Learn how 1nHealth optimized top-of-funnel digital recruitment strategies to improve down-funnel enrollment and rescued a virtual study targeting breast cancer survivors suffering from chemo fatigue.
Key Insight: Top-of-funnel optimization is critical to enrollment success. Missteps in audience targeting or ad strategy can inflate screen fail rates and delay timelines. Refining early stages—through precise targeting and effective messaging—sets the tone for the entire funnel, ensuring a higher-quality participant pool and smoother downstream recruitment processes.
Key Insight: Top-of-funnel optimization is critical to enrollment success. Missteps in audience targeting or ad strategy can inflate screen fail rates and delay timelines. Refining early stages—through precise targeting and effective messaging—sets the tone for the entire funnel, ensuring a higher-quality participant pool and smoother downstream recruitment processes.
Our results
52
days saved from timeline expectations
187
ICFs signed by end of enrollment
31
randomizations upon study completion
The challenge
Timely Enrollment: Breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy face a common yet debilitating side effect—fatigue. 1nHealth was asked to rescue a virtual study lagging behind enrollment timelines, targeting breast cancer survivors suffering from chemo fatigue, paving the way for innovative treatments to improve patient outcomes.
The strategy
Strategic Spending: When recruitment efforts stalled, optimizing digital strategy and ad spend made the difference. By prioritizing high-performing platforms, refining creative, and leveraging real-time data, we achieved enrollment goals faster, demonstrating the impact of a focused and flexible approach to patient recruitment.
Data-Driven Impact
1nHealth started by deploying ads across Meta and Google to build a performance baseline that we could then test against to see if changing creative, messaging, or ad spend would make any down-funnel differences.
Smarter Ad Spend
Through ongoing optimization, we discovered that Meta was outperforming Google in terms of interest, engagement, submissions, and signed consents. We adjusted ad spend and targeting segmentation mid-campaign.
The solution
Regained Momentum: In rescue studies, there’s no room for delay. Missed milestones can escalate costs, disrupt study timelines, and risk losing sponsor confidence. That’s why hitting the ground running is essential. By rapidly deploying what we’d learned about the performances of our ads on Meta vs. Google, we were above trendline enrollment expectations within the first week.
The results
Enrollment Revived: By the end of the enrollment campaign, 1nHealth was able to successfully finalize enrollment for the study—finishing with 187 ICFs and 31 randomized patients. We also completed enrollment 30% ahead of projected timeline and 25% under budget.
"The customization and adaptability of the 1nData platform is truly unique in the clinical trial recruiting space. Typically once an enrollment campaign launches, you aren’t able to adapt and adjust the campaign at all based on trends or information you receive as your study progresses. 1nHealth allowed us to bring subjects more efficiently and effectively onto our study all while considering the trends in data we discover along the course of the trial. There is not a better time or money value in the recruitment space than 1nHealth."
— Sponsor
Clinical trials are complex. Patient recruitment doesn’t have to be.