StackAdapt brings self-serve NPI targeting to pharmaceutical advertisers

StackAdapt announced in-platform National Provider Identifier targeting and measurement capabilities on Jan. 6, 2026, enabling pharmaceutical marketers to execute deterministic, one-to-one healthcare professional campaigns without third-party handoffs. The Toronto-based advertising technology company positions the launch as addressing a critical capability gap in healthcare advertising operations.

According to the announcement, the new solution allows advertisers to upload NPI lists, forecast campaign performance, create healthcare professional segments, activate across connected TV, display, native, audio, and video formats, and access daily impression-level reporting within a single self-serve platform. The integration eliminates operational workflows that previously required managed service activation or external vendor coordination.

US healthcare digital advertising spending faces projections to surpass $20 billion by 2026, according to StackAdapt. Pharmaceutical marketers operate under increasing pressure to deliver precision-targeted, compliant campaigns with measurable outcomes at the individual provider level. The company characterizes its new capabilities as closing gaps that have historically forced healthcare advertisers to choose between reach, compliance, and operational efficiency.

Giuseppe La Rocca, VP of Enterprise Sales at StackAdapt, stated that pharmaceutical marketers require more than reach. "They need compliance, accuracy, and agility," La Rocca said. "With in-platform NPI Targeting and Measurement, we are offering a smarter way to engage individual HCPs, optimize in real time, and eliminate the operational delays tied to manual list management or third-party handoffs."

The announcement positions StackAdapt's approach against what it describes as niche healthcare demand-side platforms that often limit reach or rely on managed service setups. The company's solution integrates targeting, optimization, and measurement into what it characterizes as a single, intuitive workflow. Healthcare marketers gain access to broader inventory flexibility across formats and channels while maintaining self-serve interface access.

Technical capabilities and workflow integration

The in-platform NPI targeting system provides five core capabilities according to the release. First, verified precision through custom NPI list uploads and healthcare professional audience building by specialty, clinical behavior, and geography. Second, advanced healthcare professional segmentation with granular filters including medical specialty, treatment behavior patterns, and regional practice data.

Third, multi-channel reach enabling fully integrated healthcare professional campaigns across connected TV, display, native, audio, and video from a single platform. Fourth, real-time measurement through HIPAA-compliant, impression-level reporting at the NPI level to evaluate and optimize performance. Fifth, self-serve efficiency streamlining campaign setup and optimization workflows to reduce friction and accelerate launch timelines.

National Provider Identifiers serve as unique identification numbers assigned to healthcare providers in the United States. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issues these 10-digit identifiers to individual practitioners and healthcare organizations. NPIs enable deterministic targeting by allowing advertisers to match specific physicians or medical facilities with advertising inventory across digital channels.

The technical architecture underlying NPI targeting requires significant data infrastructure. Advertisers must maintain current NPI lists, match those identifiers to available advertising inventory, track impressions at the individual provider level, and measure outcomes while maintaining HIPAA compliance throughout the process. StackAdapt's integration handles these requirements within its existing platform infrastructure.

Healthcare professional segmentation capabilities extend beyond basic specialty targeting. The system allows refinement based on treatment behavior patterns, which could include prescribing histories, procedure volumes, or patient population characteristics. Geographic filters enable targeting based on practice locations, hospital affiliations, or regional market dynamics relevant to pharmaceutical marketing strategies.

Regulatory and compliance considerations

Healthcare advertising operates under extensive regulatory oversight affecting both content and targeting practices. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act establishes privacy requirements for protected health information, influencing how pharmaceutical advertisers can collect, use, and share data about healthcare providers and their practices.

Impression-level reporting at the NPI level raises specific compliance requirements. Advertisers must ensure that measurement systems maintain proper data segregation, implement appropriate access controls, and document data handling practices to satisfy regulatory audits. StackAdapt characterizes its reporting as HIPAA-compliant, addressing these requirements at the platform level.

