Using Google Adwords can be an additional
source for recruiting trial participants

1.1. Introduction

By introducing a proven marketing technology into the Biopharmaceutical arena, we will be discussing how Google Search can be used to locate additional Trial patients and reduce the Trial recruitment timeframe.

Many Clinical Development programs are adversely effected by delays in Trial Patient recruitments. With both Phase II and III trials extending 30% beyond planned deadlines. Needless to calculate how much potential sales is lost due to by patient recruitment delays.

Nowadays, marketing is almost synonym with showing up in a Google Search. There are two different ways a webpage can show up in a Google Search: in the Unpaid section (called ‘Organic Search’ section) or in the Paid section (‘Sponsored Links’ section).

Sponsored Links can show up either in the Right column or in the Top section, this is decided by Google.
This document will describe how the paid section can be used to assist in the recruitment process of trial patients.

1.2. Google Adwords

The Sponsored Links section is based on using Google Adwords (“Adwords”). Adwords is in fact a small advertisement (“Ad”) which might show up in the Sponsored Link section. This Ad is linked to a specific page on a website. It is based on a system which allows to set one or more search terms. If the search term is typed in Google by a Searcher, the Ad might show and if the Searcher clicks the Ad, he/she will be directed to the specific webpage. Whether the Ad actually shows is dependent on how much you are willing to pay to direct a user to the webpage. This is called Cost per Click (“CPC”). So you don’t pay for showing the Ad, you only pay when a User actually clicks the Ad and is directed to your webpage.

The CPC dictates how often your Add will show in the Sponsored Links and also how ‘high’ in the list it will show. The more you are willing to pay, the more often the Ad will be shown and the higher it will be listed in the Sponsored links section. The CPC is very much dependent on the competition within search terms. A general search term like ‘trials’ will require a high CPC to outrank competition. A specific Search term like ‘isomerase deficiency’ will suffice with a much lower CPC to still show up high in the Sponsored Links. If there is no other company who is using a Search term, a small CPC (say € 0,10) can be sufficient to have your add at the top of the Sponsored links list. Therefore the CPC will depend on how much other companies are willing to pay to direct Searchers to their webpage.

Another issue you need to take into account is how many of the visitors which enter your site through Adwords are actually doing what you want them to do. This is called ‘conversion rate’. As an example, if you are using Adwords to recruit patient for a trial, the required action could be defined as a person requesting information on the study, or even as a patient enrolled in the study. By tracking how many of your visitors actually are enrolled in your study, you are able to decide the upper value of the CPC. As an example, if you ‘value’ a patient enrolled at € 1.000, and you are able to ‘convert’ one out of every 100 website visitors into an enrolled patient, the maximum CPC should be set at € 10. Phrased differently, you would need to have 100 visitors, costing 100 x € 10, to get one enrolled patient.

1.3. Using Adwords for Trial Patient Recruitment

As more and more patients are using the Internet (read: Google) to search for information on their disease, the Adwords system can be used as an additional source for Trial patient recruitment. The value of using Adwords will be very much dependent on the type of patients you require for a study.
If there are a limited set of Sites where patients with the condition you are looking for are treated, and all of these patients have to visit one of these Sites for treatment, you will probably ‘catch’ most of these patients anyway and using Adwords might have limited value. Although, even in this case, a patient might be pre-informed when visiting the Site and it might be easier to convert such a patient into a Trial participant. In fact, a ‘dream scenario’ would be that a potential trial participant has read about your trial on a website and would be asking his/her treating physician: “I have read about this new study. Do you think this would be something for me?”

If you are looking for patient with a rare condition and do not know where such patients might be treated, Adwords would be ideal for finding such patients. Assuming that such patients will be looking on the Internet for information on their disease, your Ad will automatically show up with a reasonable chance that the patient might click on the Add.
Also when you are looking for patients from a much larger disease population, the Adwords system could support the patient recruitment process by pointing a patient to a nearby Site which participates in your trial.

1.4. Combining Paid search with Unpaid Search

The value of Adwords should not be overestimated. In general, people do not ‘trust’ Ads in the Sponsored Links section. A listing in the Organic Search section will usually result in a much higher click rate than a listing in the paid section. It goes without saying that this is very much dependent on what a Searcher is looking for. If you are a patient looking for information on your disease and you see an Ad on a new Treatment for your disease, you might very well be triggered to visit the paid link.

So ideally, you would like to show up in both the Organic Search section and the Paid Section. As a rule of thumb, if you have a trial on a ‘common’ disease, like diabetes, it will be difficult to have a high ranking (say first 8 – 10 listings on the first page) in the Organic search section.
The more rare the disease condition, the easier it will be to have a higher ranking in Organic search. There are many variables which influence how high any website (or page within a website) will rank in Organic search. It is outside the scope of this White Paper to discuss these factors.


Bottom line, Organic search might support Paid search for trial patient recruitment.