Identifying and Reaching Individuals who have not sought Help for Suicide using Google Ads

INTERVENTION: The study is conducted in Australia and Indonesia, and all messages in Indonesia will be in Bahasa Indonesia. Below, we describe them in English. The key research question is whether we can promote help seeking among individuals who have not previously sought help through an online digital advertising intervention using Google Ads by a) addressing possible barriers to help seeking in our messaging and b) providing easy access to help seeking in the interface. . Participants would receive a 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 and Indonesia. On the landing page, participants would be first shown a pop up, asking if they had seen a professional, such as a counsellor, psychologist, or psychiatrist for their suicidality. If they hadn't, they would be asked if they had spoken to anyone about their suicidality. If they responded no to either question, they will be entered into one of three arms including one control arm, with the remainder sent straight to the main site with help seeking resources. Arm 1: The individual would be presented with messaging and a video addressing possible barriers to help seeking, encouraging them to seek help e.g., having sought help before but met with something unhelpful, or feeling that help seeking is weak. Below, there are help seeking options immediately in the pop up ‐ buttons to call a hotline, open a chat app, or listen to stories of those with lived experience. It would take approximately 3 minutes to explore this page and watch the video. Arm 2: The first is an identical page in w CONDITION: Mental Health ‐ Suicide Suicide; ; Suicide PRIMARY OUTCOME: Engagement with help seeking options. A single unit of engagement, or 'conversion' is counted with the individual performs one of these behaviours on the pop up or main website, including:; ; 1. To call a hotline; 2. Open a chat app with the intention to share; 3. Listens to stories of individuals with lived experience of suicide, or watches any other video on the site; 4. Open a psychologist directory; 5. Spends more than 5 minutes on the site; 6. Completes a self help module; 7. Opens urgent support directory; ; These behaviours are all determined through co‐design as activities beneficial in reducing suicidal distress or promoting help seeking, and counted as two groups: Calling a hotline or seeking psychologist help counts as seeking professional help, while opening Whatsapp is counted as seeking peer help. Engagement with site will be assessed as a composite outcome.[ 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.] INCLUSION CRITERIA: Living in Australia or Indonesia, having clicked on the ad, and answered the first question on the pop up, as described in the intervention section. SECONDARY OUTCOME: The secondary outcome is obtaining what proportion of individuals who have not sought professional help the campaign reaches. ; ; By asking individuals if they have sought professional help, we can obtain the proportion of individuals who have and have not sought professional help, that our campaign is reaching. [ These outcomes are measured as the individual interacts with the webpage. Thus, there is no lag between the intervention and measurement.] The secondary outcome is obtaining what proportion of individuals who have not sought social help the campaign reaches. ; ; By asking individuals if they have spoken to anyone at all, we can obtain the proportion of individuals who have and have not sought social help, that our campaign is reaching. ; [ These outcomes are measured as the individual interacts with the webpage. Thus, there is no lag between the intervention and measurement.]