Social marketing for health promotion: the behaviour change method behind public health campaigns, its eight benchmark criteria, and where social media fits

Social marketing for health promotion is the use of marketing methods to change or keep a specific health behaviour, such as getting screened, stopping smoking or finishing a course of treatment, for the good of the person and the community. It is not the same thing as social media marketing. A social marketing programme starts from research with the people whose behaviour it wants to change, works out what the behaviour costs them and what competes with it, and then uses a mix of services, environment changes, rules and communication to make the healthy choice easier. The UK's National Social Marketing Centre puts the test plainly: if your goal is only to raise awareness or change attitudes, "you are not doing social marketing".

How health promotion and social marketing fit together

The 1986 Ottawa Charter, published by the World Health Organization and read on 22 October 2026, says: "Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health." The WHO's health promotion page still opens with that definition. The Charter names three strategies, to advocate, to enable and to mediate, and says health promotion "is not just the responsibility of the health sector".

Health promotion is the goal and the wider field. Social marketing is one planning method inside it, focused on behaviour. A city's health promotion plan might include a smoke free law, a school food policy and a social marketing programme to help one group of smokers quit. The law and the policy change the environment; the social marketing programme works out what that group of people needs in order to act.

Social marketing is not social media marketing

The two names are easy to confuse. In the commercial world, "social marketing" often means posting on social networks; our page on social marketing goals uses it that way. In public health it means the behaviour change discipline. The National Social Marketing Centre (NSMC) defines it as "an approach used to develop activities aimed at changing or maintaining people's behaviour for the benefit of individuals and society as a whole", and says directly that it "is not the same as social media marketing". Social media can be one of the methods a social marketing programme uses, alongside many others.

The eight benchmark criteria

The NSMC's benchmark criteria set out what to look for in a programme to decide whether it is social marketing. They build on Alan Andreasen's six point benchmark from 2001 and an independent review in 2006. The NSMC says they are not a step by step process, but a framework to check a plan against.

Criterion	The question to ask of your plan
1. Customer orientation	Have we researched the audience's lives in the round, not only the health issue?
2. Behaviour	Is there a specific, measurable behaviour goal, not only knowledge or attitude?
3. Theory	Which behavioural theory informs the plan, and are we testing its assumptions?
4. Insight	Do we know what moves and motivates this group, beyond the data?
5. Exchange	What does the behaviour cost people in money, time, effort and social standing, and what do they get?
6. Competition	What competes for their time and attention, inside and outside their own heads?
7. Segmentation	Have we gone beyond demographics to groups defined by what moves them?
8. Methods mix	Are we combining informing, educating, services, environment design and regulation?

For a quick check, the NSMC offers four questions any project can ask: do we understand the audience and see things from their side, are we clear what we want them to do, do the benefits of doing it outweigh the costs and barriers for them, and are we using a combination of activities to help them act.

Planning a health promotion programme with social marketing

1. Pick one behaviour and one group. "Adults over 50 in two districts book a bowel screening test", not "improve awareness of cancer".
2. Do the formative research. Interviews, observation and existing data on why people in that group do or do not act. Listen for practical barriers such as time off work, transport and childcare.
3. Work out the exchange. List what acting costs the person and what they value in return, as they define it, not as the health service assumes.
4. Name the competition. Fear of the result, embarrassment, a busy week, a rival message. Each needs an answer.
5. Choose the mix. A home test kit sent by post, evening clinic hours, a reminder from a trusted local voice, and communication that names the barrier and removes it.
6. Pretest and pilot. Try the messages and the service change with a small group before the full launch.
7. Measure the behaviour. Count the tests booked or completed against a comparison area or the same months before, not the number of people who saw a poster.

Where social media fits, and the ad rules that apply

Social media is useful for reach, for local voices and for reminders, and it suits the communication part of the methods mix. Paid health promotion on Facebook and Instagram has its own rules. Meta's help page on social issue ads, read on 22 October 2026, says advertisers who run ads that take a stand on important topics, "like health and civil and social rights", including non-profit groups, must get authorised and use "Paid for by" disclaimers. "Health" is on Meta's list of social issues for the United States. In response to the European Union's political advertising regulation, Meta does not allow social issue, electoral or political ads in the EU at all, so an EU campaign has to rely on organic posts, partners and other channels. Check whether a post you plan to boost counts as an issue ad before you pay for it.

For organisations running their own channels, our guide to social media strategy for nonprofits sets out one job per channel and how to tell stories with consent.

Questions about social marketing for health promotion

What is the difference between social marketing and health promotion?

Health promotion is the wider field, defined by the WHO as enabling people to increase control over and improve their health. Social marketing is a planning method within it that aims to change or maintain one specific behaviour, using research, exchange, competition and a mix of methods.

Is social marketing the same as social media marketing?

No. The National Social Marketing Centre says so directly. Social marketing is a behaviour change approach; social media is one channel it may use.

What are the benchmark criteria for social marketing?

The NSMC lists eight: customer orientation, behaviour, theory, insight, exchange, competition, segmentation and methods mix. They are a checklist for a plan rather than a sequence of steps.

Can a public health team run health ads on Facebook?

Yes, but ads that take a position on a social issue such as health need Meta's authorisation and a "Paid for by" disclaimer, and Meta does not allow social issue ads in the European Union.

When can we judge whether a social marketing programme is working?

When the behaviour data comes in: tests booked, quit attempts, vaccinations given, compared with a baseline or a comparison area. Awareness scores alone do not answer the question, because the goal is a change in what people do.

The health question people now ask an assistant first

Someone deciding whether to book a screening may ask ChatGPT or Gemini "is bowel screening free for over 50s near me and how do I get a kit" before visiting any health website. The answer draws on whatever official pages, clinic listings and news it can read, and a programme's own service pages are only part of that.

Checking what those answers say is a newer task than running a campaign, and it matters when the behaviour you want depends on accurate information. AI Knows Us asks a set of real questions on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews and shows which organisations and pages each answer relies on, so a health team can see whether its own guidance is the source people are given.