Cardiology Advertising: Digital Marketing to Cardiologists
Originally Published July 2023. Updated February 2026 with the latest statistics.
Competition for attention when marketing to healthcare providers (HCPs) is fierce. Big pharma companies have astronomical budgets, making it easy for them to outbid and outspend any competition. For companies whose pockets may not be quite so deep, the key to successful HCP marketing is highly specific audience targeting and messaging using a digital-first ABM strategy. In cardiology advertising, this means going beyond traditional demographic data. You’ll have to dig deep into cardiology-specific segmentation, targeting, and metrics to make an impact. Here’s how we do it.
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Understanding the Cardiology Advertising Market
First, you have to understand the size and specifics of the cardiology market as a whole to determine success.
Market Size and Growth
The cardiology market is experiencing continued growth across all market segments. This is no surprise, as cardiology is a complex field influenced by numerous internal and external factors.
The global cardiology market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.1% from 2025 to 2033, reaching a market value of $126.3 billion by 2033.
The global cardiovascular devices market size is also growing rapidly and is expected to reach $106.7 billion by 2033.
According to MedAxiom, five main factors are impacting cardiology supply and demand:
- Aging and growing population
- Prevalence of chronic diseases
- Changes in cardiology testing & procedure utilization
- Aging cardiology workforce
- Projected primary care shortages
The largest factors impacting the cardiology market growth are the increased prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and an aging population.
Total Addressable Market
To define campaign success, you must start by determining campaign potential. If your cardiology advertising goal is to get 50,000 cardiologist leads, but there aren’t that many available in the market, then it will be impossible to achieve that goal.
Like other specialties, it’s important to remember just how small the cardiology community is. Layer on other campaign elements like geotargeting or ownership status, and you’re likely dealing with a very modest total addressable market.
There are approximately 33,000 active cardiologists in the US, and this number is slowly decreasing.
Traditional Demographic Information
Compared to B2C marketing, or even other kinds of B2B marketing, traditional demographic data tends to be less important in cardiology advertising. However, depending on your product, demographic information can be used to make some inferences about your audience or to help tighten audience segments for smaller advertising budgets. And cardiologists aren’t just doctors. They’re people too. So, it’s helpful to think about their circumstances and demographic distribution.
Age
Beyond understanding the total addressable market for cardiology advertising, you should also consider your specific product or solution and who can buy it (or would be authorized to buy it). Using age brackets can help you focus on your most valuable prospects—especially when targeting key HCP decision-makers. The average age of cardiologists is 59 years old, and the workforce is aging rapidly, with most retiring around age 66 or 67.
Nearly 63% of cardiovascular disease specialists are over the age of 55 and 37% are under the age of 55 according to the AAMC.
For example, if you’re marketing a billing system for cardiologists, you’re likely going to be targeting practice owners. Unfortunately, “cardiology practice owner” is not a standard audience target in most marketing platforms. To reach this hyper-specific audience, you’ll need to use platform tools to target “cardiologists,” then layer on demographic specifics to reach your ideal prospects.
So, considering it takes upwards of 15 years become a cardiologist, and most doctors will work for a few years to save up money before opening a private practice, it’s fair to assume that you can limit your target audience to those 35 and above. Then consider the current economy and other healthcare market trends, and you can bump the targeting range to 45 and above, especially since, compared to previous generations, Millennial med school grads were more likely to seek employment over opening up their own practice.
In cardiology, it is particularly important to consider age relative to shifts in the workforce. According to the 2025 MedAxiom compensation survey, there are currently about 32,000 cardiologists, and more than 25% (approx. 8,320) are over the age of 61. There are about 4,302 cardiologist fellows, with about 1,156 entering the workforce.
Ultimately, this means the cardiology specialty has a projected net deficit of specialists, and that’s before accounting for the increasing demand for services.
