Last Updated: January 2020

Author: Division of Health Surveillance, Vermont Department of Health

Over the past decade, the number of cases of tickborne diseases reported to the Vermont Department of Health has increased significantly. The Vermont Department of Health Infectious Disease Program created a comprehensive education campaign called Be Tick Smart, which includes print materials, detailed online information, digital advertising, and public radio underwriting. Campaign goals are to raise awareness, improve knowledge, and motivate prevention behavior. Traffic to the Be Tick Smart web page is one measure of campaign success.

Google Analytics is used to monitor the number of people who are visiting the Be Tick Smart web page where there is comprehensive information about tick bite prevention. In Google Analytics, the number of unique pageviews corresponds to the number of users that visited a web page on a given day. The user can visit and then exit the page several times, but the unique pageview for that user is only counted once for that day. This number is also referred to as “traffic” to the page.

Since tickborne diseases are seasonal, webpage traffic increases or decreases dependng on the time of year. Increased webpage traffic corresponds to the Be Tick Smart campaign in May (second quarter) and sustains until the end of tick season in the fall.

• HMC Advertising – the media buyer for the State of Vermont
• Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets
• Agency of Natural Resources.

Targeted digital advertising has proved to be an effective way of driving users to a specific web page for more information about a topic of interest. Advertisements during the "Be Tick Smart" campaign target specific audiences on Google and Facebook. When users click on the ads, they are linked to the Vermont Department of Health "Be Tick Smart" web page. Improved knowledge about the risk for tickborne diseases, and easy to follow steps and prevention messages motivate people to adopt healthier behaviors.   

Prevention of tickborne diseases is challenging on many levels. Ticks are tiny and hard to detect on certain places of the body. The CDC encourages individuals to adopt specific behaviors like using EPA-registered tick repellents, inspecting skin daily for ticks, removing attached ticks promptly, and watching for signs of tickborne illness. The Health Department website is one place where people can get this information.