TY  - JOUR
AU  - Chambers, Laura C
AU  - Malyuta, Yelena
AU  - Goedel, William C
AU  - Chan, Philip A
AU  - Sutten Coats, Cassandra
AU  - Allen, Ken
AU  - Nunn, Amy S
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/8/23
TI  - Identifying Effective Components of a Social Marketing Campaign to Improve Engagement With Express Sexual Health Services Among Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex With Men: Case Study
JO  - JMIR Public Health Surveill
SP  - e50944
VL  - 10
KW  - social marketing
KW  - sexually transmitted infection
KW  - HIV
KW  - sexual and gender minorities
KW  - sexual health
KW  - gay
KW  - MSM
KW  - men who have sex with men
KW  - STI
KW  - testing
KW  - digital marketing
KW  - digital
KW  - campaign
KW  - promote
KW  - treatment
KW  - prevention
KW  - bisexual
KW  - advertisement
KW  - Google display
KW  - Grindr
KW  - Facebook
AB  - Background: Little is known about how best to reach people with social marketing messages promoting use of clinical HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) services. Objective: We evaluated a multiplatform, digital social marketing campaign intended to increase use of HIV/STI testing, treatment, and prevention services among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) at an LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and/or questioning) community health center. Methods: We evaluated engagement with a social marketing campaign launched by Open Door Health, the only LGBTQ+ community health center in Rhode Island, during the first 8 months of implementation (April to November 2021). Three types of advertisements encouraging use of HIV/STI services were developed and implemented on Google Search, Google Display, Grindr, and Facebook. Platforms tracked the number of times that an advertisement was displayed to a user (impressions), that a user clicked through to a landing page that facilitated scheduling (clicks), and that a user requested a call to schedule an appointment from the landing page (conversions). We calculated the click-through rate (clicks per impression), conversion rate (conversions per click), and the dollar amount spent per 1000 impressions and per click and conversion. Results: Overall, Google Search yielded the highest click-through rate (7.1%) and conversion rate (7.0%) compared to Google Display, Grindr, and Facebook (click-through rates=0.4%‐3.3%; conversion rates=0%‐0.03%). Although the spend per 1000 impressions and per click was higher for Google Search compared to other platforms, the spend per conversion—which measures the number of people intending to attend the clinic for services—was substantially lower for Google Search (US $48.19 vs US $3120.42-US $3436.03). Conclusions: Campaigns using the Google Search platform may yield the greatest return on investment for engaging MSM in HIV/STI services at community health clinics. Future studies are needed to measure clinical outcomes among those who present to the clinic for services after viewing campaign advertisements and to compare the return on investment with use of social marketing campaigns relative to other approaches. 
SN  - 2369-2960
UR  - https://publichealth.jmir.org/2024/1/e50944
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/50944
DO  - 10.2196/50944
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/50944
ER  -