Are your social media ads flopping? Still using a flyer to recruit youth for research studies? Learn the to-do's and to-don'ts of using social media to recruit youth for research studies and programs. We recruited over 2,500 young women into two national randomized controlled trials to test two sexual health digital tools. We will show you our process for selecting the appropriate social media format to reach youth, developing relevant materials that makes youth click, and monitoring the campaigns to assess their effectiveness. We will share examples of our own materials, graphics, messages, recruitment videos, and tag lines used to entice youth. See how some flopped and how others exceeded our expectations. We will also present concrete data on recruitment cost, relevance, clicks, and reach, and how to tweak your campaigns to stay within budget and be more effective.

2. DO
Forget about
staff time
DON’T
Pay attention to
hidden costs
DO

3. DO
Work in isolation
iDON’T
Involve the
target audience
DO

4. DO
Become
married to one
ad or concept
DON’T
Iterate, iterate,
iterate
DO

5. DO
Use logos or
portraits in
ad graphics
DON’T
Use polished
graphics
DO

6. DO
Use jargony,
lengthy
language
DON’T
Use clear,
concise
language
DO

7. DO
Leave users
hanging
DON’T
Pay attention
to UX
DO

8. DO
Assume platform
capabilities are
equal
DON’T
Select a platform
according to
your goal and
target audience
DO

9. DO
Assume targeting
capabilities are
prefect
DON’T
Frequently
monitor
recruitment
outcomes
DO

10. DO
Rely solely on
click-through
rates
DON’T
Use multiple
metrics to
determine
effectiveness
DO

11. Mila Garrido
Healthy Teen Network
mila@healthyteennetwork.org