Location
Be careful when narrowing your cardiology advertising campaigns by location, because the resulting addressable market likely won’t meet the minimums required by many advertising platforms. However, depending on your product, you can use this information for highly specialized campaigns based on:
- Completion deadlines for CME requirements
- Prevalence of Medicare, Medicaid, or specific private payers
- Enrollment dates for specific programs
Similar to other specialties, cardiologists tend to flock toward larger metro areas, creating significantly more density in these areas. However, this tends to negatively affect rural areas, which already face healthcare access issues. Like many specialties, the density of cardiologists varies substantially across regions of the United States, from 12 to 225 per 100,000 Medicare beneficiaries. Nearly 50% of cardiologists are concentrated in regions that contain only 25% of the Medicare population, and 60% of this population has access to only 38% of cardiologists. This regional density of cardiologists was directly tied to the rates of mortality for heart attack and heart failure. In particular, rural regions, regions in the Midwest, and regions with lower socioeconomic status have lower cardiologist density, resulting in worse outcomes.
Gender
Gender is probably the least used piece of traditional demographic data in cardiology advertising campaigns. However, this is a common demographic in traditional marketing and advertising, so if you’re working with a team with a more traditional background, this may be something they want to know.
Cardiovascular Disease Specialist Gender Breakdown (2023) |
||
| Gender | Number of Cardiologists | % of Workforce |
| Male | 19,074 | 83.5% |
| Female | 3,769 | 16.5% |
| Total | 22,843 | 100% |
It is well known that cardiology is not a particularly diverse specialty. Overall, women are underrepresented but are disproportionately represented in pediatric cardiology residency positions. The representation of women decreases from medical school to residency to cardiology fellowship (also known as the residency-to-fellowship cliff). It then drops further from fellowship to subspecialty fellowship (known as the second cliff). It then drops even further regarding the inclusion or appointment of women in leadership positions (known as the leaky pipeline). Ultimately, while there is almost gender parity in internal medicine residency training, there is a significant lack of women in cardiology fellowships.
While women are underrepresented in cardiology, their numbers are slowly increasing.
Life Circumstances
Cardiologists are, of course, doctors, but they are people too. Understanding their personal circumstances can give you insight into how they behave and where their top concerns lie within their practice or profession.
According to Medscape, cardiologists fall in the mid-range for happiness and balance relative to other specialties, with overall happiness levels remaining relatively constant. That said, about half are experiencing burnout, depression, or both.
This, of course, is all tied to production as measured by work relative value units (wRVUs). Overall, production has remained relatively constant across all subspecialties after bouncing back post-pandemic.
(Source: MedAxiom, 2025)
On average, cardiologists rank among the top 5 earners, bringing in an average of $520k per year. However, in 2024, cardiologists experienced a 1% pay cut, the first since 2014, as all medical specialties have seen pay decreases due to reimbursement cuts.
(Source: MedAxiom, 2025)
Cardiology subspecialties tell a different story. According to other reports, median total compensation for cardiologists rose to just about $700k for integrated cardiologists, with private cardiologists earning $589k. By subspecialty, electrophysiologists earn the most at an average of $798k, and Advanced HF earn the least at $651k. These numbers are continuing to increase.
On average, cardiologists earn $520-700k per year.
Cardiology Targeting Criteria
Layering demographic data with cardiology advertising specifics is the key to successful HCP marketing campaigns. It’s these details that will help you target the right cardiology prospects without wasting precious advertising budget.
Practice Setting
Practice setting is one of the most important slices within any HCP specialty. Do the physicians spend their time in a small office . . . or do they work in a giant hospital? Or some combination? The vast majority of cardiologists are employed within a facility or integrated healthcare setting. However, fewer private practices means less direct influence over purchasing decisions and can make cardiologists harder to reach. Today, 90% of cardiovascular specialists are employed, and only 10% remain in private practice, while the inverse was true 15 years ago.
(Source: MedAxiom, 2022)
Healthcare is trending toward more employed physicians than practice owners—and cardiology is a prime example.
