The client
The sponsor is a midsize pharmaceutical company focused on rare disease. For its Phase 3 study in a rare autoimmune disease, it needed a team that could strengthen its recruitment data infrastructure and build a recruitment strategy and its assets from the ground up.
The challenge
The study was the largest ever run in the disease, and a competing study had already been running for nearly a year, so the sponsor needed to move quickly.
The team needed to:
- Improve digital recruitment performance
- Strengthen tracking and data infrastructure
- Develop a more robust messaging strategy
- Create new patient-facing assets
- Prepare a large IRB submission on an accelerated timeline
Where it started
When we joined, the campaign was one Google Ads campaign with two ad units. We cut spend on irrelevant keywords right away, raised the campaign’s presence on critical search terms, and worked around competitors that were spending heavily.
At the same time, we worked with the sponsor’s tech team to capture more detailed data. It showed where interested patients went, where they dropped off, and how the digital outreach was performing.
What we did
We built a patient-informed recruitment strategy that combined research, analytics, creative development, and ongoing campaign optimization.
The work included:
- Competitive mapping
- Review of patient interview transcripts
- Online search volume analysis
- Patient needs analysis
- Digital campaign optimization
- Data tracking improvements
- New content for the IRB submission
- A strategy to pair digital outreach with patient advocacy initiatives
The results
The work measurably improved digital recruitment and gave the study a more durable recruitment foundation.
- 3.5x increase in digital pre-screen starts
- 2.25x decrease in cost per pre-screen start
- 8x increase in funnel data points captured
- Cost per pre-screen start down from over $50 to under $20 within one month
IRB submission materials
We prepared a full IRB submission in four weeks, including:
- 220+ lines of ad copy
- 15 social media templates
- 3 animated videos
- 4 podcast script outlines
In the client’s words
“Our challenge was to develop outreach and messaging that would resonate with this rare disease population. The right strategy required thinking outside the box.
In collaboration with Patiently, we started by identifying the true patient voice, which grew into a portfolio of integrated digital engagement and outreach strategies that brought additional awareness and active interest to our study, leading to a positive impact on the recruitment rate of our study.
We cannot thank the team enough for the talent and the contributions towards finding these innovative solutions to our challenges.”
The impact
We helped the sponsor move from a limited digital campaign to a fuller recruitment program, built on the patient voice, better data infrastructure, and IRB-ready creative assets.
What came next
With the foundation in place, we handed the project to the sponsor’s internal team. As of 2024, recruitment was nearly complete, and it still relied heavily on the assets we created for the first IRB submission.