Consumers searching online for information about contact lenses (CLs) are most likely to be enquiring about specific contact lens retailers, price, CL removal techniques, and options for alternating between CLs and other vision correction, according to new research from the Contact Lens Institute (CLI).
CLI’s latest See Tomorrow initiative indicated that purchase factors are the primary driver of consumer online CL-related searches in the United States and Canada, representing 65% of the top 20 query volumes.
Initial findings from the Digital Discovery: Consumer Searches Reveal Contact Lens Realities study, part of the See Tomorrow initiative, were shared during Vision Expo East in Orlando in February with additional data and insights expected to be made public over the coming months.
help removing their contact lenses… was the second-highest ranked “how to” CL search on Google (26.3% by volume)
“Since 2021, our See Tomorrow program has unearthed a range of information about current and prospective contact lens wearers, all of which can help the eye care community deliver a better patient experience and elevate practice success,” said Stan Rogaski, CLI’s executive director. “Heading into 2025, we’ve turned our attention to consumer perceptions and needs as revealed through their online search habits – a window into what they are thinking, yet may not be telling their eye doctors, opticians, and staff.”
Among the top 20 CL-related searches on Google, 10 were purchase oriented, representing 65% of total volume. Of those, five pertained to specific contact lens retailers (53.5% by volume) and four pertained to price (9.75% by volume). That prevalence implies that practices may benefit from proactively discussing purchase dynamics ahead of and during exams, not waiting until a patient reaches the dispensing service. This includes price-performance alternatives and total cost – elements that prior CLI research found were important to current wearers.
CLI also reported that consumers online are seeking help removing their contact lenses at least twice as often as insertion. The topic was the second-highest ranked “how to” CL search on Google (26.3% by volume) and the first-and third-highest ranked search on TikTok (61% by volume). Over a two-month span, Google searches about removal outpaced searches about insertion by 250% to 400%, and this was consistent among both United States and Canadian consumers. The findings suggest that additional emphasis on removal techniques may be warranted during in-office I&R training, as well as pointedly asking about removal challenges during post-fit check-ins.
The third topic shared by CLI focussed on unfulfilled dual wear opportunities, which the organisation quantified in 2023 as representing 36% of all patients. Analysis of top 20 comparative searches on Google for CLs finds that 80% use an ‘or’ conjunction, in contrast to 14% for ‘vs’ and 6% for ‘and’ – with the vast majority of contact lens comparisons being made to glasses/spectacles (94%) as opposed to LASIK (6%). Shifting that perspective may be aided if practices develop more intentional processes to prompt dual wear conversations during exams, as well as during ongoing communications with patients between visits.
