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The 2026 Healthcare Marketing Edge: Control is the Competitive Advantage
The Strategies Successful Healthcare Marketers Are Using to Create Growth
Healthcare is a complex industry full of its own challenges and opportunities. This year, we’re breaking out our B2B Marketing Edge survey findings to give B2B marketers in healthcare and those who sell to healthcare companies the industry-specific insights they need to succeed.
With this report you can:
- Understand top B2B healthcare marketer challenges and innovations across data, measurement and campaign optimization
- Understand how B2B healthcare marketers compare to marketers in other industries
- Compare B2B healthcare marketing across the US, UK and APAC
B2B Healthcare Marketing Today
The health and wellness market is booming around the world. From fitness and supplements to skincare and longevity solutions, new companies are emerging every day to feed people’s desire to maximize their health. Companies in these growing sectors are looking for partners to help them produce the best products, reach customers and close sales, and B2B marketers that serve this growth industry are competing for attention and budget. This drives an increasing need for partners to supply tech, data and marketing, and sales expertise.
At the same time, B2B marketers selling to the institutional healthcare industry face complexities that vary considerably in different countries around the world. Everything from politics to inflation to insurance has an impact on marketing in healthcare. Many developed countries, including the US and UK, have an aging population, which is driving change in different parts of the healthcare market, requiring companies to evolve their business. Add the layer of regulation, complete with strict messaging and data privacy requirements, and it is clear that marketers have a lot to manage.
To manage growth and complexity, healthcare companies are embracing automation, data-driven platforms and AI to help their businesses run more efficiently and serve their customers better. Healthcare tech is the fastest growing sector of the industry. With unique requirements, healthcare tech often must be tailored to specific needs in the market, rather than using general solutions that work across industries. This means precise, personalized marketing is particularly important for any B2B marketer selling healthcare tech.
In our 2026 Marketing Edge Report, B2B marketers selling to healthcare companies (aka “B2B healthcare marketers”) enjoyed above average company revenue growth overall. However, they also reported a harder time optimizing campaigns, getting reliable, compliant data, and had less campaign visibility compared to other marketers.
Top trends for B2B healthcare marketers:
- Growth at the company level was high for B2B healthcare marketers compared to other industries, and healthcare marketers were a bit more likely to hit their B2B marketing goals at 33% compared to 28% of all marketers.
- Paid search and digital audio top the list of top channels that B2B healthcare marketers plan to increase significantly in the next 12 months at 45% and 38%.
- Buying groups have emerged as a major focus for B2B healthcare marketers. Our survey found that 43% have fully implemented buying groups, higher than other marketers. The top benefit of implementing buying groups is higher win rates at 52%.
Are you late to the party on buying groups?
We’ve got healthcare marketers covered!Despite strong growth, B2B healthcare marketers face a variety of challenges.
- Budget strain hit B2B healthcare marketers in the past year. Nearly one third (31%) reported facing budget decreases in 2026 compared to 2025.
- Measurement challenges frustrate B2B healthcare marketers. The survey reveals that healthcare marketers are more likely to have difficulty measuring performance across channels in one consolidated view, identifying which marketing activities drive pipeline creation, and having limited visibility into audience behavior and engagement. B2B healthcare marketers were also less likely to have full attribution visibility.
- Data quality and privacy compliance issues are also significant for B2B healthcare marketers. The biggest challenge reported by nearly half of all B2B healthcare marketers (48%) was a lack of high quality or reliable data sources followed by meeting data privacy and compliance requirements at 44%.
- Campaign optimization hurdles are limiting for B2B healthcare marketers. More than half (53%) noted that approval or governance processes slow campaign reallocation. And 55% said that technology and platform limitations slow campaign optimization.
Taking Control:
B2B Healthcare Marketers Compared to Other Industries
Compared to other industries, B2B healthcare marketers were much more likely to see revenue increases in the past year. We found that 37% of B2B healthcare marketers experienced a significant increase in revenue and another 37% saw a moderate increase.
Which best describes the change in revenue at your organization in the last year?
B2B Healthcare Marketers Compared to Other Industries
The strong performance carried into the marketing department. B2B healthcare marketers were more likely than other marketers to report that they significantly exceeded their goals at 33% compared to 28%.
To what extent did the marketing team meet primary goals last fiscal year?
Despite the success, B2B healthcare marketers were slightly less likely than other marketers to see a budget increase in 2026. Only 58% of B2B healthcare marketers got a budget increase, the lowest of any industry.
How did your marketing budget change for the 2026 fiscal year compared to 2025?
