How Important is the Visual?Differences in Click-through Rates for Social MediaAds Using Various Visuals

AAPOR Conference 2015

Ashley Schaad, ICF InternationalRikki Welch, ICF International

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Project Background

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Project Overview

Houston Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Initiative (RCPI)

Objective:– Identify the gaps in community preparedness– Develop a comprehensive preparedness picture of the 13-county Houston-Galveston

Area Council region, and– Construct a plan to help address those gaps

Research Tasks:– Literature review– Interviews with emergency managers– Interviews with leaders of community-based organizations– Focus groups with members of the target population segments

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Target Populations

Individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing

Individuals who are blind or have low vision

Individuals with ambulatory difficulties

Individuals with transportation difficulties

Seniors (ages 65 and older, living independently)

Caregivers for seniors (family caregivers or paid caregivers)

Caregivers for individuals with cognitive impairments (family caregivers or paidcaregivers)

Monolingual Spanish speakers

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Experiment Design

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Facebook Advertising for Focus Group Recruitment

Ads directed potential participants to the screener webpage

6-7 week recruitment period

Targeted by:– Location– Age– Ethnicity– Language– Interests

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Methods

10 ad groups (5 English, 5 Spanish)– Caregivers for seniors / cognitively impaired– Deaf / hard of hearing– Blind / low vision– Seniors– Ambulatory / transportation difficulty

3-4 ads per group– Same text– Different visuals

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• English-speaking caregivers• Spanish-speaking caregivers• Spanish seniors• English speakers with ambulatory /

transportation difficulties• Spanish speakers with ambulatory /

transportation difficulties

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English

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Spanish

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Results

Unique click-thru rate:

# of unique clicks on the ad

# of times the ad appeared

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1.7%1.5%

1.4%1.2%

2.4%

1.6%

2.5%

2.3%

0%

1%

2%

3% English Spanish

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State Flag Dollar Sign Hurricane DemographicPhoto

English caregivers XSpanish caregivers –cognitively impaired X

Spanish caregivers – seniors X

English ambulatory /transportation X

Spanish ambulatory /transportation X

Deaf / hard of hearing XEnglish blind / low vision XSpanish blind / low vision X

English seniors XSpanish seniors X

Top Performers

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2.6%

2.8%

3.1%

3.3%

0% 1% 2% 3% 4%

English Caregivers

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2.5%

2.9%

2.9%

3.2%

0% 1% 2% 3% 4%

Spanish Caregivers for Individuals with Cognitive Impairments

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1.4%

2.6%

2.9%

3.1%

0% 1% 2% 3% 4%

Spanish Caregivers for Seniors

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0.5%

1.0%

1.0%

1.7%

0% 1% 2% 3% 4%

English Ambulatory / Transportation Difficulties

Statistically SignificantX2 = 11.11, df = 3, N =

10,270, p = .01

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2.7%

2.7%

2.8%

2.9%

0% 1% 2% 3% 4%

Spanish Ambulatory / Transportation Difficulties

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2.3%

2.4%

2.5%

0% 1% 2% 3% 4%

Deaf / Hard of Hearing

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1.9%

2.0%

2.5%

0% 1% 2% 3% 4%

English Blind / Low Vision

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0.6%

0.7%

2.8%

0% 1% 2% 3% 4%

Spanish Blind / Low Vision

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0.0%

0.7%

1.6%

0% 1% 2% 3% 4%

English Seniors

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0.6%

1.4%

2.8%

3.2%

0% 1% 2% 3% 4%

Spanish Seniors

Statistically SignificantX2 = 37.72, df = 3, N =

4,512, p < .001

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Discussion

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Conclusions

Different audiences respond differently to Facebook ads– Spanish speakers were more likely to click on the ads than English speakers

Different audiences respond differently to different visuals– No clear cut most effective image for all, or even most, audiences– People with different cultural and personal backgrounds are motivated by different

factors

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Recommendations

Do your research– Spend time researching the target audience to know what is important to them– Allow enough time for recruitment to experiment with different visuals

Take advantage of the built-in features of Facebook advertising– Facebook will:

• Allow you to use multiple images at no additional cost• Automatically optimize the images with the best responses• Provide real-time data to judge the effectiveness of each ad campaign

Ashley SchaadICF International

ashley.schaad@icfi.com910-436-1853