Leveraging AI to Power Search and Social Campaigns in a Regulated Healthcare Environment
Client
Novartis
A global leader in healthcare and pharmaceuticals, Novartis launched a new migraine remedy aimed at providing faster, more reliable relief for patients suffering from chronic and episodic migraines. Given the strict regulatory landscape around healthcare advertising, the marketing approach needed to be carefully managed while still achieving significant reach and engagement.
Challenge
Healthcare marketing demands precision, compliance, and credibility. Traditional paid media strategies are often constrained by what can be said, promoted, or promised. Novartis needed a way to maximize campaign effectiveness across Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Social Media platforms without breaching regulatory boundaries.
Objective
- Increase brand and product awareness among migraine sufferers and healthcare professionals.
- Optimize search and social ad performance using insights from AI.
- Stay fully compliant with healthcare advertising regulations at all stages.
Solution
Virtuance implemented a carefully calibrated AI-enhanced marketing strategy that blended traditional campaign structures with modern machine learning insights.
Key Actions:
- AI-Powered Audience Segmentation: Used predictive analytics and clustering algorithms to identify high-intent audiences based on browsing patterns, search behavior, and symptom discussions—without relying on sensitive personal data.
- Dynamic Keyword and Ad Copy Optimization: Employed NLP-based tools to analyze search trends and sentiment around migraine-related queries. This enabled the creation of compliant, empathetic, and highly relevant ad copy that aligned with user intent while respecting healthcare advertising rules.
- Content Personalization Modeling: Although strict on personalization, AI helped prioritize safe variations of content themes (e.g., focusing on quality of life improvement, physician trust, treatment innovation) for different audience segments.
- Smart Bidding Strategies: Leveraged AI to optimize SEM bidding in real time based on factors like device, time of day, symptom search behavior, and ad engagement probability.
- Sentiment Monitoring on Social Media: Used AI sentiment analysis to monitor public reactions in real time and adjust social media messaging promptly, maintaining compliance and sensitivity around the medical condition.
Results (within 3 months)
- 28% higher click-through rate (CTR) on search campaigns compared to previous benchmarks
- 21% lower cost per acquisition (CPA) on social media campaigns
- Search visibility for migraine-related terms improved by 35%, occupying top ad placements for critical keywords
- Social media engagement increased by 44%, with overwhelmingly positive sentiment toward the remedy and its benefits
- Strict regulatory compliance maintained across all channels, passing multiple internal and external audits
Conclusion
Our strategic use of AI allowed us to combine innovation with compliance. We didn’t just manage our campaigns, we elevated them, unlocking performance we didn’t think possible within healthcare regulatory environment.