The Future of Pharma PPC

What is the one thing pharmaceutical companies don’t want? A letter from the FDA. Unfortunately, AdAge recently wrote that this is what 14 drug makers received at the end of March, stating that they were in violation of fair balance guidelines. The FDA said that paid search ads were misleading searchers because they did not include drug risk information in the ad copy.

The ultimate goal of PPC is to promote products and services that people are actively  searching for. If someone is searching for “cholesterol medicine,” the paid search results should include ads for Vytorin, Trilipix and other cholesterol reducing medicines, along with Cheerios and cholesterol information sites.

I agree with the FDA that the pharmaceutical ads should not be misleading. They should provide accurate information about the product, however, I think this is excessive. The companies were following an unwritten “one-click rule,” where risk information was provided within one click. Makes sense right? With the strict guidelines Google, Yahoo and MSN enforce about ad copy length, there is no way to include all the risk information within the ad. Here’s the guidelines so you can see how short and succinct ads must be:

That's not a whole lot of space when considering how long Web site copy is. As a result of the letters, ad placements by pharmaceutical companies dropped 54% within the first week after the letter was issued, and 84% from March 26th to June 30th. While I did find results for NuvaRing and Vytorin recently, they were hard to find. Before, more of the search result spots were populated with pharmaceutical company ads.

This is just another case of how technology is advancing faster than the law. Paid search ads have been featured in search results since the late ‘90s, yet the FDA is only putting their foot down now. Public hearings will begin mid-November, but it could take until 2011 before official guidelines are developed. Until then, the pharmaceutical companies are trying to play nice and not ruffle the FDA’s feathers even more.

About the Author: Ellen Stevens

As the Search Media Manager for Off Madison Ave’s interactive division, Mighty Interactive, Ellen develops and manages strategic online paid search and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaigns for clients of all sizes. She is also the head of the internship program at Off Madison Ave. Ellen uses her previous agency internship experience to be an effective mentor and help the students develop skills they will need professionally after graduation. Ellen graduated from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a certificate in international business.

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