The pharmaceutical industry faces additional regulatory considerations beyond general healthcare privacy rules. The Food and Drug Administration regulates pharmaceutical advertising content, requiring fair balance between efficacy claims and risk information. State regulations add further complexity, with varying requirements for healthcare professional targeting and patient privacy protection across different jurisdictions.

Self-serve platform access raises operational questions for pharmaceutical compliance teams. Traditionally, managed service arrangements provided additional compliance oversight layers before campaign activation. The shift toward self-serve capabilities transfers more compliance responsibility to advertiser organizations, requiring robust internal processes to ensure regulatory adherence.

Market positioning and competitive dynamics

StackAdapt distinguishes its offering from what it describes as niche healthcare DSPs through several claimed advantages. The company emphasizes broader inventory access across advertising formats and channels compared to specialized healthcare platforms. This positioning suggests that dedicated healthcare DSPs may offer limited inventory options, potentially constraining campaign reach or creative flexibility.

The self-serve interface represents another differentiation point. According to the announcement, competing healthcare advertising platforms often require managed service activation, introducing operational delays and reducing advertiser control over campaign optimization. StackAdapt's approach provides direct platform access while maintaining specialized healthcare capabilities.

Healthcare advertising technology encompasses several distinct platform categories. General-purpose DSPs offer broad reach but may lack specialized healthcare features or compliance frameworks. Dedicated healthcare DSPs provide specialized capabilities but potentially limited inventory access. Healthcare data vendors offer targeting data but require integration with separate activation platforms. StackAdapt positions itself as combining elements from these categories within an integrated platform.

The $20 billion projected US healthcare digital advertising market by 2026 includes spending across multiple advertiser segments. Pharmaceutical manufacturers represent the largest component, followed by medical device companies, healthcare providers, insurance companies, and health-focused consumer brands. Each segment faces distinct regulatory requirements and targeting strategies.

Connected TV has emerged as a growing channel for healthcare advertising, driven by streaming service adoption and improved targeting capabilities. The shift from linear television to connected TV platforms reflects broader media consumption patterns affecting healthcare professional and patient audience reach strategies. CTV offers advantages including geographic targeting precision, frequency management, and attribution measurement unavailable in traditional broadcast television.

Display and native advertising formats provide complementary reach for healthcare campaigns. These formats enable detailed creative messaging, interactive elements, and direct response mechanisms suited to healthcare information delivery requirements. Audio advertising through streaming services reaches healthcare professionals during commuting, exercise, or other activities where visual attention is unavailable.

Healthcare professional targeting evolution

Pharmaceutical marketing to healthcare professionals has undergone significant transformation over the past decade. Traditional approaches relied heavily on in-person sales representative visits, medical journal advertising, and conference sponsorships. Digital channels have progressively gained budget share, driven by targeting precision, measurement capabilities, and cost efficiency compared to traditional methods.

Healthcare professional targeting methods have evolved through several stages. Early digital approaches used contextual targeting based on medical website content or professional publication readership. Geographic targeting focused on areas with high concentrations of relevant medical specialties. Behavioral targeting tracked online activities suggesting medical professional status.

NPI-based targeting represents a more deterministic approach. Rather than inferring healthcare professional status from behavioral signals or contextual clues, NPI targeting uses verified provider identifiers to enable one-to-one campaign execution. This precision supports use cases including new product launches to specific specialties, rare disease medication promotion to limited prescriber populations, and adherence messaging to physicians treating specific patient populations.

The ability to measure campaign performance at the individual provider level transforms pharmaceutical marketing analytics. Traditional approaches might track awareness, consideration, or prescription volume changes at aggregate levels. NPI-level measurement enables analysis of which specific providers received advertising impressions, how exposure correlates with prescribing behavior changes, and which creative messages or media channels drive strongest performance within defined provider segments.

