TY  - JOUR
AU  - Onie, Sandersan
AU  - Berlinquette, Patrick
AU  - Holland, Sarah
AU  - Livingstone, Nicola
AU  - Finemore, Coco
AU  - Gale, Nyree
AU  - Elder, Emma
AU  - Laggis, George
AU  - Heffernan, Cassandra
AU  - Armstrong, Susanne Oliver
AU  - Theobald, Adam
AU  - Josifovski, Natasha
AU  - Torok, Michelle
AU  - Shand, Fiona
AU  - Larsen, Mark
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/4/20
TI  - Suicide Prevention Using Google Ads: Randomized Controlled Trial Measuring Engagement
JO  - JMIR Ment Health
SP  - e42316
VL  - 10
KW  - suicide prevention
KW  - suicide
KW  - suicidal
KW  - self harm
KW  - digital advertising
KW  - Google Ads
KW  - search
KW  - suicide hotline
KW  - advertise
KW  - advertising
KW  - campaign
KW  - mental health
KW  - prevention
KW  - digital intervention
KW  - online intervention
AB  - Background: Studies have shown that individuals may search for suicide-related terms on the internet prior to an attempt. Objective: Thus, across 2 studies, we investigated engagement with an advertisement campaign designed to reach individuals contemplating suicide. Methods: First, we designed the campaign to focus on crisis, running a campaign for 16 days in which crisis-related keywords would trigger an ad and landing page to help individuals find the national suicide hotline number. Second, we expanded the campaign to also help individuals contemplating suicide, running the campaign for 19 days with a wider range of keywords through a co-designed website with a wider range of offerings (eg, lived experience stories). Results: In the first study, the ad was shown 16,505 times and was clicked 664 times (4.02% click rate). There were 101 calls to the hotline. In the second study, the ad was shown 120,881 times and clicked 6227 times (5.15% click rate); of these 6227 clicks, there were 1419 (22.79%) engagements with the site, a substantially higher rate than the industry average of 3%. The number of clicks on the ad was high despite a suicide hotline banner likely being present. Conclusions: Search advertisements are a quick, far-reaching, and cost-efficient way of reaching those contemplating suicide and are needed despite suicide hotline banners being present. Trial Registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) ACTRN12623000084684; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=385209 
SN  - 2368-7959
UR  - https://mental.jmir.org/2023/1/e42316
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/42316
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37079348
DO  - 10.2196/42316
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/42316
ER  -