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Studies of tobacco use and other health behaviors have reported great challenges in recruiting young adults. Social media is widely used by young adults in the United States and represents a potentially fast, affordable method of recruiting study participants for survey research.
The present study examined Facebook as a mechanism to reach and survey young adults about tobacco and other substance use.
Participants were cigarette users, age 18-25 years old, living throughout the United States and recruited through Facebook to complete a survey about tobacco and other substance use. Paid advertising using Facebook’s Ad program over 13 months from 2010 Feb 28 to 2011 Apr 4 targeted by age (18-25), location (United States or California), language (English), and tobacco- and/or marijuana-related keywords. Facebook approved all ads.
The campaign used 20 ads, which generated 28,683,151 impressions, yielding 14,808 clicks (0.7% of targeted Facebook members), at an overall cost of $6,628.24. The average cost per click on an ad was $0.45. The success of individual ads varied widely. There was a rise in both clicks and impressions as the campaign grew. However, the peak for clicks was 3 months before the peak for ad impressions. Of the 69,937,080 accounts for those age 18-25 in the United States, Facebook estimated that 2.8% (n = 1,980,240) were reached through tobacco and marijuana keywords. Our campaign yielded 5237 signed consents (35.4% of clicks), of which 3093 (59%) met criteria, and 1548 (50% of those who met criteria) completed the survey. The final cost per valid completed survey was $4.28. The majority of completed surveys came from whites (69%) and males (72%). The sample averaged 8.9 cigarettes per day (SD 7.5), 3.8 years of smoking (SD 2.9), with a median of 1 lifetime quit attempts; 48% did not intend to quit smoking in the next 6 months.
Despite wide variety in the success of individual ads and potential concerns about sample representativeness, Facebook was a useful, cost-effective recruitment source for young-adult smokers to complete a survey about the use of tobacco and other substances. The current findings support Facebook as a viable recruitment option for assessment of health behavior in young adults.
Studies of tobacco use and other health behaviors have reported great challenges in recruiting young adults [
Studies of Internet-based tobacco-cessation treatment have demonstrated high enrollment among general-aged adult participants through advertisements on Google or other search engines [
Social media is widely used by young adults in the United States. Nearly three quarters (72%) of online 18-29-year-olds use social-networking websites, with 45% doing so on a typical day [
The target population was young-adult cigarette users, age 18-25 years, living throughout the United States. Individuals had to be English literate and smoke at least one cigarette in the past 30 days to be eligible for participation.
To reach young adults who had smoked recently, we paid for advertising using Facebook’s Advertising (Ad) program over 13 months from 2010 Feb 28 to 2011 Apr 4. Our campaign involved creating advertisements that appeared on the pages of our target audience meeting the criteria of age (18-25), location (United States or California), language (English), and tobacco- and/or marijuana-related keywords that appeared in their Facebook profiles through listed interests, activities, education and job titles, pages they like, or groups to which they belong (eg, “cigarette,” “nicotine,” “blunt,” “420”). At the time of this campaign, this was the only way Facebook ad could be targeted (ie, there was no way to target keywords to other areas of the Facebook profile). Facebook had to approve all ads based on the company’s guidelines [
On a daily basis, we could specify a spending limit for each ad and for the entire campaign. We, like other advertisers, could then specify the maximum amount we would be willing to pay for an ad (a “bid”). Then auctions determined the likelihood a given ad would be shown on pages of the target audience. Selection criteria included bid (the amount an advertiser is willing to pay), quality of an ad (including feedback an ad has received from users), and past performance [
The Institutional Review Board approved study procedures, described in detail previously. Participants provided informed consent [
During the 13-month campaign, our ads made 28,683,151 impressions, yielding 14,808 clicks, at an overall cost of $6,628.24. The average cost per click on an ad was $0.45. Twenty different ads were run. Of those, 14 were targeted throughout the United States and 6 specifically to California; 7 asked participants if they “ever smoke,” 7 asked if they “ever smoked cigarettes,” and 6 asked if they “smoked recently;” 8 had a cartoon picture, including lit cigarettes (n = 3) and a cigarette pack (n = 5); and 12 had a realistic picture, including a lit cigarette (n = 3), a cigarette pack (n = 3), multiple cigarettes (n = 3), and a person smoking a cigarette (n = 3).
The success of individual ads varied widely.
Examples of two successful (1a), moderately successful (1b), and unsuccessful (1c) advertisements from the Facebook campaign based on ad statistics. Reported Facebook-suggested bids are from the last day of the campaign.
