title: Association Between Media Dose, Ad Tagging, and Changes in Web Traffic for a National Tobacco Education Campaign: A Market-Level Longitudinal Study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In 2012, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched Tips From Former Smokers (Tips), the first federally funded national tobacco education campaign. In 2013, a follow-up Tips campaign aired on national cable television networks, radio, and other channels, with supporting digital advertising to drive traffic to the Tips campaign website.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to use geographic and temporal variability in 2013 Tips campaign television media doses and ad tagging to evaluate changes in traffic to the campaign website in response to specific doses of campaign media.
  
  
  METHODS
  Linear regression models were used to estimate the dose-response relationship between weekly market-level television gross rating points (GRPs) and weekly Web traffic to the Tips campaign website. This relationship was measured using unique visitors, total visits, and page views as outcomes. Ad GRP effects were estimated separately for ads tagged with the Tips campaign website URL and 1-800-QUIT-NOW.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the average media market, an increase of 100 television GRPs per week for ads tagged with the Tips campaign website URL was associated with an increase of 650 unique visitors (P<.001), 769 total visits (P<.001), and 1255 total page views (P<.001) per week. The associations between GRPs for ads tagged with 1-800-QUIT-NOW and each Web traffic measure were also statistically significant (P<.001), but smaller in magnitude.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on these findings, we estimate that the 16-week 2013 Tips television campaign generated approximately 660,000 unique visitors, 900,000 total visits, and 1,390,000 page views for the Tips campaign website. These findings can help campaign planners forecast the likely impact of targeted advertising efforts on consumers' use of campaign-specific websites.
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Policy Science and Tobacco Research, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, United States. pshafer@rti.org.
authors.forename: Paul R
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0654-5821
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Shafer
authors.forename: Kevin C
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8517-1295
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Deesha
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3080-0642
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: Robert
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0610-560X
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rodes
authors.forename: Diane
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0405-5044
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Beistle
mesh_terms: D000329:Advertising; D002487:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008875:Middle Aged; D011634:Public Health / Q000379:methods*; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D061108:Social Media; D014481:United States
keywords: Internet; advertising; health communication; public health; smoking cessation; tobacco control