Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jun 4:9:20552076231178430.
doi: 10.1177/20552076231178430. eCollection 2023 Jan-Dec.

Evaluation of response to incentive recruitment strategies in a social media-based survey

Megumi Ichimiya  1 , Hope Muller-Tabanera  2 , Jennifer Cantrell  3 , Jeffrey B Bingenheimer  1 , Raquel Gerard  1 , Elizabeth C Hair  2   3   4 , Dante Donati  5 , Nandan Rao  6   7 , W Douglas Evans  1
Affiliations

Evaluation of response to incentive recruitment strategies in a social media-based survey

Megumi Ichimiya et al. Digit Health. .

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to examine varying incentives on acceptance to participate in an online survey on social media and to identify related demographic factors.

Methods: The study used Facebook and targeted its users aged 18 to 24 years in the United States. During recruitment, participants were randomized to one of the three types of incentives for survey completion, (1) a $5 gift card, (2) a lottery for a $200 gift card, and (3) a $5 gift card plus a lottery for a $200 gift card. Acceptance rates for survey participation were compared across three incentives using percentages, 95% logit-transformed confidence intervals, and Pearson's chi-squared tests. The survey asked about cognition and behaviors around smoking and vaping.

Results: The ads had 1,782,931 impressions, 1,104,139 reaches, and 11,878 clicks. The average ad frequency was 1.615, and the click-through rate was 0.67%. Males clicked less than females when seeing the ads. The acceptance rates for the three incentives were 63.7%, 37.2%, and 64.6%, respectively. A Chi-square test confirmed that the lottery-only group had a lower acceptance rate compared to those guaranteed an incentive, including the gift card group and the gift card and lottery group. Further analyses indicated that males did not opt into the survey as often as females when given the lottery-only incentive option, and those who did not meet their financial expenses opted into the survey more often than those who had more money than their expenses when given the lottery-only incentive option.

Conclusions: This study suggests that incentives guaranteed to all participants, even if the incentive's value is small, may lead to higher acceptance rates compared to a lottery for a greater incentive in social media-based surveys.

Keywords: Digital health; behavior change; digital media; eHealth; incentive; recruitment; smoking; social media; vaping.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flowchart of recruitment process.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Ad images.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Probability of survey participation by incentive option offered.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Survey participants’ gender.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Survey participants’ financial status.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alshaikh F, Ramzan F, Rawaf S, et al.Social network sites as a mode to collect health data: a systematic review. J Med Internet Res 2014; 16: e171. Epub ahead of print 2014. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Darko EM, Kleib M, Olson J. Social media use for research participant recruitment: integrative literature review. J Med Internet Res 2022; 24: e38015. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Frampton GK, Shepherd J, Pickett K, et al.Digital tools for the recruitment and retention of participants in randomised controlled trials: a systematic map. Trials 2020; 21: 478. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Reagan L, Nowlin SY, Birdsall SB, et al.Integrative review of recruitment of research participants through Facebook. Nurs Res 2019; 68: 423–432. - PubMed
    1. Thornton L, Batterham PJ, Fassnacht DB, et al.Recruiting for health, medical or psychosocial research using Facebook: systematic review. Internet Interv 2016; 4: 72–81. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources