Biotech Startup

Desired Outcome

A biotech startup company had developed a new remote clinical trials mobile app. They were ready to deliver on their first project. To do that—and have a successful outcome to attract new customers—they needed recruit participants for trial.

We were asked to create PPC campaigns to recruit the participants. They budgeted 12 weeks to find 100 participants.

The Challenge

This type of recruitment of clinical trial participants was a relatively new strategy.

It made sense. Trial participants would be expected to use a mobile app to report critical information. Finding users already actively using the web provided a level of qualification in attracting users who had a demonstrated ability to use technology.

While virtual recruitment wasn't completely new, most companies would recruit individuals who had a general interest in participating in a clinical trial. The strategy relied on building a big enough database to always have someone who qualified.

In this situation the client would be starting with no viable leads. The recruitment would need to be for a particular clinical trial with very specific qualifications. This had to be accomplished within 3 months.

We were up to the challenge.

The Solution

So here’s how we helped the client exceed its goal in finding participants in only 1 week—11 weeks sooner than required.

• Identifying Target Segments
• Facebook Ad Campaign
• Automated Lead Generation Solutions

Identifying Target Segments

The specific guidelines for participants made identification of the target segment very simple.We quickly developed a target persona with age, interests and motivations to participate in the trial.

With such detailed segment knowledge, identifying the method to digitally recruit became apparent. It also improved the ability to generate ad messaging and imagery that would compel conversions.

Facebook Ad Campaign

Based upon target demographics, Facebook provided the optimal channel for paid recruiting. All PPC campaign investment went towards Facebook PPC for this very reason.

The strategy proved effective, generating the desired leads at a 40% conversion rate. An additional benefit would be the reduced cost and even feasibility of buying leads to find enough participants. The ability to utilize a completely digital recruitment strategy delivered on promises of reducing clinical trial costs.

Automated Lead Generation Solution

Meeting the goals for a single trial provided the client with an opportunity for more business. Would it be cost-effective moving forward to recruit on a trial-by-trial basis? Time constraints would present another challenge. It seemed inevitable that eventually the client would potentially need to rely on purchased candidate leads.

Beyond the prohibitive cost constraints, purchased candidates didn’t provide any guarantee the lead would result in qualified candidates. We developed an automated lead generation system integrating low-cost software that would be easy to maintain.

The system would allow the company to generate leads by building a database of willing participants over time. Now they would have the advantage of a database of candidates, with the flexibility to utilize digital recruitment for direct recruitment.