EDMOND—British voters made a historic decision to leave the European Union in a national referendum on June 23. As Internet users turned to search engines, Facebook and YouTube to understand what the vote meant for the future, tens of thousands of them read or watched the Trumpet’s commentary on Brexit, thanks to a special online advertising campaign.

The campaign, which ran from June 23-27, consisted of a Trumpet Daily video and three specially written articles on theTrumpet.com. One article, “Today’s Headline Out of Britain Was Written Over 40 Years Ago!,” focused on an audience familiar with Herbert W. Armstrong. One article, “Why Britain’s Vote on EU Membership Is So Momentous,” focused on an audience interested in news. One article, “Bible Prophecy Foretold a Brexit!,” focused on an audience interested in Bible prophecy. Online marketing department supervisor David Vejil and analyst Ben Young worked with the editorial and television departments to create a 30-second video ad for each of the three audiences. The ads were posted on Facebook and YouTube and led users to the corresponding article or to the Trumpet Daily program, “Will Britain Be Part of a United Europe?”

Thousands of users saw these paid advertisements in their Facebook newsfeeds or while browsing YouTube; they were viewed a total of 130,000 times.

By the time the campaign ended its fifth and final day on June 27, the ads had led to 9,952 views on the “Will Britain Be Part of a United Europe?” program. That represented 54 percent of the 18,291 views the program had received by that date. The campaign also led to 1,200 new subscribers to the Trumpet Daily YouTube channel.

The ads also led to 7,467 article views for theTrumpet.com. The advertising also accounted for 21 percent of the almost 40,000 users that saw the campaign’s three articles. Of these, the Bible prophecy article was by far the most-viewed, with 28,843 users seeing “Bible Prophecy Foretold a Brexit!”

Because the Brexit referendum was a major world event, the articles and Trumpet Daily program enjoyed a significant boost in non-paid traffic, coming from Internet users who simply clicked on the Trumpet after typing Brexit-related search terms. Vejil said that 41 percent of the campaign’s traffic came from this type of organic search, while 30 percent came from the paid advertisements.

Although the department promoted articles and a Trumpet Daily program primarily, numerous users went on to request literature as well. Vejil said that over a three-day period during the campaign, requests for The United States and Britain in Prophecy increased to eight times more than average, and downloads were up 16 times more. Requests for He Was Right were up 11 times, and downloads were up 17 times. Vejil said that the overall campaign led to 3,700 users visiting the book page for The United States and Britain in Prophecy, with a total of 1,529 requests over the weekend.

Britain departing from the European Union was one of the most significant prophecies Mr. Armstrong ever reported out of the Bible.

Because Brexit was one of Mr. Armstrong’s most important prophecies, because the event was closely watched by people around the world, and because the timing of the referendum was known well in advance, Online Marketing devoted a significant budget to the campaign. Reporting the performance of the campaign after the fact, Vejil wrote, “We were able to bring users to theTrumpet.com and Trumpet Daily YouTube channel at the cheapest rate ever.”