Trial Review

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Trial registered on ANZCTR


Registration number
ACTRN12623000084684
Ethics application status
Approved
Date submitted
16/01/2023
Date registered
25/01/2023
Date last updated
25/01/2023
Date data sharing statement initially provided
25/01/2023
Date results information initially provided
25/01/2023
Type of registration
Retrospectively registered

Titles & IDs
Public title
Suicide Prevention using Google AdWords: A Randomised Trial measuring Engagement
Scientific title
A Randomised Trial measuring Engagement with an ad and landing page designed for suicide prevention using Google Adwords for participants in Australia
Secondary ID [1] 308723 0
None
Universal Trial Number (UTN)
Trial acronym
Linked study record

Health condition
Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied:
suicide 328717 0
Condition category
Condition code
Mental Health 325729 325729 0 0
Suicide

Intervention/exposure
Study type
Interventional
Description of intervention(s) / exposure
Receiving a tailored landing page on the Google search page when searching for suicide related keywords. Participants were not instructed to search for suicide related keywords, the sample was drawn from individuals who searched for these keywords in Australia. The intervention was the presentation of the ad and landing page. The landing page was tailored by age: 18 - 24, 25 - 44, and 45+, and differed by the featured modules and the welcome video. The content provided links to helplines, lived experience stories, relaxation and calming modules. The anticipated time for individuals to complete a module or watch a video is approximately 3 minutes; to consume all the content will need approximately 40 minutes. The landing page was designed for this study, but may link to preexisting content. We tracked their activity using Google analytics accessed through the Google Ads platform. Individuals were randomly assigned to one group or another using Google Experiments feature, which enabled us to randomly show on ads and landing pages from one set of campaigns or another.
Intervention code [1] 325223 0
Prevention
Comparator / control treatment
In the intervention condition, individuals received a landing page tailored to their age group. The control was receiving a general advertisement and tailored landing page on the Google search page when searching for suicide related keywords. The content on the general page is a list of featured modules, but while the featured modules on the intervention/tailored page were tailored to their age group, the modules on the general page is selected from the most popular modules across all age groups. All other factors are the same as the intervention group. The content provided links to helplines, lived experience stories, relaxation and calming modules. The anticipated time for individuals to complete a module or watch a video is approximately 3 minutes; to consume all the content will need approximately 40 minutes. The landing page was designed for this study, but may link to preexisting content. We tracked their activity using Google analytics accessed through the Google Ads platform. Individuals were randomly assigned to one group or another using Google Experiments feature, which enabled us to randomly show on ads and landing pages from one set of campaigns or another.
Control group
Active

Outcomes
Primary outcome [1] 333578 0
Engagement with site. A single unit of engagement, or 'conversion' in advertising and platform language is counted when the individual:
1. Spends longer than 2 minutes on the site
2. Watches a video
3. Downloads any content
4. Accesses a helpline

These behaviours are all determined through co-design as activities beneficial in reducing suicidal distress or promoting help seeking, and counted as one group, given Google Adwords requires this. These are all pooled into a single outcome and measured through Google analytics. Engagement with site will be assessed as a composite outcome.
Timepoint [1] 333578 0
These outcomes are measured as the individual interacts with the webpage. Thus, there is no lag between the intervention and measurement, as we are measuring engagement, and not other health related outcomes.
Secondary outcome [1] 417583 0
None
Timepoint [1] 417583 0
None

Eligibility
Key inclusion criteria
Living in Australia, age can be identified by Google based on past browsing history, over 18 years of age.
Minimum age
18 Years
Maximum age
No limit
Sex
Both males and females
Can healthy volunteers participate?
Yes
Key exclusion criteria
None

Study design
Purpose of the study
Prevention
Allocation to intervention
Randomised controlled trial
Procedure for enrolling a subject and allocating the treatment (allocation concealment procedures)
Allocation is concealed centrally by the Google Experiments function in Google Ads, which allows for A/B testing. When individual clicks on the ad, they will be brought to a landing page. The individual will not know that there is more than one version of the landing page, and thus allocation is concealed.
Methods used to generate the sequence in which subjects will be randomised (sequence generation)
Sequence generation and random allocation is done using Google Experiments, which allows us to randomly show landing pages from one or more sets (also known as A/B testing).
Masking / blinding
Who is / are masked / blinded?



