A late clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company needed to fill two concurrent Phase 3 trials for a novel investigational compound targeting Social Anxiety Disorder, spanning dozens of U.S. sites and subject to firm enrollment deadlines. Concerned that traditional CRO-based recruitment alone might not deliver the referral volume and pace required, they engaged StudySignal to build and operate a complementary digital recruitment program from the ground up.
Over 12 months, StudySignal deployed a precision multi-platform digital campaign, supported by a purpose-built patient recruitment website and a protocol-aligned pre-screening system, that delivered 5,502 qualified referrals at $159.86 per referral. Both trials enrolled on time. The client had initially implemented an additional nurse-led screening step alongside the digital pipeline, and removed it mid-campaign after finding that StudySignal's referrals were arriving well enough qualified that the extra layer was slowing enrollment down.
Recruiting patients with Social Anxiety Disorder presents challenges that traditional methods are poorly equipped to solve. SAD is significantly underdiagnosed — many people experiencing its symptoms have never received a formal diagnosis and are unlikely to be reachable through physician referral networks. By the nature of the condition itself, patients are also less likely to respond to outreach that requires social engagement, making phone calls and community-based recruitment ineffective for much of this population.
At the same time, the client was running two trials simultaneously across a dispersed network of U.S. sites, each requiring its own localized patient pipeline. With firm enrollment deadlines and a CRO effort already underway, there was concern that traditional recruitment alone would not generate the referral volume and pace needed to fill both trials on time and within budget.
SAD patients are less likely to engage with traditional outreach, making digital the more effective channel — private, on-demand, and on the patient's own terms.
Two concurrent trials with firm deadlines and concern that CRO-only efforts would not deliver sufficient referral volume in time.
Dozens of sites across the U.S., each requiring localized outreach calibrated to realistic patient travel distances.
Clinical sites needed pre-qualified leads, not raw inquiries, to protect staff capacity and keep screening timelines on track.
StudySignal designed and operated every component of the digital recruitment program — from IRB submission through final referral delivery — as a single integrated system tailored to the specific demands of this trial population and site network.
StudySignal built a dedicated patient recruitment website from scratch and produced all ad creative (static and video), working alongside the client through full IRB review and approval before any element went live. Creative was developed specifically to resonate with SAD patients, depicting the social situations that cause the most distress: public speaking, workplace interactions, social gatherings, and everyday encounters.
Campaigns ran across Google Search and Display, Reddit, Meta, and TikTok, with targeting built around behavioral signals, interest categories, and keyword intent relevant to the SAD population. Each trial site was geotargeted with a calibrated radius — typically 150 miles, adjusted per site — ensuring spend was concentrated where patients could realistically travel to participate.
The recruitment website educated visitors about the condition and the trial, then guided them through a protocol-aligned eligibility screener developed in collaboration with the client. Only those who passed were counted as referrals and passed to clinical sites, arriving pre-qualified and ready for follow-up. A built-in site finder allowed qualified candidates to identify and contact the nearest trial location by zip code.
All referral data flowed through StudySignal's Integrated Control Room, providing real-time pipeline visibility, automated site distribution, and dashboard access for sponsors and site teams. Budget and targeting were continuously optimized based on performance, and as the first trial neared full enrollment, resources were dynamically reallocated to support the second — maintaining momentum across the full program without interruption.
12 months of active operations across two concurrent Phase 3 trials.
Search & Display targeting active intent and condition-relevant audiences.
Community-level targeting within mental health and anxiety-adjacent communities.
Interest and behavioral targeting with lookalike audience modeling.
StudySignal's digital recruitment program delivered what the client needed most: a reliable, high-volume pipeline of pre-qualified candidates that kept both trials on track without overwhelming site staff with unvetted inquiries.
The digital pipeline provided the referral volume and pace needed to meet enrollment deadlines across both concurrent Phase 3 trials.
At $159.86 per qualified referral, StudySignal delivered a high-quality patient pipeline at a fraction of typical traditional recruitment costs.
Every referral passed through a protocol-aligned screener before reaching a clinical site, reducing staff burden and accelerating the path to scheduled screenings.
The client removed an additional nurse-led screening step mid-campaign after determining that StudySignal's referrals were arriving well enough qualified that the extra layer was creating unnecessary delay.
The complete case study — including the full campaign breakdown, results data, and traffic source analysis — is available as a formatted PDF.