Payment Models and Public Programs
Medicaid and Medicare Acceptance
Like any profession, cardiologists want to get paid. Their patients don’t (and often can’t) pay for treatments out of pocket. The reimbursability of your product or solution could be a make-or-break factor in securing the sale. Approximately 72% of cardiology practices accept Medicaid, and 91% accept Medicare, with the following breakdown based on Metro Area:
Percentage of Medicare and Medicaid Acceptance by Metro Area (2025) |
||
| Metro Area | Accept Medicaid | Accept Medicare |
| Atanta | 75% | 92% |
| Boston | 92% | 92% |
| Dallas | 64% | 88% |
| Denver | 60% | 80% |
| Detroit | 100% | 100% |
| Houston | 53% | 95% |
| Los Angeles | 90% | 90% |
| Miami | 60% | 100% |
| Minneapolis | 100% | 100% |
| New York | 38% | 77% |
| Philadelphia | 77% | 100% |
| Portland | 59% | 94% |
| San Diego | 53% | 87% |
| Seattle | 89% | 100% |
| Washington, D.C. | 75% | 75% |
| Total Average | 72% | 91% |
Cardiology’s acceptance of these programs is noticeably higher than that of other specialties. However, some doctors still choose to opt out of these programs due to reductions in payments and the lack of an automatic index to keep pace with inflation in medical practice costs. Still, despite these concerns, nearly all (98%) of non-pediatric physicians participate in the Medicare program.
MIPS vs. APMs
Another component to consider is cardiology’s participation in alternative payment model (APM) programs and the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).
(Source: Medscape, 2022)
Cardiologists are fairly consistent in their MIPS and APM participation—although there has been a very slight shift in more APM participation over MIPS.
According to the Healthcare Financial Management Association, an increase in APM participation is often accompanied by a dip in MIPS enrollment. This shift in program participation is continuously becoming more common across the healthcare marketplace.
Skills and Subspecialties
Cardiology includes a few subspecialties. The key to using this data is to layer skills and subspecialties to target even more specific prospects. At a high level, cardiology can be broken down into adult and pediatric specialties. Beyond those two groups, there are a handful of additional specializations:
- Congenital heart disease
- Cardiac transplantation
- Advanced heart failure
- Cardiac electrophysiology
- Interventional cardiology
- Cardiac imaging
- Cardiovascular diseases prevention
- Echocardiology
- Electrophysiology
- Cardiothoracic surgery
Beyond the MDs
Keep in mind that doctors aren’t the only people making medical recommendations and interacting with patients, which means your marketing materials shouldn’t only focus on them.
To make the strongest impact, it’s essential to address the team that surrounds the doctor every day. This includes the medical support staff, such as physician assistants (PAs), nurse practitioners (NPs), and registered nurses (RNs). These team members all spend considerable time with patients, have some latitude in their work, have the ear of the doctor, and are often easier to reach than an MD or DO. There are a few common nursing credentials that can be helpful in identifying cardiology-specific nurses:
- Cardiac Vascular Nursing Certification (CV-BC)
- Cardiovascular Nurse Certification (CVN)
- Cardiac Medicine Certification (CMC)
- Cardiac Surgery Certification (CSC)
Don’t forget about administrators and office managers who keep things running. These roles tend to have a ton of insight into finances and operations, and can be a big influence in purchasing related solutions.
Prescribing Behavior
Various demand-side platforms (DSPs) offer programmatic advertising that enables you to target doctors by specialty, based on prescribing behavior or CPT history. This can be very advantageous when targeting specific subsectors of the cardiology discipline.
Lookalike Audiences and Hashtags
To weed out consumers versus HCPs, lookalike audiences and hashtags may be helpful in building out target audiences on social media. However, to build those audiences, you must take a critical look at who follows the various accounts/hashtags and the types of content they are promoting or associated with.
