qualified for your product.
The result? Privacy-safe precision targeting.
Real-World Impact
1. Rare Disease: Finding the Needle in the Haystack
Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria (CSU) is an uncommon skin condition, making it tough for brands to find relevant audiences.
Using Zero-Party Ads, we asked audiences directly if they or a loved one suffered from CSU in order to optimize their ad campaign to reach qualified patients using self-declared data. The results were powerful:
- 31% higher audience quality score vs. industry benchmark.
- 42% higher click-through rate (CTR) than standard segments.
2. Oncology: Reaching Patients and Caregivers
For oncology brands, messaging needs to reach both patients and caregivers sensitively and specifically.
One pharma brand leveraged a ViralGains survey within their ad campaign to identify patients familiar with a specific cancer treatment—a strong indicator that they might be interested in a new medication for that condition.
By using zero-party data to refine targeting, the brand saw a significant lift in engagement:
- 30% lower bounce rate than Crossix audiences.
- 1.2x more pages per session, signaling deeper engagement and interest.
This approach ensured ads reached the right audience at the right time, driving meaningful interactions instead of wasted impressions.
3. Gout: Connecting with Patients at the Right Moment
When a pharma brand wanted to reach gout patients actively exploring treatment options, zero-party data played a critical role. By gathering real-time feedback through surveys in ads, VG Health delivered:
- 4.8x Crossix audience quality score – 3x higher than the industry benchmark.
Why Zero-Party Ads Should Be in Every Pharma Marketer’s Playbook
- Privacy-friendly – Consumers share data voluntarily
- Efficient – Optimize ad sequencing to target people who’ve expressed genuine interest, and cut waste by suppressing unqualified audiences.
- Timely insights – Learn directly from your audience what matters most to them – in real time.
If you’re tired of generic audience targeting and want to build trust with patients who are ready to engage, consider including Zero-Party Ads in your media mix.
Learn more about VG Health and how we can help you reach, educate, and engage the right healthcare audiences — Get in Touch
