Client: AstraZeneca

How we helped AstraZeneca reach healthcare professionals in a highly competitive medical search space   

1,569

clicks targeting research audiences 

13.6

av. position improvement

Position 1.1

for scientific queries

The Challenge

AstraZeneca asked us to establish visibility for their lupus research in a highly competitive medical search landscapes: systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). 

The landscape was dominated by institutions perfectly positioned to serve patient needs: 

  • National Institutes of Health - Government health authority 

  • Mayo Clinic - Trusted medical institution 

  • Lupus Foundation of America - Patient advocacy organization 

  • Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic - Academic medical centers 

  • WebMD, Healthline - Consumer health publishers 

When someone searches "lupus symptoms" or "what is lupus," these organisations rank positions 1-10 – and to be honest, rightly so. Google appropriately prioritises patient-focused sources for health queries where people need accessible medical information.  

AstraZeneca's mission isn't to replicate patient information that's already comprehensively available. 

Their role is advancing lupus science, attracting top research talent, and building the partnerships that push treatment forward. Their stakeholders aren't patients seeking symptom information. Instead, they're: 

  • Healthcare professionals researching mechanisms for deeper understanding 

  • Clinical investigators evaluating potential research partnerships 

  • Medical media covering lupus research developments 

  • Scientific talent considering career opportunities in immunology research 

So, we knew we had to establish search visibility that reaches these professional audiences without attempting to serve patients better served by dedicated patient-focused institutions.

How we addressed it

Research: finding where pharmaceutical expertise provides unique value 

SERP analysis revealed the hierarchy. For general patient-focused queries, SERP presence wouldn’t deliver the niche visibility we desired. So, we identified queries where AstraZeneca's scientific depth provides genuine value: 

  • "sle immunology" - Academic/research focus 

  • "lupus mechanism" - Scientific depth beyond patient education 

  • "astrazeneca lupus" - Branded scientific search 

  • "lupus therapeutic area" - Industry/professional language 

  • "systemic lupus erythematosus research" - Clinical investigation focus 

These weren't massive search volumes. But they represented the right audiences: healthcare professionals conducting deeper research, clinical partners evaluating collaborations, medical media covering innovations, and research talent investigating opportunities. 

Strategic insight: Focus on audiences seeking the scientific depth, research innovation, and partnership opportunities that pharmaceutical research leaders uniquely provide. Demonstrate the expertise that attracts collaboration and advances the field. 

Content strategy: Scientific positioning for professional audiences 

We developed a comprehensive page brief, positioning AstraZeneca through genuine research depth: 

Immediately establish scientific authority: H1: "Systemic lupus erythematosus" with jump navigation to: 

  • Unlocking the science of systemic lupus erythematosus 

  • Addressing unmet needs in the lupus community 

  • Our ambition in lupus: making remission a reality 

Include scientific mechanism, demonstrating depth: 

  • Complex immune system diagram (innate vs adaptive immune response) 

  • Cytokine pathways and inflammatory cascade specifics 

  • B cell and T cell dysfunction details 

  • Type I interferon pathway references 

Company positioning with research innovation highlighted: Expert quote with credentials: Caterina Brindicci, Senior Vice President & Global Head Research and Development, Respiratory and Immunology at AstraZeneca 

Patient perspective to give context: Patient stories providing human context while directing comprehensive patient support needs to dedicated advocacy resources. 

Unmet needs section to illustrate market opportunity: Disease burden statistics, mortality data, treatment gaps; positioning the strategic importance of lupus research. 

Internal linking for therapy area authority: Connected to Respiratory & Immunology parent, immune-mediated diseases content, R&D mechanisms, and WSCD immunology articles. 

The results:

1,569 total clicks over 17 months. 458,697 impressions. Position 1.11-1.52 for branded scientific queries. 140 clicks from "astrazeneca lupus" at position 1.52 with 21.28% CTR. Position 7.47 for "sle immunology". 13.6-position improvement. Average 66% of traffic from positions 1-3 . 131 branded query variations emerged 

Branded query growth 

The page contributed to the created association between "AstraZeneca" and "lupus research" in searcher behaviour. Healthcare professionals, researchers, and medical media now specifically search "astrazeneca lupus" for the company's scientific perspective. 

131 branded query variations emerged, representing professionals specifically seeking AstraZeneca's lupus positioning, researchers investigating the immunology pipeline, media covering developments, and talent evaluating opportunities. 

Scientific audience capture 

We also saw page one visibility for keywords including “sle immunology", “lupus mechanism” and “"lupus therapeutic area". This demonstrates the scientific depth successfully positioned the page as credible research resource, reaching exactly the scientific community AstraZeneca aims to engage. 

Over time, position improved dramatically while traffic volume decreased. This is evidence of Google showing the page to the most relevant audiences. It’s also a result of AI Overview introduction.

  • Launch (Oct-Dec 2024): Average position 28.55, 3.78 clicks/day 

  •  Recent (Sep-Dec 2025): Average position 14.96 (13.6-position improvement), 2.71 clicks/day 

This demonstrates successful audience refinement.  

  • CTR improved from 0.32% to 0.42% (better intent matching) 

  • Position improved significantly (scientific authority recognised) 

  • Precision targeting: reaching engaged professionals who need pharmaceutical research perspective delivers more mission value than broader exposure to audiences better served by patient-focused resources 

Strategic significance

Why this approach matters for mission-driven organisations

1. Strategic audience targeting delivers higher-value outcomes

Rather than maximising traffic volume, the page targets stakeholders whose engagement advances AstraZeneca's mission.

Healthcare professionals need scientific depth, clinical researchers need mechanism understanding, medical media need an authoritative perspective, and research talent needs innovation visibility.

This page’s optimisation advances goals of attracting partnerships, scientific talent, and establishing thought leadership that furthers the science. 

2. Scientific depth as differentiator 

Essential to any top ranking page is the question “why does this page deliver a better answer than anyone else?” if your in-depth science content doesn’t meet user needs, you’re in the wrong place.

But pharmaceutical research leaders bring unique perspectives through active scientific investigation. With the right targeting and presentation, this brings great value.

The page demonstrates this through complex immune system diagrams, cytokine pathway specifics, research pipeline transparency, and company expertise positioning from genuine scientific work. 

Conclusion

Search visibility in competitive spaces requires strategic focus on audiences your organisation uniquely serves. 

In a therapeutic area where patient-focused institutions appropriately dominate consumer queries, AstraZeneca's page establishes visibility among stakeholders who need pharmaceutical research perspective: healthcare professionals, clinical researchers, medical media, and scientific talent. 

The performance pattern of improving positions and CTRs despite lower impression figures reflects better targeting of professional audiences who need depth. This proves that even in highly competitive search landscapes, organisations can establish meaningful visibility by focusing on where they provide unique value.  

Looking for a touch of visibility?

If your company operates in a competitive sace and you need strategic positioning to advance your mission, we'd love to discuss how Bottle can help. 

Let’s talk. 

hello@wearebottle.com