April 27, 2026
Public health campaigns face a unique challenge: the topics that matter most are often the hardest to get people to engage with. Advance directives — the legal documents that let people specify their healthcare wishes in advance — are critically important, but they're not exactly the kind of thing that stops someone mid-scroll.
For the Maryland Department of Health, that was exactly the problem to solve. The team had run awareness campaigns on Nextdoor before and wanted to build on that momentum in 2025, specifically by improving click-through performance and reaching more residents in a meaningful way.
They turned to Nextdoor's Click Optimization strategy, a performance-focused delivery method that automatically serves ads to the neighbors most likely to take action. Combined with statewide targeting and contextually relevant creative, the campaign was designed to reach high-intent users across Maryland in an environment they already trust.
The results were significant. The Maryland Department of Health saw its CTR climb to 0.56% — a 38% lift over its 2024 campaign average of 0.38% — and outperformed Nextdoor's platform benchmark by 60%.
What made the difference? Nextdoor is where people go for information that affects their neighborhoods and their lives. It's a platform built around local relevance and real community context, not entertainment or viral content. For a public health message, that environment translates into higher credibility and more meaningful engagement.
Read the full case study to see how Click Optimization helped the Maryland Department of Health connect with residents across the state.
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