Intervention assignment
Other design features
Phase
Not Applicable
Type of endpoint/s
Efficacy
Statistical methods / analysis

Recruitment
Recruitment status
Completed
Date of first participant enrolment
Anticipated
Actual
2/03/2022
Date of last participant enrolment
Anticipated
Actual
21/03/2022
Date of last data collection
Anticipated
Actual
21/03/2022
Sample size
Target
38358
Accrual to date
Final
120881
Recruitment in Australia
Recruitment state(s)
ACT,NSW,NT,QLD,SA,TAS,WA,VIC

Funding & Sponsors
Funding source category [1] 312947 0
Government body
Name [1] 312947 0
Suicide Prevention Australia
Country [1] 312947 0
Australia
Primary sponsor type
University
Name
University of New South Wales
Address
Wallace Wurth Building (C27), Cnr High St & Botany St, UNSW Sydney, Kensington NSW 2052
Country
Australia
Secondary sponsor category [1] 314636 0
None
Name [1] 314636 0
None
Address [1] 314636 0
None
Country [1] 314636 0

Ethics approval
Ethics application status
Approved
Ethics committee name [1] 312220 0
The University of New South Wales Committee B
Ethics committee address [1] 312220 0
Research Ethics & Compliance Support
UNSW Sydney
Sydney NSW 2052 Australia
Ethics committee country [1] 312220 0
Australia
Date submitted for ethics approval [1] 312220 0
05/10/2021
Approval date [1] 312220 0
26/11/2021
Ethics approval number [1] 312220 0

Summary
Brief summary
Studies have shown that individuals may search for suicide-related terms on the internet prior to an attempt. Thus, we investigated engagement with an advertisement campaign designed to reach individuals contemplating suicide. We utilised Google AdWords’ targeting features and investigated whether individuals show higher engagement with landing pages tailored to specific age groups compared to a general all-ages landing page. We hypothesise that we will see more engagement with the landing page in the tailored condition as it should relate more closely to the individual.
Trial website
Trial related presentations / publications
Public notes

Contacts
Principal investigator
Name 123894 0
Dr Sandersan Onie
Address 123894 0
Black Dog Institute, Hospital Road, Randwick, NSW 2031, Sydney
Country 123894 0
Australia
Phone 123894 0
+61 2 9065 9181
Fax 123894 0
Email 123894 0
s.onie@blackdog.org.au
Contact person for public queries
Name 123895 0
Dr Sandersan Onie
Address 123895 0
Black Dog Institute, Hospital Road, Randwick, NSW 2031, Sydney
Country 123895 0
Australia
Phone 123895 0
+61 2 9065 9181
Fax 123895 0
Email 123895 0
s.onie@blackdog.org.au
Contact person for scientific queries
Name 123896 0
Dr Sandersan Onie
Address 123896 0
Black Dog Institute, Hospital Road, Randwick, NSW 2031, Sydney
Country 123896 0
Australia
Phone 123896 0
+61 2 9065 9181
Fax 123896 0
Email 123896 0
s.onie@blackdog.org.au

Data sharing statement
Will individual participant data (IPD) for this trial be available (including data dictionaries)?
No
No/undecided IPD sharing reason/comment
We do not collect individual data.


What supporting documents are/will be available?

Doc. No.TypeCitationLinkEmailOther DetailsAttachment
18059Ethical approval  s.onie@blackdog.org.au 385209-(Uploaded-20-01-2023-11-32-46)-Study-related document.Pdf



Results publications and other study-related documents

Documents added manually
No documents have been uploaded by study researchers.

Documents added automatically
No additional documents have been identified.