The Power of Nurse Influence: Why Healthcare Brands Need to Advertise to Nurses

Geofencing

Reaching nurses at the right moment is just as critical as targeting the right audience. Geofencing allows brands to deliver location-based ads, ensuring that marketing messages reach nurses when they are in professional settings where they are most receptive.

For instance, during major industry conferences or educational seminars, brands can deploy geofenced campaigns to drive engagement with content on clinical advancements, ensuring nurses have access to relevant information that influences treatment discussions with physicians and administrators.—75% of people are more likely to buy from brands that deliver personalized experiences online [4].

Video Advertising

Healthcare professionals, including nurses, increasingly consume digital content in video format. Video advertising enables brands to communicate complex medical concepts quickly and effectively. Data shows that nurses engage more with case-study-driven video content that demonstrates clinical efficacy and workflow improvements.

For example, a pharmaceutical company launching a new infusion therapy might develop an educational video campaign highlighting real-world success stories, featuring nurses discussing how the treatment has improved patient outcomes..

Why?

Because 72% of people prefer video over text when learning about a product or service. They’re also 29.4 times more likely to click them than standard banners [5].

Using formats such as non-linear and native video allows you to bring your brand and message to life in a compelling way that encourages engagement—critical given the number of ads nurses see daily.

Mobile & In-App Advertising

Healthcare marketing often prioritizes physicians, executives, and other high-level decision-makers. However, overlooking nurses means missing a key group of influencers in the healthcare decision-making process. Nurses interact with patients daily, collaborate with physicians, and advocate for new treatments, devices, and policies that improve care delivery.

According to the American Nurses Association, “Nurses have a unique perspective on patient care and play a significant role in healthcare decision-making” [1]. Their recommendations carry substantial weight in shaping what gets adopted within hospitals and clinics.

With over 4 million registered nurses in the U.S., they represent one of the largest and most trusted professional groups in healthcare. A study from the Journal of Advanced Nursing found that nurse practitioners and clinical specialists increasingly influence prescribing and treatment decisions [2].

How Nurses Shape Healthcare Decisions

Nurses are on the front lines of patient care, and their insights directly impact the products, treatments, and technologies adopted within their facilities. While they may not be responsible for final purchase approvals, their recommendations hold significant weight in shaping procurement decisions.

For example:

• A nurse who regularly interacts with pharmaceutical products can provide feedback that influences hospital purchasing decisions, advocating for medications with better efficacy or fewer side effects [3].
• A nurse practitioner who understands the clinical benefits of a new drug can actively recommend it to prescribing physicians, leading to increased adoption.
• Nurse managers often advocate for pharmaceutical formulary changes, ensuring that their teams have access to the best possible treatments and patient care solutions.

By advertising to nurses, brands can tap into their influence and drive meaningful engagement within the broader healthcare decision-making process.

How Programmatic Media Enhances Nurse Advertising

Augmenting NPI Target Lists with Nurse Data

Many advertisers rely heavily on National Provider Identifier (NPI) lists to reach healthcare professionals, but these lists often exclude nurses. By incorporating nurse-specific data and behavioral insights, brands can expand their audience and ensure their messaging reaches a more comprehensive healthcare decision-making network.

With programmatic advertising, brands can:

• Use data-driven insights to identify and target nurses based on workplace, specialty, and prescribing influence.
• Reach nurses outside of professional settings by serving relevant ads on consumer sites, social media, and mobile applications.
• Ensure compliance and precision by leveraging first-party and third-party healthcare data providers [7].

Leveraging Expert Audience Building for Precision Targeting

Our expert audience-building team helps brands refine and expand their reach through:

• Segmentation Strategies: Identifying subgroups of nurses based on prescribing habits, hospital affiliation, and professional engagement.
• Behavioral Insights: Understanding where nurses spend their time online, from clinical research sites to lifestyle and entertainment platforms.
• Omnichannel Activation: Deploying campaigns across display, video, in-app, and social media channels to engage nurses wherever they are.

By combining NPI-based targeting with advanced audience modeling, brands can significantly improve engagement rates, optimize ad spend, and drive higher conversions in their nurse-focused campaigns.

The Bottom Line: Pharma Marketers Should Advertise to Nurses

If nurses aren’t a key part of your healthcare marketing strategy, you’re missing a critical opportunity. Nurses influence procurement decisions, advocate for better patient care, and are essential to the healthcare ecosystem. Leveraging programmatic media and expert audience-building strategies ensures that your brand reaches the right nursing professionals at the right time.

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Learn more about Health Union’s vision to transform data-driven, healthcare marketing: The HUman Side of Data.

Sources

1. American Nurses Association. (2024). Nurses have a unique perspective on patient care and play a significant role in healthcare decision-making. Retrieved from https://www.nursingworld.org/
2. Smith et al. (2023). Nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists influence prescribing and treatment decisions more than ever before. Journal of Advanced Nursing. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652648
3. Becker’s Hospital Review. (2024). Hospitals rely on nurses to evaluate new technologies and advocate for improved patient care solutions. Retrieved from https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/
4. Statista. (2024). Mobile advertising spending worldwide from 2007 to 2024. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/
5. YouGovAmerica. (2024). 72% of consumers prefer videos to learn about products or services. Retrieved from https://today.yougov.com/
6. Techjury. (2024). 51 Mobile vs. Desktop Usage Statistics For 2024. Retrieved from https://techjury.net/
7. Harvard Business Review. (2024). When to Sell with Facts and Figures, and When to Appeal to Emotions. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/