Patient recruitment is one of the most impactful potential bottlenecks in clinical trials. The advent of social media may seem like it would make patient recruitment even more complicated, but when used correctly social media can make patient recruitment faster, more efficient, and less expensive. In fact, the NIH released a report recently demonstrating that studies frequently report higher enrollment rates from social media than any other methods and that their lowest cost per enrolled participant was from social media campaigns.

The ability to digitally segment and target different demographics in audiences allows us to measure key performance indicators like cost-per-click, conversion rates, and display impressions and optimize campaigns accordingly. Compare that with a newspaper ad or flyers posted on telephone poles in neighborhoods where data is scarce and individual follow-up would be near impossible. All in all, social media can be a boon to your patient recruitment efforts, but only if you understand some foundational concepts and put a few best practices in place.

How the social media algorithm works for you 

What does all social media have in common? Is it the “swipe down” format? Is it the fact that anybody can post anything in any language? These are all true, but the common ground between all social media platforms is that a pre-developed and routinely optimized algorithm tailors all new information for every single user. Each platform has a form of algorithm tracking whether that be by search words, hashtags, likes, or a combination of all. This allows recruiters to dive in and tailor their ads to anybody who might be interested in your trial because of the algorithm. 

For example, if you were to search for “what are good eye contact brands?” and a nearby clinical trial is recruiting patients for an experimental contact lens that stays good for a month, you would most likely begin seeing ads to enroll in said clinical trial. Once you enter the keyword phrase “eye contact” and hit the similar phrase option, your campaign ads will be shown to users who have looked up that question and those which are similar to it.

Why is brand marketing important and how does social media help me?

Another key item of the social media marketing adventure is your brand! An estimated 88% of people are more willing to engage with brands they trust. Building brand awareness and trust are important aspects of the online marketing world because audience don’t have a “face” to interact with. And social media can get you there.

In the same way, patients’ biggest issue when it comes to clinical trial enrollment is trust and with social media you can give the public a reason to trust you. Some ways to build trust are by replying to both the positive and negative comments or even asking former trial patients to provide testimonials in the comment section. Either way, by interacting with the public on your comment section, you can build brand trust and awareness to see better results.

How does social media help improve our qualification rate? 

One of the biggest issues when recruiting patients for any trial is finding those who can participate. 11% of clinical trials fail to recruit even a single patient. Every single trial is unique to the point where some medications or lifestyle habits can cause patients to not be eligible to participate in a trial. There is no worse feeling than finding those who wish to participate but simply cannot because of the trial requirements. But with social media you can effectively reduce the amount of those who do not make the cut. By clearly stating what you are looking for in a patient, you can utilize the ad imagery and description to filter out anybody who will not be able to participate before they even make it to the pre-screener.

1nHealth: Patient recruitment for a modern world

Patient recruitment is about finding the right patients for the right clinical trials. Some of our best practices come from taking note of how other companies are doing that well, even if they’re not in the patient recruitment space. If you need help filling your clinical trial, take a look at our experiences and see how we can help. Click here to connect with us today.