Oncology Advertising: How to Develop an Oncology Marketing Strategy for This Niche Audience
Marketing to healthcare providers (HCPs) is a challenge. Add on any specialty layer, such as oncology, and it becomes even more complex. There’s a lot of competition out there vying for HCP attention. The more specific you can get with audience targeting and messaging, the better. But, of course, it’s not quite as simple as just tweaking targeting. For truly successful oncology advertising, you must develop an oncology marketing strategy that goes beyond simple demographic data and leverages oncology-specific segmentation and layered targeting methods. Here’s how we do it.
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Oncology Advertising Market Overview
Understanding the entire oncology market, from the value clinicians drive within it to the associated drug market, is key for effective marketing. This understanding will help you understand the success of your campaigns. In addition, understanding the trends driving the market will provide insight into the things this specialty cares about most, so you can incorporate those values into your oncology advertising campaigns.
Total Market Size and Growth
(Source: Global Market Insights, 2024)
The global oncology market was valued at $320 billion in 2024 and is anticipated to exhibit a CAGR of 10.8% through 2034, reaching over $866 billion. In 2023, North America dominated the market, accounting for a 48% share. These market numbers are based on the value associated with diagnostics, treatments, drug therapies, and prevention. The market is expected to grow with increased incidence rates, the need for administrative support, significant investments in cancer prevention research, and other technological advancements.
According to the American Cancer Society, there will be an estimated 2 million new cancer diagnoses in the US in 2024, a 40% annual increase over the last 20 years.
When looking at oncology drugs alone, the market was valued at $201.75 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow to $518.25 billion by 2032 at a CAGR of 11.3%. This forecast includes a wide range of medications, such as targeted therapies, chemotherapy agents, immunotherapies, and hormone therapies, primarily used to lower the total number of cancer cells in the body, shrink the tumor size, and reduce symptoms.
The global oncology market was valued at $320 billion in 2024 and is anticipated to exhibit a CAGR of 10.8% through 2034, reaching over $866 billion.
Total Addressable Market
To understand campaign success in your oncology advertising campaigns, you must know the total addressable market to determine market penetration. When considering physician specialists – especially those with particularly challenging training regimens – it’s important to remember just how small the community is. Then, layer on geographies or other sub-specialties, and the total addressable market can shrink rapidly.
The US has approximately 23,000 active oncologists and approximately 2,200 oncology practices.
Traditional Demographic Information
When targeting specialty physicians, such as oncologists, traditional demographic data used in B2C campaigns tends to be less relevant. However, depending on your product or solution, demographic information can be used to make inferences about your audience. This data isn’t always needed, but it is particularly helpful in eliminating unqualified prospects for targeting with smaller oncology advertising budgets. And, of course, in addition to being highly trained physicians, oncologists are people too. So, this demographic information can help you understand their top concerns or other lifestyle factors.
Age
Beyond the total addressable market, you also have to consider who has buying power when it comes to your product or solution. Just because someone is an oncologist doesn’t guarantee they can purchase your product—even if that’s the target prospect for your oncology advertising. Age brackets can help you focus on the most valuable prospects and decision-makers.
22% of oncologists are nearing retirement (65+), and 13.9% are still considered early in their careers (under 40).
The median age of oncologists is 51, and those 64 years and older (18.4%) outnumber the total number of oncologists younger than 40.
For example, if you’re marketing an EHR for oncologists, you will likely be targeting practice owners. Unfortunately, “oncology practice owner” is not a standard audience segment within most marketing platforms. Therefore, you’ll need to start by using the platform’s tools to target “oncologists” and then layer on additional specifics to ensure you’re targeting key decision-market prospects.
Location
It is unlikely that you will narrow down campaigns to locations in your oncology marketing strategy, as the resulting group will be too small for most advertising platforms. However, depending on the product or solution, understanding location-based healthcare trends can help you create specialized campaigns based on things like:
- Enrollment dates for specific state or regional programs
- Prevalence of Medicare, Medicaid, or specific private healthcare payers
- Completion deadlines for certain requirements
The density of oncologists tends to be inconsistent across the US. While the county-level density of the oncology workforce across the US (including physicians and pharmacists) is about 2.94 per 100,000, 64% of counties had no locally available oncologists, while another 12% had none in the local or adjacent counties. In addition, according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), only 10.5% of oncologists practice in rural areas.
Gender
Gender is probably the least utilized traditional demographic in an oncology marketing strategy. However, it is a common demographic in traditional marketing and advertising, so it may be something a team with a more traditional background will want to consider.
Oncology Gender Breakdown(Including hematology, pediatric oncology/hematology, and radiation oncology) |
||
| Gender | Number of Specialists | % of Workforce |
| Male | 16,118 | 64% |
| Female | 9,085 | 36% |
| Total | 25,203 | 100% |
The oncology specialty follows gender trends typical across the healthcare space, with mostly male domination. However, while men are still more prevalent overall in the oncology specialty, that is not the case in pediatric oncology. Women comprise nearly 56% of the workforce in this specific subspecialty.
Additional Considerations
While traditional demographic information may not be the most useful in an oncology marketing strategy, it’s still important to understand the breakdown of your audience. In addition to these details, it’s important to remember that oncologists are people too. Therefore, understanding their personal circumstances can give you additional insight into how they behave and their top concerns within their practice.
Happiness
Oncologists rate their happiness as “happy” or “very happy” with their lives outside the office before the pandemic. However, since COVID, happiness among oncologists has decreased. However, this is consistent with the rest of the industry, as physicians across all specialties are substantially less happy with their personal lives than they were pre-pandemic.
