Targeted Facebook Advertising is a Novel and Effective Method of Recruiting Participants into a Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Effectiveness Study

Subasinghe, Asvini K; Nguyen, Margaret B.; Wark, John D.; Tabrizi, Sepehr N.; Garland, Suzanne M.

doi:10.2196/resprot.5679

Cited by 35 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(23 reference statements)

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“…Accessibility to Facebook and Instagram’s large and diverse users address one of the challenges facing many research projects when it comes to recruiting—adequate size and representativeness of sample. The literature confirms targeted Facebook advertising has been effective in recruiting populations based on geographic location, age, and gender, but also specific, often hard-to-reach populations [ 29 - 31 ]. Mothers of young children were the focus of this recruitment strategy and are the most active users on Facebook [ 6 , 7 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Adoption of Social Media to Recruit Participants for the Cool Runnings Randomized Controlled Trial in Australia

Burgess¹,

Kimble²,

Watt³

et al. 2017

JMIR Res Protoc

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BackgroundUsing social media to recruit specific populations for research studies is gaining popularity. Given that mothers of young children are the most active on social media, and young children are the most at risk of preventable burn injuries, social media was used to recruit mothers of young children to a burn prevention intervention.ObjectiveThe aim of this paper was to describe the social media recruitment methods used to enroll mothers of young children to the app-based burn prevention intervention Cool Runnings.MethodsParticipants were recruited via paid Facebook and Instagram advertisements to a 2-group, parallel, single-blinded, randomized controlled trial (RCT). The advertisements were targeted at women 18 years and older, living in Queensland, Australia, with at least 1 child aged 5 to 12 months at the time of recruitment.ResultsOver the 30-day recruitment period from January to February 2016, Facebook and Instagram advertisements reached 65,268 people, generating 2573 link clicks, 1161 app downloads, and 498 enrolled participants to the Cool Runnings RCT. The cost per enrolled participant was Aus $13.08. Saturdays were the most effective day of the week for advertising results. The most popular time of day for enrolments was between 5 to 11 PM. This recruitment strategy campaign resulted in a broad reach of participants from regional, rural, and remote Queensland. Participants were representative of the population in regard to age and education levels.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first use of social media recruitment for an injury prevention campaign. This recruitment method resulted in the rapid and cost-effective recruitment of participants with social, geographic, and economic diversity that were largely representative of the population.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Adoption of Social Media to Recruit Participants for the Cool Runnings Randomized Controlled Trial in Australia

Burgess¹,

Kimble²,

Watt³

et al. 2017

JMIR Res Protoc

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Facebook is the social media outlet with the largest number of active users worldwide, by a large margin [31]. Facebook-based efforts to recruit participants for online surveys and in-person clinical trials or interventions have been largely successful, especially in recent years [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39], and particularly when compared to traditional print methods of recruiting such as newspaper ads, leaflets, posters, and mail [40][41][42][43][44]. Facebook reach can be especially effective for a geographically dispersed population [45,46].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

To end disease tomorrow, begin with trials today: Digital strategies for increased awareness of a clinical trials finder

Jerome

Dunkel

Kennedy

et al. 2019

J. Clin. Trans. Sci.

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Introduction:Individuals experiencing different medical conditions, as well as healthy volunteers, may often be interested in trial participation, and researchers similarly need to find participants to advance medical knowledge. The ResearchMatch (RM) Trials Today clinical trial searching tool leverages data to enable potential participants to look for trial opportunities relevant to their situation. To facilitate expanded use of this tool, we undertook a national digital public awareness campaign to increase awareness of Trials Today among members of the general public.Methods:The awareness campaign promoted Trials Today using Facebook and digital banner messages in 2017, encompassing nine cities across the USA. The digital strategy was complemented by print media in several outlets. We employed descriptive statistics to summarize campaign metrics and site usage data during the campaign.Results:The campaign was successful in increasing visits to Trials Today, with 142,303 sessions logged during its run, as compared to pre-campaign data indicating 104,688 total sessions during the entire 2-year period since the site’s inception. The city-specific click-through rate for all digital impressions, combining Facebook and banner messaging, ranged from 0.50% to 1.09%, resulting in a cost-per-click range of $0.69–$1.15. In addition, visitors conducted 29,697 searches and viewed individual trial records 173,512 times.Conclusion:The public awareness campaign was successful in increasing use of the RM Trials Today clinical trial searching tool. Our findings support the value of digital media messaging as a cost-effective vehicle for promoting clinical trial awareness, especially for chronic ailments.

