Channels Matter: Educating Today's Primary Care Workforce about HIV Screening through Coordinated Paid Media Campaigns

Background: Of the more than 1.2 million people in the United States estimated to be living with HIV, approximately 12.8% are unaware of their HIV status. Although HIV testing has increased over the past few years, approximately half of adults in the US have never received an HIV test. Early detection means patients can live longer, healthier lives and avoid the spread of infection. Primary care clinicians can play a crucial role in fighting HIV by shifting from risk-based testing to making opt-out HIV screening the standard of care. 

Program background: In 2009, the CDC launched Act Against AIDS (AAA), a multifaceted communication initiative to refocus attention on domestic HIV/AIDS. In 2010, under AAA, CDC launched HIV Screening. Standard Care.^TM(HSSC), a social marketing campaign designed to help educate primary care clinicians about the benefits of making HIV screening a routine part of care. Since its inception, the campaign has employed several strategies to promote HIV testing among primary care clinicians, including medical and nursing education; stakeholder engagement; and trade media placements for print and digital advertising, including a search engine marketing (SEM) component. Currently, the campaign targets approximately 500,000 primary care clinicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants nationwide.

Evaluation Methods and Results: In 2014, CDC launched a comprehensive trade media plan, which included print, conference, and digital advertising. The goal of these efforts was to maximize the reach of the campaign’s messages and cost-effectiveness of message delivery. In 2014 and 2015, the campaign’s digital display ads—which appeared on websites such as Medpage Today and MDLinx—delivered 587,521 impressions, with a click through rate (CTR) of .36%; three times industry average. Print advertising in journals such as Mayo Clinic Proceedings and ACP Internistdelivered another 248,257 impressions to CDC’s target audience. In January 2017, CDC added a strategically targeted SEM campaign using Google ads to its plans, reflecting how modern clinicians search for information on the topic. Ads drove traffic to the Serostatus Matters educational program, which is available through The American Journal of Medicine website and were expanded to include general search terms to drive users to the HSSC website. From January through mid-March, the SEM campaign generated 13,686 impressions, with a CTR of 5.67%--outpacing the industry average of 2%. The number of potential learners driven to Serostatus Mattersalso increased during this period. Current reports suggest that these trends will continue.

Conclusions: Focusing on channels and messaging that reflect how clinicians search for and view HIV screening information has been key to the campaign’s success across all paid media channels. For SEM, specifically emphasizing search terms and employing tactics that enable HSSC to achieve a high ad quality score from Google have also been critical to success.

Implications for research and/or practice: Print advertising generates broad awareness of a campaign or an educational program such as Serostatus Matters based on impressions generated; yet, when designing health marketing campaigns with a paid media component, the strategic use of digital tactics may be more cost effective and better suited to drive viewers to the page or program of interest.