Script lift measurement, mentioned in the announcement as part of StackAdapt's broader healthcare suite, quantifies prescription volume changes attributable to advertising campaigns. This metric addresses pharmaceutical marketers' fundamental business objective—influencing prescribing decisions among target healthcare professional populations. The integration of script lift measurement with NPI-level targeting and reporting creates closed-loop attribution systems linking advertising exposure to measurable business outcomes.

Platform ecosystem and additional capabilities

The NPI targeting launch represents one component of what StackAdapt describes as its growing healthcare suite. The company references Script Lift, Audience Quality Measurement, Endemic, and EHR Inventory as additional solutions supporting data-driven healthcare professional engagement.

Electronic health record inventory refers to advertising placements within EHR systems used by healthcare providers for patient management, clinical documentation, and prescription ordering. These placements reach physicians at the point of care, potentially influencing treatment decisions during active clinical workflows. EHR advertising raises specific ethical and regulatory questions about appropriate messaging timing and content in clinical contexts.

Endemic inventory typically refers to advertising placements on healthcare-specific websites, medical publications, or professional platforms frequented by healthcare providers. These placements offer contextual relevance and audience concentration advantages compared to general web inventory. Endemic inventory often commands premium pricing due to verified healthcare professional audiences and compliance with medical content standards.

Audience quality measurement addresses a persistent challenge in digital healthcare advertising—verifying that advertising impressions actually reach intended healthcare professional audiences rather than general consumers or fraudulent traffic. Various methodologies exist for audience verification, ranging from device fingerprinting to authenticated professional networks to prescription data validation. Quality measurement capabilities help pharmaceutical advertisers optimize spending toward inventory sources delivering genuine healthcare professional reach.

StackAdapt characterizes its platform as performing 465 billion automated optimizations per second through artificial intelligence-powered systems. The company positions this computational capability as enabling real-time campaign optimization across targeting, bidding, creative selection, and budget allocation decisions. Machine learning algorithms analyze performance signals to adjust campaign parameters without manual intervention requirements.

The platform's self-serve interface provides campaign planning, activation, and measurement tools directly to advertisers and their agencies. Self-serve platforms have progressively displaced managed service models across digital advertising, driven by transparency demands, cost efficiency considerations, and advertiser desires for operational control. Healthcare advertising has lagged this transition due to compliance complexity and specialized requirements, making StackAdapt's self-serve approach noteworthy within the category.

Pharmaceutical marketing challenges and opportunities

Pharmaceutical marketers face a complex operating environment shaped by regulatory constraints, ethical considerations, competitive pressures, and evolving media landscapes. Digital channels offer targeting precision and measurement capabilities unavailable through traditional media, but introduce new challenges around compliance documentation, privacy protection, and fraud prevention.

Healthcare provider targeting requires balancing several competing priorities. Reach objectives demand broad inventory access across multiple channels and formats. Precision requirements necessitate accurate healthcare professional identification and verification. Compliance mandates require extensive documentation, privacy safeguards, and regulatory adherence. Budget efficiency drives optimization toward highest-performing inventory sources and creative approaches.

The shift toward value-based care models in healthcare delivery influences pharmaceutical marketing strategies. Insurers and healthcare systems increasingly emphasize treatment outcomes, cost-effectiveness, and patient adherence rather than purely prescribing volume. This evolution affects which healthcare professionals represent priority targets, what messages resonate most effectively, and how campaign success should be measured.

Specialty pharmaceuticals treating rare diseases or complex conditions present particular targeting challenges. Relevant prescriber populations may be quite small, distributed across diverse geographic areas, and difficult to identify through standard medical specialty classifications. NPI-level targeting enables precise identification and measurement even for narrow prescriber segments, supporting specialized pharmaceutical marketing requirements.

Generic drug competition intensifies pressure on branded pharmaceutical advertising effectiveness. When generic alternatives become available, branded medications must justify premium pricing through demonstrated superior efficacy, better tolerability, or enhanced convenience. Advertising to healthcare professionals must communicate these differentiation points effectively to maintain prescribing volume despite lower-cost alternatives.

