Speaking About HIV Without Fear: A National Anti-AIDS Campaign with Over 14 Million Impressions

For the second consecutive year, we had the pleasure of executing the National Anti-AIDS Campaign in partnership with the Ministry of Health, the Bulgarian Red Cross, and the National Center of Public Health and Analyses.

Following a successful launch in 2024, we scaled the concept in 2025 by expanding our channel mix and deepening our communication strategy.

The Challenge & The Client Brief

During the initial wave in 2024, we faced tight turnaround times, needing to simultaneously develop the communication strategy and build a dedicated campaign landing page: https://aidscampaign-bg.net/

The key challenges were to:

• Present medical facts in a clear, accessible, and empathetic way;
• Debunk common myths without sounding preachy;
• Employ delicate, socially responsible language;
• Tailor messaging for different age segments;
• Achieve high reach and frequency within a limited budget and a short timeframe.

Our Approach & Strategy

We focused heavily on content – developing powerful visual concepts and emotionally resonant messaging.

In 2025, we increased our video content share and expanded our digital footprint by adding TikTok to our channel mix, leveraging custom-built situational videos.

Distribution was driven via:

• Google Ads (Performance Max и Demand Gen),
• Meta Ads,
• TikTok Ads,

Our core focus was on maximizing reach, engagement, and driving high-quality traffic to the landing page.

Ultimately, our initial assumptions that audiences might show low interest in consuming this type of content or have short retention times on the landing page were completely shattered – as you will see in the final results below.

Channels & Formats

Google Ads:

• We deployed campaigns focused on visibility and traffic, using Demand Gen and Performance Max formats, each packed with a wide variety of creatives and video assets.
• Mid-campaign, we optimized performance by shifting the entire budget to the Performance Max campaign, which was significantly outperforming Demand Gen.
• The campaign generated 4.5 million ad impressions and nearly 157,000 clicks, maintaining an average cost-per-click (CPC) of €0.01.

Facebook и Instagram Ads:

• We structured the communication across 5 distinct paid campaigns on Meta, mapped to specific objectives and content types.
• Our media planning once again included a Reservation (Reach & Frequency) campaign to maximize unique user reach and build top-of-mind awareness. In parallel, we ran a website traffic campaign using banners, alongside Facebook and Instagram engagement campaigns designed to boost social content and generate reactions, likes, comments, and shares.
• We also introduced a Video Views campaign targeted at users with a higher propensity for longer watch times. Finally, during the flight, we launched an Instagram Profile Visits campaign to grow the account. This successfully captured users seeking reliable information on the topic, turning them into long-term followers.
• Meta ads reached 1,071,743 unique users, delivering 6,376,869 impressions. An average frequency of over 5 impressions per user ensured strong top-of-mind awareness without triggering ad fatigue or negative user feedback.

TikTok Ads Campaigns:

• Through TikTok advertising, we successfully amplified our custom video content, reaching 731,375 unique users and generating an impressive 3,263,269 ad impressions.

Social Media Content

Facebook & Instagram

Utilizing a diverse mix of formats allowed us to maintain excellent momentum and performance throughout the campaign across both networks. For this edition, we relied on a broad, multi-faceted approach, varying both the formats and the storytelling angles.

 

Throughout the campaign, the content published across Facebook and Instagram aligned with both our digital marketing KPIs and the campaign’s broader social goals (awareness and prevention). We deployed static posts featuring bold copy and strong hooks; leaned heavily into Reels, which were prioritized by the algorithm; created educational carousel and album posts to inform users directly within the feed; and utilized Instagram Stories to educate audiences and drive swipe-ups to the website. Combined with precise targeting and strategic ad planning, each format hit its target KPIs, generating a healthy balance of reach, impressions, and engagement (post reactions, comments, etc.).

It is worth noting that pairing specific formats with specific topics was highly strategic. We led with bold yet digestible messaging in the creatives, supported by educational caption copy. This copy provided valuable insights while serving as a hook to incentivize users to click through for more in-depth information on the website.

Despite the provocative hooks and bold communication style, user sentiment remained overwhelmingly positive. This indicates that we successfully resonated with our target audience while keeping our messaging constructed in a way that avoided triggering aggressive, homophobic, or politically biased internet trolls.

TikTok

Our TikTok content delivered outstanding organic results as well (a summary of paid ad results can be found in the next section). Organically acted-out situational scenarios helped us land the campaign’s message seamlessly. We introduced the Bulgarian TikTok audience to critical facts about HIV transmission and living with the virus in an accessible way, using native platform language. This was achieved without oversimplifying the gravity of the subject, resulting in a 100% success rate in fostering constructive dialogue in the comments.

We generated over 3.6 million views, reaching 3,650,952 unique users. The content gathered 12,267 likes, 1,202 shares, and 257 comments – the vast majority of which were positive or conversational. Furthermore, the campaign videos clocked 1,594 saves, a highly valuable insight proving that users found the information important or interesting enough to bookmark for later.

Explore all campaign content on the National Anti-AIDS Campaign social media channels and the Ministry of Health’s TikTok profile:

https://www.instagram.com/aids.campaign.bg/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61569136635483
https://www.tiktok.com/@ministryofhealthbg

Overall Campaign Results

Paid Media Performance:

• META: 6.38M impressions (+38.6% compared to 2024)
• TikTok Impressions: 3,263,269 impressions
• 4.5 million Google Ads Impressions
• 1,086,907 post engagements (+109.8% sompared to 2024)
• Achieved with a 22% lower total ad spend compared to 2024

Website Traffic:

• 119,340 website sessions (+79.2% compared to 2024)
• 44,519 engaged sessions
• 20,884 clicks on “Frequently Asked Questions”
• 8,827 “scroll + time on page” micro-conversions achieved
• 823 clicks on “Learn More”

Conclusion

This campaign proved that when you strike the right balance between strategic media planning, highly socially responsible content, and precise audience segmentation, sensitive public interest topics can achieve massive reach and genuine engagement simultaneously.

And here is how we rolled out the next phase of the campaign for Valentine’s Day: