Pharmaceutical and healthcare digital advertising surged during the epidemic

As advertising increasingly moves online, pharma and healthcare are taking a bigger share. The industry is expected to spend more than $9.5 billion on digital media this year, according to research firm eMarketer.

The industry's growth rate of more than 14 percent puts it in second place, behind computing products and consumer electronics at 18 percent.

Although the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries have been slower to adopt digital marketing than other industries tracked by eMarketer, the epidemic has accelerated the growth of consumer and professional digital advertising in the sector, the researchers said.

eMarketer expects this trend to continue. By 2021, digital ad spending is expected to grow another 18 percent, to $11.3 billion.

Driving this year's marketing growth, eMarketer says, are digital marketing's pandemic messages on testing and security and related topics, including telemedicine, medical supplies and reopening doctor's offices.

In 2020, more than half (56%) of pharma and healthcare digital spend will be on search ads, with the rest going to display or banner ads.