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21 Dec 2023
Understanding bot complexity in the context of life sciences
Effectively managing bot complexity in the realm of life sciences communication is a critical endeavor, especially given the importance of precision and accuracy. The challenge lies in distinguishing between authentic human clicks and deceptive bot clicks, a task made increasingly difficult by the proliferation of fraudulent click bots. These nefarious entities constitute up to 50% of all internet traffic and 20% of visits to websites that serve advertisements, posing a substantial threat to revenue streams. In addition, they can even skew marketing campaign metrics leading to businesses making decisions based on incorrect/inorganic data.
To address this menace, life sciences organizations must focus not only on the quantitative analysis of bot clicks but also on the qualitative nuances that differentiate genuine healthcare professional (HCP) interactions from automated ones. This necessitates a tailored approach to ensure the integrity of email campaigns and landing page engagement.
Let us examine the different types of bots in the life sciences ecosystem:
Good bots
Search Engine Bots: These bots play a crucial role in indexing content for search engine results and facilitating the retrieval of accurate information for both customers and HCPs
Copyright Bots: These bots are vigilant in monitoring platforms for potential copyright violations. They also serve to protect the intellectual property of pharmaceuticals
Site Monitoring Bots: Their primary function is to ensure the seamless functioning of life sciences websites by promptly detecting and alerting the users about any deviations
Bad bots
DDoS Bots: These malicious bots compromise the accessibility and stability of life sciences websites by overwhelming network traffic, potentially jeopardizing customer engagement and patient care
Web Content Scraping Bots: They operate with the intent of extracting sensitive patient data or life sciences content for malicious purposes. These bots require heightened cybersecurity measures
Impact of bot clicks on life sciences marketing campaigns
The impact of bot clicks, both good and bad, extends beyond the conventional digital marketing challenges – affecting the way life sciences marketing campaigns are designed, orchestrated, and measured. Let us look at some of the potential key impacts when life sciences organizations do not have a bot management strategy or solution in place.
Inflated Click-Through Rates (CTRs): Bots can mislead or misdirect the decision-making by creating a false sense of campaign success, which has the potential to cascade and impact the resource allocation for future campaigns and product launches. Distorted engagement metrics in general can also potentially lead to misinformed patient communication strategies
Wasted Resources: Diverting budget toward non-valuable clicks, thereby impeding the development of innovative life sciences solutions
False Insights: Bots can compromise the understanding of consumer’s and HCP’s behaviors, thereby hindering the creation of precise and targeted communications
Overloading Landing Pages: Bot click surges can overload your landing pages, disrupting the user experience on life sciences platforms and applications and potentially affecting the engagement and trust
Email Deliverability: Email service providers may interpret bot clicks as a sign of low engagement and could route your emails to spam folders, jeopardizing your whitelisting status of the marketing automation platform (MAP)
Data Quality: Bot clicks can contaminate your campaign data and analytics, making it challenging to extract meaningful insights and make data-driven decisions
Mitigating negative bot impact on life sciences marketing campaigns
To mitigate the impact of bot clicks on campaigns, it is essential to implement effective bot filtering and monitoring solutions and regularly reviewing your campaign data for anomalies. This can help ensure that your campaign performance metrics accurately reflect the behavior of real human users. Let us examine some key strategies and solutions that must be implemented to set the ball rolling.
Advanced Bot Filtering: Use sophisticated bot filtering solutions that go beyond conventional methods, which are specifically tailored for the intricacies of life sciences customer and HCP interactions
Behavioral Analysis: Use advanced analytics to discern subtle behavioral differences between genuine clicks and automated bot interactions
Collaborate with Experts: Forge partnerships with marketing and campaign automation experts who are specialized in life sciences, ensuring a proactive approach to bot management within the context of your organization and industry
The following strategies will help life sciences organizations:
Drive Positive Return-on-Investment (ROI): Harness the data derived from good bot interactions to refine life sciences content and strategy, ultimately leading to increased engagement, improved targeting, and enhanced patient outcomes
Mitigate Risk: Mitigate the risk of overspending on ineffective campaigns by accurately identifying and filtering out bot clicks, ensuring accurate ROI calculations
Manage Resource Costs: Manage the resource costs associated with bot click management efficiently to divert funds and time towards medical research and innovative life sciences solutions
Case study
A leading life sciences organization’s webinar campaign faced the challenge of discerning between genuine HCP clicks and bot clicks. This requirement prompted the development of an automated solution, which analyzed various behavioral parameters, including time interval, domain similarity, sequencing, and so on, ensuring a higher accuracy in identifying bot clicks. The outcome included greater accuracy of campaign key performance indicator (KPI) metrics, better data for analytics, and a more realistic ROI calculation for life sciences marketing campaigns.
Bot clicks present both challenges and opportunities. As the life sciences industry continues to evolve, the strategic implementation of advanced bot management solutions and a deep understanding of bot behavior are essential to achieving a balanced and effective marketing and communication strategy. This approach not only maximizes the ROI but also ensures the integrity of life sciences communications where precision and trust are nonnegotiable.
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