Total monthly impressions and clicks (left axis) compared to average monthly dollars spent (right axis) across the 13-month Facebook recruitment campaign.
Facebook ad campaign reach and recruitment process.
Demographic and smoking characteristics of young adults who completed the survey (N = 1548)
General characteristics | % or mean (SD) | |
|
||
Female | 30.6 | |
Male | 68.9 | |
Transgender | 0.5 | |
|
20.3 (2.0) | |
|
||
African-American/black | 2.5 | |
Asian/Pacific Islander | 3.6 | |
White | 71.7 | |
Hispanic/Latino | 6.1 | |
Other | 16.1 | |
|
||
Full-time | 28.7 | |
Part-time | 17.0 | |
Unemployed/homemaker | 24.0 | |
Student | 30.3 | |
|
13.0 (1.9) | |
|
||
Less than $20,000 | 25.3 | |
$21,000-$40,000 | 20.0 | |
$41,000-$60,000 | 14.8 | |
$61,000-$80,000 | 11.2 | |
$81,000-$100,000 | 9.4 | |
Over $100,000 | 19.4 | |
|
5.8 (1.9) | |
|
||
Northeast | 20.2 | |
Midwest | 26.9 | |
South | 27.1 | |
West | 25.8 | |
|
8.9 (7.5) | |
|
3.8 (2.9) | |
Prior quit attempts in lifetime, mean (SD) | 8.5 (26.6) | |
Quit attempts in past year: median (interquartile range) | 1.0 (3) | |
|
||
Precontemplation | 47.5 | |
Contemplation | 29.6 | |
Preparation | 22.9 | |
|
5.3 (3.0) | |
|
6.0 (2.9) | |
|
6.5 (2.8) |
Overall, Facebook was a successful recruitment source for young-adult smokers to complete a survey about tobacco and other substance use. At $4.28 per completed survey, this method proved much more affordable than other methods we used in previous survey research with this population, especially given the minimal staff time to design and monitor the campaign. In our prior work, the cost per completed survey was $42.77 for an Internet marketing company to place ads throughout the web and $19.24 for a survey sampling company to email survey announcements to young adults [
Facebook is a useful mechanism for recruiting young research participants in a field that has shown past challenges. Nearly half (48%) of those completing the survey were unmotivated to quit smoking within the next 6 months. Smokers unmotivated to quit may be particularly challenging to recruit into face-to-face research studies, further highlighting the value of online methods. The current findings indicate that Facebook, compared to other mechanisms, may be particularly effective at recruiting smokers unmotivated to quit in the near future as the proportion was higher than that in our prior research of online recruitment of young-adult smokers [
The campaign’s success was predicated upon Facebook’s approval of each advertisement. The advertising policy strictly forbids the sale of or reference to tobacco products as well as mention of illegal activity [
A limitation to recruitment through Facebook is that the representativeness of the sample cannot be fully determined. At the time of recruitment, Facebook reported the number of total Facebook accounts potentially targeted by any given set of demographic characteristics or keywords; however, there was no ability to compare this larger population to the eventual sample generated through an ad campaign. At the time the campaign was implemented, there was also no way to determine how many individuals within the population were exposed to at least one advertisement. It is possible that Facebook will choose to make this information available but it is at their discretion. The data that Facebook did provide for each ad (eg, impressions, clicks, costs) made it simple to continuously evaluate and optimize our campaign.
The research presented here used a cross-sectional survey design. There is limited knowledge about Facebook’s success at reaching and retaining young adults in longitudinal treatment-outcome studies or clinical trials. Given the high proportion of recruited smokers unmotivated to quit, tobacco-treatment models that do not require immediate cessation (eg, stage-tailored interventions, smoking reduction) may be particularly appropriate, although this should be confirmed. As a common method of communication for young people all over the world, social media represents a useful strategy that can be leveraged for research to find and engage potentially hard-to-reach populations.
This study was supported by an individual postdoctoral fellowship award from the California Tobacco-Related Diseases Research Program (18FT-0055; Danielle E. Ramo, principal investigator), and an institutional training grant (T32 DA007250; James L. Sorensen, principal investigator) and center grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (P50 DA09253; Joseph Guydish, principal investigator). The preparation of this manuscript was supported in part by a career development award from National Institute on Drug Abuse (K23 DA018691; Judith J. Prochaska, principal investigator), a research project grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH083684, Judith J. Prochaska, principal investigator), and a research award from the California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (#13-KT-0152). None of the funding bodies had any role in reviewing or approving the manuscript for publication. The authors thank Howard Liu for his work on the study and his help preparing figures for this manuscript.
None declared.