(Select all that apply)
A total of 47% of B2B healthcare marketers were very confident in their company's process for making marketing budget decisions, tied with Professional Services for the second-lowest confidence level among named industries, with only Manufacturing scoring lower.
B2B healthcare marketers lag behind their peers in other industries on several other measures. Our research shows they have lower visibility and measurement capabilities than peers in other industries, and when it comes to metrics that have grown in importance, they're more likely to rely on proxy metrics than ROI to measure success.
Healthcare marketers rank at the bottom for growing ROI focus, tied with Media & Entertainment at 19%.
Looking back at the last two years, which metrics have INCREASED THE MOST in importance when defining success for your marketing team?
(Select up to 3)
SHOWN HERE: Return on investment (ROI) for marketing campaigns results
When asked about the biggest challenges using analytics to inform marketing decisions, healthcare marketers ranked among the top third of industries citing difficulty measuring performance across channels, at 39%, tied with Manufacturing.
What are the biggest challenges your team faces when using analytics to inform marketing decisions and understand performance?
Healthcare ranks among the top third for measurement challenges by industry.
B2B Healthcare marketers are most likely to rely on ROI/ROAS and sales accepted leads to measure marketing success, with a lighter use of attribution than other industries, but that could be changing. Healthcare marketers were most likely to have increased the use of marketing-attributed revenue in the past two years.
Another challenge for B2B healthcare marketers relates to campaign optimization. This group was much more likely to agree that approval and governance processes were a barrier to reallocating revenue, and that technology or platform limitations prevented real time adjustments. Despite the difficulties internally, B2B healthcare marketers were slightly more likely than other marketers to reallocate budget frequently during a campaign.
Researcher’s note: B2B healthcare marketers were also among the industries most likely to cite delays in launching strategic initiatives (40%) and the inability to test or innovate (39%) as top consequences when marketing and the CFO are not aligned.
What are the biggest barriers that prevent you from reallocating or optimizing spend during an active campaign?
(Select up to 3)
Tips for B2B Healthcare Marketers
- Seek out data partners with healthcare expertise. B2B healthcare marketers have higher data privacy compliance requirements than marketers in other industries. Finding data partners that understand healthcare marketing and prioritize data quality and data compliance is a critical component of a successful marketing strategy. B2B healthcare marketers should be up-front with their needs and use third-party validation such as Forrester Research to find the best data partners.
- Align marketing metrics with company goals. Pushing for better measurement capabilities and working to align those metrics with the KPIs that matter to the rest of the C-suite can help healthcare marketers prove their value and justify increased budgets, especially if they are significantly exceeding their goals.
- Eliminate campaign optimization barriers. Where possible, healthcare marketers should identify internal processes and outdated technologies that are holding them back from optimizing campaigns. Today, audiences move quickly across channels, and savvy marketers adjust their budget allocations frequently. B2B healthcare marketers need to be agile if they want to be competitive.
- Prioritize alignment with the CFO. The more aligned B2B healthcare marketers can be with their CFO, the better they can justify new initiatives and innovations. Company growth should be able to translate to marketing growth, but marketers need to be in lock step with the CFO across goals, measurement and approach to create confidence and ensure marketers are driving towards the outcomes that matter to executives.
More tips for aligning with your CFO in this on-demand webinar!
Healthcare Marketing Across Major Global Markets
With so many regulations and market challenges to contend with, it’s important for B2B healthcare marketers to compare their situation to regional peers. We surveyed healthcare marketers across the US, UK and APAC and below we break out the key differences to help marketers understand their unique market trends.
Healthcare companies in APAC were a bit smaller overall, with 54% earning less than $100m in annual revenue compared to 40% in the US and 47% in the UK.
The most senior marketer reported to different C-level executives in different regions:
US
Marketing leaders are most likely to report to the CEO (27%) or the Chief Revenue or Sales officer (27%)
UK
41% of marketing leaders report to the CEO, by far the most common response
APAC
Marketing leaders reported to either the CEO (27%) or COO (27%)
Additionally, while the BDR function is most likely to report to marketing across regions, it is significantly more likely in APAC where 73% of marketers manage BDR teams compared to 59% in the US and 56% in the UK. This means APAC healthcare marketers are managing greater BDR complexity internally, often across diverse markets, languages, and regulatory environments. For teams already stretched by measurement and data challenges, that coordination burden is significant.
Marketers across regions also showed variance in their confidence in their use of data. Healthcare marketers in the US are most likely to say that they are using the right data to convert their audience and it’s proven in pipeline at 50%. Likely due to stricter data privacy restrictions in the UK, only 28% strongly agree. While 18% of APAC marketers agree.