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“…While using Facebook was an efficient strategy for targeting men for recruitment, the cost per participant recruited was Aus $24 higher than with women participating in a similar HPV vaccine effectiveness study [ 26 ]. Our study reached more men than the number of women reached by the VACCINE study (1,523,239 men and 984,159 women), despite the shorter duration of our campaign, and had a higher click-through rate to the study website (0.6% compared with 0.04% for the VACCINE study’s female participants).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This highlights the potential for access to a demographically and geographically diverse sample of participants. Advertising through SNSs has been shown to be successful for the recruitment of young females for surveys including health promotion and sexual health screening [ 24 , 26 - 31 ]. While SNSs have been effective in recruiting males into trials and sexual health promotion campaigns and surveys, both in Australia and internationally, including a recent US-based feasibility study aimed at recruiting males into a randomized controlled trial of HPV vaccination [ 32 ], little has been published with respect to study designs involving the collection of clinical specimens [ 33 , 34 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using Facebook to Recruit Young Australian Men Into a Cross-Sectional Human Papillomavirus Study

2017

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BackgroundYoung men can be difficult to engage in health research using traditional methods of recruitment. Social networking sites are increasingly being used to recruit participants into health research, due to their cost effectiveness, overall generalizability, and wide reach.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of using Facebook to recruit young Australian men into a human papillomavirus (HPV) prevalence study.MethodsWe recruited male permanent residents of Australia, aged 18 to 35 years, into the HPV in Young Males (HYM) study through targeted advertising placed on Facebook. Consenting participants completed an online questionnaire and provided a self-collected penile swab for HPV DNA detection and genotyping. We compared sociodemographic characteristics of the study population with those of the general Australian male population, based on Australian 2011 census data.ResultsBetween February 2015 and February 2017, targeted Facebook advertisements reached 1,523,239 men, resulting in 41,811 clicks through to the study website, with 1072 (2.56%) converting to lodgment of an expression of interest. Of these, 681 (63.53%) provided written informed consent and 535 (78.6% of recruited participants) completed all the study requirements. Reasons for participating in the study included altruism, past history of HPV, gaining more knowledge about HPV or the vaccine, working in the health industry, and the monetary compensation. The average advertising cost per completed study participant was Aus $48. Compared with the census population, HYM study participants were more likely to be Australian born (P<.001), be from Victoria (P=.003) or the Australian Capital Territory (P=.004), reside in a major city (P<.001), and have completed undergraduate (P<.001) or postgraduate education (P<.001). HYM study participants were less likely to report being a current smoker (P=.03), but were more likely to identify as bisexual or homosexual (294/529, 55.6%, P<.001), than the general population.ConclusionsUsing Facebook is a feasible and efficient strategy for the recruitment of men from across Australia for HPV testing. This method could be used for monitoring the impact of HPV vaccination. Additional targeting may achieve a sample that is broadly demographically representative of the Australian population. Future research should explore how the sexual risk behavior characteristics of populations recruited through Facebook compare with those of traditional recruitment methods.

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Targeted Facebook Advertising is a Novel and Effective Method of Recruiting Participants into a Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Effectiveness Study

Cited by 35 publications

References 26 publications

The Adoption of Social Media to Recruit Participants for the Cool Runnings Randomized Controlled Trial in Australia

The Adoption of Social Media to Recruit Participants for the Cool Runnings Randomized Controlled Trial in Australia

To end disease tomorrow, begin with trials today: Digital strategies for increased awareness of a clinical trials finder

Using Facebook to Recruit Young Australian Men Into a Cross-Sectional Human Papillomavirus Study

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