Patient direct-to-consumer advertising complements healthcare professional targeting in pharmaceutical marketing strategies. Healthcare advertising certification requirements have become increasingly complex across different platforms and jurisdictions. Consumer advertising drives treatment inquiries and prescription requests, while healthcare professional advertising influences prescribing decisions and treatment recommendations. Integrated campaigns coordinate messaging across both audiences to maximize commercial impact.

Implementation considerations for pharmaceutical advertisers

Pharmaceutical companies and healthcare agencies considering NPI targeting adoption face several implementation decisions. NPI list sourcing and maintenance requires determining appropriate data providers, establishing update frequencies, and implementing data quality controls. Various commercial data vendors offer NPI lists with associated demographic and behavioral attributes, each with distinct coverage, accuracy, and cost characteristics.

Internal compliance processes must adapt to accommodate self-serve platform access. Pharmaceutical companies typically maintain extensive approval workflows for advertising content, ensuring regulatory compliance before media activation. Self-serve platforms potentially compress these timelines but require organizational adjustments to maintain proper oversight without introducing operational bottlenecks.

Campaign structure decisions affect targeting precision, measurement granularity, and operational complexity. Advertisers must determine appropriate segmentation approaches, whether organizing campaigns by medical specialty, geographic region, product indication, or other strategic dimensions. These structural decisions influence reporting capabilities and optimization strategies throughout campaign lifecycles.

Creative asset development for NPI-targeted campaigns may differ from broader healthcare professional advertising. One-to-one targeting enables highly personalized messaging based on individual provider characteristics, practice patterns, or patient populations. However, personalization at scale requires systematic creative production workflows, dynamic content assembly capabilities, and compliance review processes accommodating message variations.

Measurement framework design determines what questions campaigns can answer and how results inform strategic decisions. Pharmaceutical advertisers must define key performance indicators, establish attribution methodologies, determine acceptable measurement time horizons, and integrate digital advertising data with broader commercial analytics systems. These measurement considerations should be addressed before campaign activation to ensure proper data collection from the outset.

Industry implications and future directions

StackAdapt's NPI targeting launch reflects broader industry movement toward deterministic, addressable advertising in healthcare. Privacy regulations have constrained cookie-based behavioral targeting, pushing advertisers toward identifier-based approaches using authenticated user data or verified professional credentials. Healthcare advertising may pioneer approaches that subsequently expand to other regulated sectors or privacy-sensitive categories.

The integration of multiple healthcare-specific capabilities within general-purpose advertising platforms suggests market maturation in healthcare advertising technology. Early healthcare ad tech focused on specialized point solutions addressing narrow requirements. Platform consolidation brings together targeting, measurement, inventory access, and optimization within integrated systems, potentially reducing vendor fragmentation for pharmaceutical advertisers.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning applications in pharmaceutical marketing extend beyond campaign optimization to include creative development, audience discovery, and predictive analytics. Future systems may identify previously unknown correlations between provider characteristics and prescribing behavior, enabling more sophisticated targeting strategies than manual segmentation approaches allow.

Cross-channel attribution remains challenging despite measurement advances. Healthcare professionals encounter pharmaceutical advertising across multiple touchpoints—connected TV impressions at home, display advertising on mobile devices, audio ads during commuting, and endemic placements within professional workflows. Properly crediting each touchpoint's influence on eventual prescribing decisions requires sophisticated measurement frameworks that may exceed current platform capabilities.

Programmatic advertising principles continue expanding into traditionally non-programmatic healthcare channels. Sales representative visits, medical conference sponsorships, and journal advertising may incorporate data-driven optimization, automated decision-making, and performance measurement approaches borrowed from digital advertising. This convergence could transform pharmaceutical commercial operations beyond purely media applications.

Patient privacy protection will likely intensify as regulatory frameworks evolve. The intersection of pharmaceutical advertising with personal health information creates ongoing tension between commercial objectives and privacy rights. Healthcare advertising policy updates demonstrate platform responses to regulatory pressure, suggesting continued policy evolution affecting advertising capabilities.

