Leveraging social media to promote targeted advertisements and key messaging for optimal recruitment into clinical research.

Abstract

Background: Social media, a strategy that embeds transformative technology and targeted messaging, is promising for optimizing recruitment in the clinical research enterprise. This study aimed to evaluate recruitment rates and outcomes of Facebook advertisements, a social media-based platform, and explored targeted recruitment messaging among a key population.

Methods: A convergent parallel mixed-methods design, with secondary data analysis of Facebook advertisements and in-depth, semi-structured interviews (N=15) with recruiters, was conducted. The quantitative analysis included descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses between the conditions of targeted versus general advertisements. The qualitative analysis utilized a five-step reflexive thematic analysis approach. Data analyses were integrated through a joint display.

Results: The recruitment rate among those exposed to the targeted advertisements (35%) was higher compared to the general advertisements (27%). A similar trend followed for the interest rate, with targeted advertisements (44%) having higher interest rates than the general advertisements (41%). The thematic analysis generated two themes related to tailored communication and accessible language for recruitment messaging. The integrated joint display elucidated that higher resonance with targeted messaging resulted in better recruitment outcomes.

Conclusions: Targeted advertisements resulted in a modestly higher recruitment and interest rate compared to general advertisements on Facebook. Targeted advertisements were nearly twice as cost-effective in recruitment and expressed interest compared to general advertisements. Integrated joint display suggests that targeted advertisements and messaging, with tailored language, enhance recruitment and interest in clinical research with practical significance. Optimizing recruitment strategies is relevant for investigators to reduce obstacles in the clinical research enterprise. Findings suggest this strategy optimizes recruitment for a key population, offering promise for advancing efficient and representative clinical research that can benefit research investigators.