Facebook recruitment of young adult smokers for a cessation trial: Methods, metrics, and lessons learned

Abstract

Further understanding is needed of the functionalities and efficiency of social media for health intervention research recruitment. Facebook was examined as a mechanism to recruit young adults for a smoking cessation intervention. An ad campaign targeting young adult smokers tested specific messaging based on market theory and successful strategies used to recruit smokers in previous clinical trials (i.e. informative, call to action, scarcity, social norms), previously successful ads, and general messaging. Images were selected to target smokers (e.g., lit cigarette), appeal to the target age, vary demographically, and vary graphically (cartoon, photo, logo). Facebook’s Ads Manager was used over 7 weeks (6/10/13 – 7/29/13), targeted by age (18–25), location (U.S.), and language (English), and employed multiple ad types (newsfeed, standard, promoted posts, sponsored stories) and keywords. Ads linked to the online screening survey or study Facebook page. The 36 different ads generated 3,198,373 impressions, 5,895 unique clicks, at an overall cost of $2,024 ($0.34/click). Images of smoking and newsfeed ads had the greatest reach and clicks at the lowest cost. Of 5,895 unique clicks, 586 (10%) were study eligible and 230 (39%) consented. Advertising costs averaged $8.80 per eligible, consented participant. The final study sample (n=79) was largely Caucasian (77%) and male (69%), averaging 11 cigarettes/day (SD=8.3) and 2.7 years smoking (SD=0.7). Facebook is a useful, cost-effective recruitment source for young adult smokers. Ads posted via newsfeed posts were particularly successful, likely because they were viewable via mobile phone. Efforts to engage more ethnic minorities, young women, and smokers motivated to quit are needed.

Reaching Those At Risk for Psychiatric Disorders and Suicidal Ideation: Facebook Advertisements to Recruit Military Veterans (Preprint)

“…Facebook ads have been used effectively in populations including college students and young adults [16,17] and military veterans (particularly those with risky drinking) [18][19][20][21]. Prior research has also suggested ad campaigns can achieve both "broad reach and targeted recruitment," and found ad costs to be manageable [19].…”

Evaluating different recruitment methods in a longitudinal survey: Findings from the pan-European PASTA project (Preprint)

“…due to an increase in exclusive use of mobile phones or email rather than traditional mail or landline phone. Opportunistic approaches such as recruitment via social media promise cost savings [4,[7][8][9][10][11][12] and a better coverage of person groups that are hard to reach with the traditional recruitment methods, like parents of adolescents [8], adolescents themselves [10], people with special conditions [13,14], smokers [15] or low-income people [16]. Social media, like Facebook and Twitter, can potentially have a strong snowballing effect [17] given their intensive use and continuing growth (around 1.94 billion monthly active Facebook users worldwide [26]), their feature that information can be shared very easily among networks [17], and are therefore able to reach a large number of people in a very short time.…”

Recruiting Hard-to-Reach Populations for Survey Research: Using Facebook and Instagram Advertisements and In-Person Intercept in LGBT Bars and Nightclubs to Recruit LGBT Young Adults (Preprint)

“…Researchers are increasingly turning to innovative strategies for recruiting HTR populations versus traditional methods [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. One strategy that researchers use to recruit young adults involves conducting intercept interviews in social venues (eg, bars, nightclubs) where the target population spends time.…”

“…A second strategy that has become popular for recruiting HTR populations for survey research is the use of targeted ads on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter [29,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. Social media platforms possess massive quantities of user data that allow for highly specific targeting of ads to HTR populations on multiple features, such as age, gender, location, interests, and relationship preferences (women interested in women, women interested in women and men, men interested in men, men interested in women and men).…”

“…Social media platforms possess massive quantities of user data that allow for highly specific targeting of ads to HTR populations on multiple features, such as age, gender, location, interests, and relationship preferences (women interested in women, women interested in women and men, men interested in men, men interested in women and men). A growing number of studies have successfully recruited HTR populations via social media, including young adult and adolescent smokers in the United States [29,[31][32], adult ecigarette users [35], adult gay men [33,[38][39], gay and bisexual youth [30], adolescent and young adult women in Australia [37,40], and HIVpositive adults in the United States [34].…”