Digital media campaigns: The most highly targetable outreach tactics.

When a sponsor needs help with patient recruitment, they often request Praxis to investigate paid media opportunities. The outreach tactics we then recommend are based on what allows us to reach the target audience in the most efficient manner.

Praxis prioritizes tactics that are highly targetable and have historically yielded effective results at an adequate rate. While more traditional paid strategies (such as print or radio advertising) sometimes play a role, here we will be focusing solely on digital tactics since we find digital-only campaigns allow us to reach more qualified patients faster.

When considering a paid digital campaign, we generally bucket tactics into two tiers.

Tier 1: Targeting active seekers and information gatherers.

The most practical tactics are paid search and paid social. This is because they are the most targeted digital media strategies – as they can find people who may be qualified for a clinical trial based on the keywords that they search and what they are interested in on Facebook and Instagram – and they can bring in patients for a lower cost than any other paid digital media tactic.

• Paid search (Google and Bing). Targets people actively searching for terms related to their medical condition.
• Paid social (Facebook and Instagram). Targets people who have an interest in a relevant condition or fit a condition’s demographic profile (e.g., women only or patients between the ages of 18 and 65).

Tier 2: Targeting behaviors and demographics.

While effective, we can only reach so many targeted patients with paid search and paid social. So, when additional patients are needed, Praxis recommends other digital tactics. These are more broadly targeted, but still leverage a person’s online behavior as an indicator that they may have an interest in a specific medical condition. Although the methods used in this tier are more expensive to execute than those outlined in tier 1, they are sometimes necessary when a study needs a large number of patients that cannot be reached with paid search and paid social alone.

• Online display. We are able to target and buy against a specific audience across a variety of different websites. Targeting is focused on the consumer about to view the ad versus the actual site it is being viewed on.
• Native display. This kind of advertising comprises text and image ads that match the look, feel, and function of the website in which they appear. The ads look like part of the editorial flow of the page, exposing the reader to advertising content without the reader really realizing they are seeing an advertisement.
• Streaming audio. Digital audio includes placement of ads on streaming services like Spotify, Pandora, and digital radio stations.
• Streaming video. Video ads can run on platforms such as YouTube, Hulu, Sling, and Pluto, among many others. In addition, video ads can appear on websites and apps.

Personalized paid digital campaign strategies.

A solid, strategic paid digital campaign can help you reach your patient population while they are simply browsing the internet, researching information, listening to music, watching their favorite shows, or scrolling through a social media platform. With a paid digital media campaign, Praxis can help you recruit patients for your clinical trials faster.

Let us find the right tactics for you.

Reach out to learn more about how we can support your upcoming clinical trial. You can also read about our other pillars of outreach here.