CASE STUDY NO. 7
Using Facebook Ads to Recruit Study Participants
Background and Objectives
With 80 percent of individuals going online to learn more about specific diseases or treatments, digital media has become a leading source of health information. 21 More and more, people use mobile devices to find this information, making it easier to gather consumer demographics, such as age, gender and location. 22 This growing population of online users represents an opportunity for clinical researchers to engage with and recruit a broader audience at a lower cost than through traditional marketing channels.
To determine the efficacy of digital marketing as a low cost method of recruitment, The Michael J. Fox Foundation( MJFF), in conjunction with the Fox Insight Recruitment Committee, designed a marketing pilot to recruit individuals with late-stage Parkinson’ s disease( PD) to Fox Insight. Fox Insight( foxinsight. org) is MJFF’ s online longitudinal study that collects patient reported outcomes on the daily lived experience of individuals with and without PD. Objectives for the marketing pilot were to: 1) increase the volume of enrolled participants through Facebook advertising; 2) target and enroll participants at specific stages of disease; and 3) examine costs of recruitment using digital methods.
Methods
Participants To ensure that Fox Insight accurately captures the daily lived experience of Parkinson’ s disease, it is imperative that individuals at different stages of disease are equally represented in the study. However, age, and motor and non-motor symptoms make it challenging for individuals with later-stage PD 23, 24, 25 to participate in clinical research, and often they are underrepresented. People with late-stage PD were an important target population for the marketing pilot. To be shown an ad, individuals had to meet the following eligibility criteria:
+ + Currently living in the United States + + Age 60 or older
+ + Indicated“ Parkinson’ s disease awareness” as an individual interest and selected interests in subject areas related to PD or clinical trials( e. g., clinical trials, PD symptoms and PD organizations) on Facebook
+ + Not already involved in the MJFF online community( e. g., had not visited the MJFF website in the past 30 days and had not ever“ liked” the MJFF Facebook page)
Facebook was selected as the platform for the marketing pilot because of its vast reach, many targeting capabilities, 26 and tracking techniques that enabled referral source attribution for those individuals recruited to Fox Insight.
Materials Two types of Facebook ads were designed for the marketing pilot. One was aimed at individuals(“ me” language) and the other emphasized the collective effort of clinical research(“ we” language). Two subthemes were tested for each type of ad.
+ + Individual( me): Language appealed to users on an individual level, to be empowered to impact research by participating in an online clinical study( Fox Insight). An image of an individual participating in Fox Insight on their computer accompanied these ad variations.
–– Subtheme: Research Reimagined( Figure 1, opposite page)
––
Subtheme: Lead the way( Figure 2, opposite page)
+ + Collective( we): Language encouraged the user to contribute to a larger cause by participating in an online clinical study( Fox Insight). An image of a family sitting together in a waiting room accompanied these ad variations.
–– Subtheme: Join a Collective Goal( Figure 3, page 32)
–– Subtheme: Impact the Future( Figure 4, page 32)
21 http:// www. pewinternet. org / 2011 / 05 / 12 / the-social-life-of-health-information-2011 /
22 https:// www. mdconnectinc. com / medical-marketing-insights / 2016-trends-for-digital-recruitment-in-clinical-trials
23 https:// www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov / pmc / articles / PMC2695395 /
24 https:// www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov / pmc / articles / PMC3038575 /
25
( defined as having been diagnosed for ≥ 10 years, a score of 25 or higher on the MDS-UPDRS( Part II) and an NMS quest score of 13 or higher)
26 https:// www. mdconnectinc. com / medical-marketing-insights / digital-marketing-lowers-clinical-trial-recruitment-costs
30 Accelerating Clinical Trials: Best Practices for Recruitment and Retention