Last Updated: December 2023

Author: Tobacco Control Program, Vermont Department of Health

Website traffic is measured in visits, sometimes called sessions. While there are nuances to the quality of web traffic, more visitors to the site can create more opportunities to generate leads, and ultimately, assist Vermonters who are interested in quitting tobacco.

For this performance measure, the tobacco program tracks the total number of visitors to 802quits.org each quarter from all traffic sources. As resources allow, the program runs paid digital or traditional media advertising throughout the year. The program aims to have media always in market to maximize website visits and maintain continuous visibility during the audience’s moment of need. Because our mass media is purchased to reach specific individuals most at-risk (household income of less than $50,000; education of high school or less; at risk of using tobacco), the visitors to 802quits.org are most likely to come from this population.

While we focus on increasing the volume of overall website visitors, we also take measures to ensure users are engaging and taking enrollment actions once on the site. Therefore, in this case, website visits should be evaluated as a consideration to quit, either for the visitor or for someone they care about.

In Quarter 4, 2022, a mass media campaign launched in market, along with paid social media and Google search ads, which drove visitors to the website. The remaining traffic to the site came from unpaid sources.

Together these performance measures focus on whether Vermonters are better off as a result of the Health Department's Tobacco Control Program. They do so by looking at the quality and efficiency of these programs and services. This performance measure is important because it measures HOW WELL the program is doing in reaching and educating Vermonters about free available resources through 802Quits.org. 

Rinck Advertising

CDC’s Media Campaign Resource Center (MCRC)

The CDC's 2014 Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs “recommends mass-reach health communication interventions on the basis of strong evidence of effectiveness” for decreasing prevalence of tobacco use. Increasingly, all Americans are using the web as a credible source for health information. Therefore, having information online, optimized for mobile phones, and a website easy to navigate with elements important to our audience (real stories, free resources, and nicotine replacement therapy--NRT) is key to motivating more smokers to consider quitting.

We plan to maintain or increase this number of visitors in the future by tailoring our mass media campaigns to Vermonters facing tobacco health disparaties. 

The program will use best and promising practice and a mix of communication channels to motivate and assist Vermonters with quitting tobacco. Quitting tobacco can take, on average, 8 - 11 attempts, and well above that to succeed for some people. Mass reach and digital promotion contribute to driving quit attempts. 

Ad buys will continue to be purchased in alignment with CDC’s best practice.

We continue to increase our use of digital promotion. Research shows that digital is increasingly an efficient way to reach our population. All ad buys include digital.