For example, there are quite a few cardiology associations for MDs and DOs to join, but their social media accounts target patients with tips on which foods to eat for cardiovascular health or how to identify a heart attack. In general, patients wildly outnumber cardiologists on these accounts. If you build your campaigns around them, you’ll end up primarily targeting patients. With some detailed investigation, we recommend building cardiology advertising based on audiences engaging with the following types of accounts:
- Conferences
- Medical school alumni associations
- National and regional associations
- Specialty journals and publications
When using hashtags, it’s important to use medical language to avoid targeting patients. Some examples of hashtags we use to target cardiologists include:
- #cardiotwitter
- #cardioed
- #stroke
- #heartfailure
- #radialfirst
- #ACCWIC
- #echofirst
- #STEMI
Sound Like a Lot of Elements to Consider? Let Us Help.
Cardiology advertising is not easy. It requires expertise and a nuanced understanding of how to make the advertising platforms work for an audience they were not designed for. There’s a lot to consider, which is why we recommend partnering with a cardiology advertising expert, like glassCanopy.
We provide start-to-finish lead-generation campaigns and expert content, backed by a digital-first ABM strategy, for organizations looking to launch cardiology advertising and marketing programs. We handle everything from strategy and content creation to campaign deployment and optimization.
Want to learn more about what we can do for you?
Let’s TalkMarketing to Cardiologists FAQs
Why is cardiology advertising so competitive—and what actually works?
Cardiology advertising is highly competitive because big pharma can outbid and outspend most advertisers. The most effective approach described here is a digital-first ABM strategy that uses highly specific cardiology targeting and messaging—not broad demographic targeting.
What are some basic demographic data points for cardiology advertising?
Demographics are generally less important than specialty-specific criteria, but they can help tighten targeting. Here are some basics:
- Cardiology market size: Expected to reach $126.3 billion by 2033
- Number of cardiologists in the US: 33,000
- Average Age: 59
- Average Retirement Age: 66-67
- Gender majority: Male
The most useful of these traditional demographics is age for inferring seniority/decision-making power. Outside of that, it’s more important to use a layered targeting approach based on titles, skills, subspecialties, etc. (See above for details).
How many cardiologists are there in the US, and why does this matter for marketing?
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, there are approximately 33,000 cardiologists in the U.S. That number decreases rapidly when you add in multi-layered targeting such as geography and “likely owner” criteria. Ultimately, your total addressable market (TAM) can shrink quickly, so you need to plan accordingly for a smaller audience and a layered targeting approach to avoid overspending.
How can I reach cardiology practice owners or decision-makers if “practice owner” isn’t a standard targeting option?
We recommend taking a layered approach, starting by targeting “cardiologists” and adding relevant subspecialties or skills as needed, depending on the product or solution. Then you can layer demographic and practice constraints to approximate decision-makers/owners. For example, since it takes about 15+ years to become a cardiologist and most people work for a few years before gaining authority, it’s better to focus on 35+, if not 45+, to better target practice owners.
I am looking to sell a product or service to a cardiology practice. Who else should I target besides cardiologists?
Similar to targeting cardiologists, it is recommended to target the broader care team and other associated practitioners. This can include PAs, NPs, RNs, as well as administrators and office managers (especially in smaller and private practices). Use the same layered approach as when targeting cardiologists, and be sure to use cardiology-relevant nursing credentials such as CV-BC, CVN, CMC, and CSC.
I can only sell my product to cardiologists or practices (not patients or consumers). How do I avoid targeting them?
Depending on the platform, starting with job titles is an ideal starting point. Beyond that, if you want to leverage look-alike audiences or hashtags, just run an audit to see whether the content is more patient- or clinician-focused. Beyond that, you can also target audiences around conferences and specialty journals. Of course, Google Ads and SEO target different audiences, making it impossible to reach all consumers. However, if you focus on more medical topics using appropriate medical terminology, you can also weed out some consumers. In general, by maintaining that layered approach and using medical-focused terms, you can reduce wasted impressions and keep messaging aligned to your clinician target.
Rich founded glassCanopy in 2001.
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