Researcher’s note: APAC marketers are most likely to use buying group data, while UK marketers rely more on content and campaign data, and US marketers on demographic and intent data.
Marketing managing BDR teams by region
Which of the following are you currently utilizing when targeting audiences?
(Select all that apply)
Healthcare Marketing Across Major Global Markets:
Key Questions to Ask
- What region-specific challenges are relevant to your business today?
- What can you improve about your relationship with the C-Suite?
- How can marketing become a strategic growth driver for your company based on your knowledge of your customers and your market?
B2B Healthcare Marketers Go Forward Plan
B2B healthcare marketers are in an industry that is both restrictive and dynamic. There are growth opportunities, but also regulations and added layers of process that many other industries don’t have to contend with.
This means healthcare marketers have to be doubly focused on building data and measurement capabilities that can deliver results to prove value to the C-suite. They must also create a strong case for support in improving gaps that limit campaign optimization, targeting and innovation.
Top Takeaways for B2B Healthcare Marketers
- Turn Data Compliance Into a Competitive Advantage
- Close the Measurement Gap Before It Closes Your Budget
- Your BDR Coverage Should Match Your Market Ambitions
- Build for Agility Within a Regulated Environment
Anteriad helps HealthTech marketers build pipeline in markets where trust and healthcare expertise are the price of entry. See how we do it.
1
Turn Data Compliance Into a Competitive Advantage
B2B healthcare marketers face stricter data privacy and compliance requirements than almost any other industry, but the most successful marketers are reframing this good data stewardship as a strategic asset. Rather than treating compliance as a barrier, leading healthcare marketers are building first-party data infrastructure and vetting partners with healthcare-specific credentials, to create a data foundation their competitors can't easily replicate. In a market where nearly half of all healthcare marketers cite unreliable data as their top challenge, data quality and compliance capability is increasingly a differentiator, not just a requirement.
2
Close the Measurement Gap Before It Closes Your Budget
B2B healthcare marketers are outperforming peers on revenue growth and goal attainment, but that success isn't translating into budget confidence or budget increases, in part because their measurement capabilities lag behind other industries. Marketers who rely on proxy metrics and lack full attribution visibility will struggle to make the case for investment to a CFO who needs to see clear connections between marketing activity and pipeline outcomes. Closing the measurement gap by consolidating cross-channel performance into a single view and shifting toward marketing-attributed revenue is the most direct path to converting strong results into the budget and mandate to sustain them.
3
Your BDR Coverage Should Match Your Market Ambitions
APAC healthcare marketers are significantly more likely to own their BDR function than peers in other regions, with 73% managing BDR teams compared to 59% in the US and 56% in the UK. That's a real coordination challenge for teams already navigating complex buying groups, strict compliance requirements, and long sales cycles across markets with different languages and buyer expectations. Internal BDR capacity can only stretch so far. Healthcare marketers with multi-market pipeline goals should assess whether their current BDR coverage can execute consistently across every region they're targeting, and look for partners with multilingual, multi-market BDR and SDR capabilities that can extend their reach without adding headcount.
4
Build for Agility Within a Regulated Environment
Complex internal approval processes and technology limitations are actively preventing B2B healthcare marketers from optimizing campaigns in real time, which is a significant disadvantage in a market where audience behavior shifts quickly across channels. It’s important to work on streamlining approval workflows, modernizing the technology stack, and establishing pre-approved budget reallocation protocols that allow teams to move at the speed of the market without compromising compliance, even if it feels like an uphill battle. Healthcare marketers who solve for agility inside their regulatory constraints will be better positioned to compete with faster-moving competitors.
Turn Buying Group Insight Into Buying Group Wins
Buying groups are already paying off for B2B healthcare marketers, with higher win rates leading the list of benefits. If you're ready to build on that momentum, our Buying Groups eBook breaks down how to identify, engage, and convert the groups actually making the decisions.
Rated 5 out of 5 for Buying Group Detail by Forrester
Methodology
Ascend2 benchmarks the performance of business strategies and the tactics and technology that drive them. Anteriad partnered with Ascend2 to survey 631 marketing decision-makers across all levels of marketing leadership, located across the United States, United Kingdom, and APAC. These marketers represent B2B and B2B/B2C organizations with 250 or more employees. The survey was fielded in March 2026. The findings in this report reflect responses from the 127 marketers in health, wellness, fitness, and healthcare technology sectors.