Availability and access

The in-platform NPI Targeting and Measurement capabilities are now available to StackAdapt clients in the United States. The company states that interested advertisers can request access through StackAdapt's website. The geographic limitation to US clients reflects regulatory complexity and data availability differences across international markets.

StackAdapt operates from Toronto, Canada, and characterizes itself as the leading technology company in advertising and marketing. The company serves marketers across multiple verticals beyond healthcare, including financial services, retail, technology, and consumer packaged goods. The platform processes advertising campaigns across programmatic and direct inventory sources, managing media buying, optimization, and reporting within a single interface.

The healthcare suite expansion follows StackAdapt's broader platform development trajectory, which has included multiple capability additions across 2025. The company announced account-based marketing integrations with Bombora, Lead Forensics, and Leadspace earlier in the year. A partnership with iHeartMedia brought broadcast radio inventory to programmatic advertising, expanding channel coverage beyond digital-native formats.

The timing of the NPI targeting launch, announced January 6, 2026, positions the capability for pharmaceutical marketers planning campaigns for the year ahead. Pharmaceutical marketing operates on extended planning cycles due to compliance requirements and budget approval processes, making early-year launches strategically advantageous for adoption within annual planning timeframes.

Healthcare advertising technology will continue evolving as regulatory frameworks develop, privacy requirements shift, and measurement capabilities advance. StackAdapt's approach of integrating healthcare-specific features within a broader advertising platform represents one strategic direction within the market. Whether healthcare advertisers ultimately prefer integrated general platforms or specialized healthcare-only systems remains an open question that market dynamics will resolve over coming years.

Timeline

• January 6, 2026: StackAdapt announces in-platform NPI Targeting and Measurement capabilities for US clients
• 2026 (projected): US healthcare digital advertising spending expected to surpass $20 billion
• September 2025: DeepIntent launches HealthFirst Audio Package for healthcare advertising with iHeartMedia and SiriusXM partnerships
• August 2025: DeepIntent announces HealthFirst FAST Package targeting healthcare providers through streaming TV
• July 2025: Google launches restricted drug term certification requiring approval for pharmaceutical personalized targeting
• July 2025: Google expands telemedicine advertising to UK and Singapore markets
• 2025: Connected TV budget allocation projected to reach 28% of media spending as marketers shift from linear television
• 2025: StackAdapt announces ABM integrations with Bombora, Lead Forensics, and Leadspace
• 2025: StackAdapt partners with iHeartMedia to bring broadcast radio to programmatic advertising

Summary

Who: StackAdapt, a Toronto-based advertising technology company, launched new capabilities for pharmaceutical marketers and healthcare agencies in the United States. Giuseppe La Rocca, VP of Enterprise Sales at StackAdapt, represents the company in the announcement.

What: In-platform National Provider Identifier Targeting and Measurement capabilities enabling deterministic, one-to-one healthcare professional advertising campaigns. The solution allows NPI list uploads, performance forecasting, healthcare professional segmentation, multi-channel campaign activation across CTV, display, native, audio, and video, and daily impression-level reporting with HIPAA compliance—all within a single self-serve platform.

When: Announced January 6, 2026, with immediate availability to US clients. The launch occurs as US healthcare digital advertising spending is projected to surpass $20 billion by 2026.

Where: Available exclusively to StackAdapt clients in the United States through the company's self-serve platform. Geographic limitation reflects regulatory and data availability differences across markets.

Why: Pharmaceutical marketers face increasing pressure to deliver precision-targeted, compliant campaigns with measurable outcomes at the individual provider level. The solution addresses capability gaps requiring third-party handoffs or managed service activation by integrating targeting, optimization, and measurement into a single workflow. It eliminates operational delays from manual list management while providing broader inventory access compared to specialized healthcare DSPs.