34% of oncologists report that COVID-19 has significantly impacted their work-life happiness in the past year.
Job Satisfaction and Burnout
Oncologists tend to be happy in their careers, with 73% stating that they would choose medicine again and 94% saying they would pick the oncology specialty again. This is due to various job satisfaction components:
(Source: Medscape, 2023)
However, paperwork and administrative tasks tend to be a thorn in their side. While most (53%) oncologists spend 30-40 hours a week with patients, they spend an average of 15.8 hours on paperwork and other administrative tasks.
This administrative work is the most significant contributor to burnout for oncologists. However, burnout rates in this specialty are consistent with reports across the industry, with women feeling more afflicted than their male counterparts.
Nearly 28% of male and 50% of female oncologists report feeling burned out (either burned out or burned out and depressed).
Salary
Oncologists consistently earn in the top third of the highest-earning medical specialties, earning an average of $467k in 2023. The most significant increase across specialties was 13% from the previous year. Salaries have increased by about 53% over the last nine years and are expected to continue growing. Unlike many other medical specialties, oncology did not experience a compensation slump during the pandemic. Overall, oncologists are generally paid fairly for their talent and time, even though this number has dropped slightly from previous years.
On average, oncologists earned $467,000 in 2023, a 13% increase from the previous year.
Key Targeting Criteria for Your Oncology Marketing Strategy
It is key to take a multi-layered approach to oncology advertising. Combining traditional demographic data with oncology specifics is the only way to ensure you reach the right audience and not waste your precious advertising budget.
Practice Setting
Practice settings are one of the most underrated targeting criteria among healthcare providers. Whether an oncologist works in an independent practice, giant hospital, or network aggregator will significantly impact the decision-making power they do (or don’t) have. A majority of oncologists are employed by larger entities, and industry trends show that network aggregators are continuing to increase at a rapid rate. As these trends continue, fewer private oncology practices will have less direct influence over purchasing decisions – making these oncologists harder to reach.
60% of oncologists are employed in an IDN or hospital setting.
Practice Payment Models
Like any profession, oncologists want to be paid. However, unlike most companies, where users pay directly for services, in healthcare, patients don’t (and often can’t) pay for treatments directly out of pocket. Understanding whether your product or solution is reimbursable could be the key to making that sale.
Another consideration is oncology participation in alternative payment models. Similar to reimbursement, understanding how your solution can help support these critical practice initiatives (and marketing to that end) is essential.
(Source: Medscape, 2023)
Skills and Subspecialties
In addition to specializing in different types of cancer, oncology also includes a few subspecialties. Depending on the specifics of your solution, layering skills and subspecialties into targeting helps you reach highly targeted subgroups. Some examples of oncology subspecialties include:
- Hematologist-oncologists
- Surgical oncologists
- Radiation oncologists
- Pediatric oncologists
- Gynecologic oncologists
- Dermatologic oncologists
- Interventional oncology
Beyond the MDs
Remember that running healthcare operations involves more than just doctors practicing medicine. Other people, such as nurses, make medical recommendations and interact with patients, and other back-end staff, such as administrators or diagnostic teams, are involved.
To support your marketing efforts, it’s essential to create materials that address the doctors’ supporting team. Oncology practices mostly have registered nurses (RNs), but there could also be other physician assistants (PAs) or nurse practitioners (NPs) as well. These nurses spend time with patients, have some latitude pull in their work, and often have the ear of the doctor. In addition, they tend to be a bit easier to get ahold of than an MD. Here are a few of the common oncology-specific nursing credentials that can help identify these folks:
- Oncology Certified Nurse (OCN)
- Certified Pediatric Hematology Oncology Nurse (CPHON)
- Certified Breast Cancer Nurse (CBCN)
- Blood & Marrow Transplant Certified Nurse (BMTCN)
Prescribing Behavior
Multiple demand-side platforms (DSPs) provide programmatic advertising options that enable the targeting of physician specialties based on their prescribing patterns or CPT records. This approach can be particularly beneficial for reaching specific subsectors within oncology.
Lookalike Audiences and Hashtags
Using lookalike audiences seems like an obvious win for this type of hyper-specific targeting. However, there is often no clear delineation between consumers and HCPs. To effectively build out the right audiences on these platforms, you should critically examine who follows the different accounts/hashtags and the types of content they promote and are associated with.
For example, look for associations that mainly promote patient-facing materials and instead focus on conferences, medical school alumni associations, and specialty journals and publications.
When it comes to using hashtags, it’s a similar story. Focus on using medical and scientific language to avoid hitting patients. Some examples of hashtags we might use to target oncologists include:
- #oncology
- #WomenInOncology
- #OncDoc
- #OncEd
- #RadOnc
- #MedOnc
- #CancerCare
Need Help with Your Oncology Marketing Strategy and Advertising?
Oncology advertising is not easy. It requires expertise and a layered approach that goes beyond traditional targeting criteria. Simply put, most advertising platforms were not designed for this level of specificity.
There’s a lot to consider (and we haven’t even discussed creating the content promoted with oncology advertising—but don’t worry, we do that, too), which is why we recommend working with an expert like glassCanopy.
We provide start-to-finish lead generation services, including content creation, highly targeted advertising, and full surround lead nurture campaigns. We handle everything for you, leveraging your solution expertise with our marketing expertise to create a perfect match.
Want to learn more about what we can do for you?
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Rich founded glassCanopy in 2001.
