Trouble connecting to HP Monitor with USB-C/Thunderbolt 3

I just purchased an HP Pavilion QHD monitor to use with my MacBook Pro (2017, running the latest Catalina), based on reviews of the monitor that said it worked well with Macs. I've been trying unsuccessfully to get the computer and monitor to talk to each other via the USB-C connection. The computer seems to recognize the monitor for a second (the little battery icon at the top of my screen shows that the computer is getting power via the monitor, until the monitor says that it's going to sleep because of no input) but I can't get the monitor to show up when I detect displays in the settings. I've set the input settings to USB-C on the monitor and can't think of what else to try, short of getting an HDMI or Display Port adapter and trying to connect that way.