Using digital ads is a widely-used element of many successful patient recruitment campaigns. And there’s been a move in recent years towards making the content of these ads more patient-centric, rather than simply focusing on a therapy area or condition.

Ads that do focus on a therapy area often use a phrase such as ‘we are looking for people with xyz condition’. That type of standard phrasing came about due to the restrictions placed on what could be said within an ad, primarily by Facebook – which would reject ads that strayed too far from this on-the-nose style of content for health-related ads.

As a patient recruitment specialist, I’m all in favor of having patient-centric messaging. But with a digital marketing hat on, I can see the on-the-nose ads still working well for attracting trial participants.

My recommendation, then, is to test both styles of ad against each other in a process of continuous improvement.