In late 2021, Merck faced a challenge that went far beyond marketing performance. The company had developed a promising antiviral drug, Lagevrio, also known as molnupiravir, at a time when the world was still deep inside the COVID 19 pandemic. Millions were dying globally, healthcare systems were under strain, and economic pressure was mounting across every region.
The science was moving fast. The operational reality was not.
To secure approval for a new preventative use of the drug, Merck needed to run a clinical trial with unusually strict eligibility requirements and an unusually short timeline. Recruitment was not just a logistical hurdle. It was the critical path to saving lives.
This case examines how Merck, working with BERK Labs, executed one of the most constrained and time sensitive recruitment efforts seen during the pandemic.
The Stakes Were Measured in Time and Lives
Merck is one of the oldest pharmaceutical companies in the world, founded in 1668 and operating across dozens of countries. In 2021 alone, the company posted $13.5 billion in annual sales. Scale was not the issue.
Speed was.
Lagevrio had already received Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA for treating mild to moderate COVID cases. Early trials showed the drug could reduce the risk of hospitalization and death by up to 30 percent.
What Merck now needed was approval for prophylactic use. That meant testing whether the drug could prevent infection in healthy individuals who were at high risk of exposure.
The faster this trial could be completed, the faster the drug could reach frontline workers, immunocompromised patients, and regions where vaccines were difficult to distribute.
An Unforgiving Set of Requirements
Recruiting for this trial was unlike typical clinical recruitment.
Participants had to meet three criteria simultaneously. They could not be vaccinated. They could not have tested positive for COVID. And they had to be living with someone who had tested positive within the past three days.
The window for eligibility was extremely narrow.
To make matters more difficult, Merck set a total timeline of sixty days to recruit participants and begin the trial. In practice, the funnel needed to be built, tested, approved, and optimized in just two weeks.
Normally, a project of this size would take months.
Why Merck Turned to BERK Labs
Following a recommendation, Merck reached out to BERK Labs to support the recruitment effort.
The role was not limited to running ads. BERK Labs was asked to help design and execute the entire recruitment funnel under regulatory scrutiny, including ad approvals, landing page optimization, and lead follow up.
Every claim had to be scientifically accurate. Every ad had to be approved internally and by the FDA. Every step had to comply with Google’s policies around COVID related content and clinical trials.
There was no room for trial and error in the traditional sense.
Building a Funnel Under Regulatory Pressure
The team approached the problem the same way Merck approaches drug development. Through controlled experimentation and rapid analysis.
Three areas became the focus. Ad campaigns at the top of the funnel. The landing page experience. And the email sequence that guided participants to the testing site.
Each component had to work independently and together.
Designing Compliant and Effective Ad Campaigns
Advertising was the most constrained part of the project.
All ads referencing COVID or clinical trials required approval from Merck’s internal scientific review board and from the FDA. Normally, Google approval alone can take several weeks.
BERK Labs worked closely with Google to accelerate approvals and ensure compliance. Through this relationship, ads were approved in under a week, a critical factor given the sixty day limit.
Within the campaigns themselves, the team ran structured experimentation across bid strategies, placements, audiences, and creative variations. A B testing and multivariate testing allowed rapid feedback loops so changes could be evaluated quickly.
Data analysis informed new hypotheses. Predictive modeling helped forecast which leads were most likely to complete the process. Attribution tracking mapped the full journey from first click to site visit.
Solving Eligibility Through Targeting Strategy
The most difficult problem was finding eligible participants at scale.
BERK Labs used creative targeting approaches grounded in behavioral intent. One strategy focused on vaccine skeptical audiences. By definition, these individuals met at least one eligibility requirement.
Search terms related to alternative treatments like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin were used to reach this group without making prohibited claims.
Another strategy targeted users searching for flu remedies and medications. This helped capture caregivers and household members of infected individuals while staying within eligibility rules.
The final funnel consisted of twenty three campaigns, nearly two thousand five hundred targeting components, one hundred nineteen ad groups, and more than one hundred fifty individual ads supported by sixty two extensions.
Complexity was unavoidable. Precision was mandatory.
Turning Clicks Into Participants
Traffic alone was not enough. Given the narrow pool of eligible participants, conversion efficiency mattered more than volume.
Merck had already built a landing page before BERK Labs joined the project. The team began with a detailed UI and UX review, identifying more than thirty potential improvements.
Using Google Optimize and Optimizely, the team ran structured conversion rate optimization experiments. A B testing, heat maps, and session recordings provided statistically significant insight into how users behaved.
These changes increased landing page click through rates from 30 percent to 42 percent.
Ensuring Attendance Through Email Design
Once someone submitted their information, the next risk was dropout.
BERK Labs designed a structured email sequence to guide participants from signup to arrival at the testing site. Messaging focused on clarity, reassurance, and logistics.
The sequence included a thank you message, safety protocols, expectations and FAQs, and a final appointment reminder.
Open rates increased from 40 percent to 65 percent. Attendance reached 100 percent.
In a clinical trial, that outcome is rare.
Results Under Extreme Constraints
Within the sixty day window, Merck received two hundred form submissions, over one hundred phone calls, and more than six hundred testing site visits.
The entire funnel was designed and executed in two weeks, a fraction of the typical timeline.
Beyond the immediate trial, many leads qualified for other Merck studies, including research on Alzheimer’s, migraines, obesity, and liver disease. This created additional long term value beyond the original objective.
What This Case Really Demonstrates
This project was not about marketing efficiency in the traditional sense. It was about execution under pressure, compliance without paralysis, and decision making grounded in data.
BERK Labs did not replace Merck’s scientific rigor. They matched it with operational rigor.
The result was a recruitment effort that moved at the speed of the pandemic, without sacrificing accuracy, ethics, or compliance.
In moments of global crisis, outcomes depend not only on discovery, but on the systems that bring those discoveries to people in time. This case shows what happens when those systems are built correctly.
