Facebook as a Recruiting and Field Test Tool

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis: We sought to test health program brand names and taglines for a teen dating violence prevention program at a low-cost and in a rapid manner. Behavioral theories suggest that communication with an audience often acts as a trigger to further action. This teen program was clear in needing an Internet presence to communicate with teens and spur actions.  We sought to determine if and how many teens would click through to a survey for each of eight online brand/taglines.  This test was similar to attracting teens in an online environment. Our hypotheses were that teens would click through to a website, if the ads included an attractive brand name and tagline and that some brand/taglines would be more attractive than others.

Methods: We developed eight brand/taglines.  We created eight Facebook ads. Each ad was graphically and textually identical, with the exception of the brand/tagline. Each purchased ad stated that we were asking for opinions about a new teen program and offered the chance to win a Target gift card. Once a teen clicked on the ad, they were taken to a survey website. The survey asked specific questions about the ad they clicked on as well as the other seven options.  Once teens saw and clicked on an ad they were redirected to the survey. The survey included questions that asked teens how much they liked each of the brand/taglines, qualitative feedback on each ad, and other messaging questions.  

Results: The main evaluation measure was the unique click-through rate (UCTR) for each brand/tagline. Over one million teens saw one of the eight ads , over 2,400 clicked on an ad, and over 120 teens completed the entire survey.  We triangulated the UCTRs, mean preference scores, and qualitative feedback for each brand/tagline.  Stand2gether: For healthy © relationships, the selected brand/tagline, had a .095% unique click through rate, a mean preference score of 3.96 (on a 5 point scale), and mostly positive qualitative comments with no clearly damaging negative comments.  This UCTR is comparable to the reported industry standards for commercial ad UCTRs suggesting that the selected brand/tagline ad performed well compared to commercial ads running on Facebook.

Conclusions: Facebook offers a low cost and rapid mechanism for testing health messages. It mimics a real life situation in which teens, in this case, may click through on a health message “ad” to a website for health services, health information, to interact with others, or see what others are doing. It is possible to conduct message testing in this environment and receive field testing data on a broader sample than could be afforded through a more traditional method.

Implications for research and/or practice: While Facebook offers a low cost and rapid mechanism for testing messages, certain limitations should be considered.  Our presentation will describe the process of working with Facebook ads, legal issues of conducting online prize giveaways with underage teens, working with Target on electronic gift cards, and teen recruitment retention issues with an online survey website.