Truth Initiative (Paid Media)

The Truth Initiative's "This Is Quitting" campaign is a text-based support program designed to help teens and young adults quit vaping.

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The campaign focused on driving enrollments among users aged 13-17 in Washington, D.C., a highly specific and regulated audience segment requiring thoughtful channel selection and targeting. The primary challenge was reaching and converting a younger audience across fragmented, mobile-first platforms while navigating advertising restrictions for users under 18.

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PBJ was tasked with developing an omnichannel paid media strategy that could both drive awareness and convert users into program enrollments efficiently.

We built a full-funnel paid media strategy designed to meet Gen Z where they spend their time. TikTok, Snapchat, and Meta served as key awareness and engagement channels, helping us introduce the brand to the right audience in the right environments.

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To capture users already showing strong intent, we paired social campaigns with Google Search. We also used YouTube and Performance Max to expand reach beyond paid social, giving the campaign more room to scale efficiently across the broader digital ecosystem.

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Google Display remarketing helped us stay in front of users after their first site visit. By re-engaging people who had already shown interest, we were able to bring qualified visitors back to the site and support enrollments at a lower cost.

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Creative played a major role in the overall strategy. We led with a video-first approach across multiple formats, which helped keep the campaign engaging, reduce creative fatigue, and communicate with users in a way that felt native to each platform.

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Key Learnings

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- Video-first creative is critical for Gen Z engagement and conversions

- Human-centered storytelling outperforms animated and static formats

- Search remains the highest-intent driver, even for younger audiences

- Omnichannel strategies are essential to guide users from awareness to enrollment

- Top-of-page landing content is crucial, as most engagement occurred above the fold