Guide on Using Meta Ads to Recruit Research Participants

If you’ve ever tried recruiting participants for a research study, you know the familiar cycle: posting flyers in community centers, sending emails to listservs, asking clinicians to hand out information sheets. These methods have their place, but they’re slow, and they tend to reach people who are already connected to institutions. That’s a real limitation when your study population includes people who aren’t plugged into clinical settings, community organizations, or university networks.

Meta Ads – the advertising platform behind Facebook and Instagram – offers a way to reach people outside of those existing networks. Facebook has over 3 billion monthly active users, and Instagram has about 2 billion. For researchers studying hard-to-reach populations that are geographically dispersed, paid social media advertising can extend recruitment beyond whoever happens to walk through a clinic door or attend a community event.

This guide walks through the process: setting up accounts, targeting your population (including language preferences), configuring payments, and working within IRB. I introduce Meta Ad only here, but there are other social media channels that might fit better for your reserach populations. You can see this resource on social media recruitment best practices by UFL: https://www.ctsi.ufl.edu/wordpress/files/2025/03/3-2025-Social-Media-Best-Practices.pdf

Why Meta Ads for Research Recruitment?

Traditional recruitment works through existing channels: clinic patient lists, community organization memberships, word-of-mouth referrals. These methods are valuable, but they have a built-in selection problem. Traditional methods typically target specific recruitment sites in the community, and this can result in selection bias that limits the generalizability of findings (Salia et al., 2022). People who are connected to institutions are more likely to be recruited, while people who aren’t – those without a regular provider, those who are socially isolated, those who don’t attend community group meetings – are systematically missed. Research on clinical trial participation has found that those who enroll tend to be older and have at least a college-level education, suggesting that current recruitment strategies may be skewed toward people who are higher on the socioeconomic ladder (Baquet et al., 2006).

This matters for social work research. Consider a study on postpartum depression among recently arrived refugee women. Clinic-based recruitment only reaches women who have established prenatal or postnatal care – but refugee women often face delays in accessing healthcare due to language barriers, unfamiliarity with the system, and lack of insurance (Fete et al., 2019). The women experiencing the greatest barriers are the ones least likely to be in the recruitment pool. Or consider research on substance use among young Latino men. Snowball sampling through community organizations reaches people within those social networks, but misses those who are not connected to any organization – a pattern documented in recruitment research with immigrant populations (Bonevski et al., 2014; UyBico et al., 2007). Community-based recruitment can inadvertently reproduce the same sampling bias it’s trying to avoid, because the people hardest to reach through institutional channels are often the ones whose experiences matter most for the research question.

Social media advertising doesn’t solve this problem entirely. There are population lacks internet access due to financial constraints or personal choice, and these individuals would be excluded from any social media-based recruitment (Salia et al., 2022). Social media users also tend to skew younger and are not representative of the general population, which can limit the generalizability of study results (Hokke et al., 2018). But social media advertising adds a different channel that reaches people based on their demographics and online behavior rather than their institutional affiliations. The research literature documents several practical advantages of this approach (Ashfield et al., 2024; Ramo & Prochaska, 2012):

1. Geographic reach. You can recruit participants who live far from your research site. Social media provides access to individuals who are geographically distant from the researcher and who may otherwise not be aware of research opportunities (Ashfield et al., 2024). For studies of dispersed populations – say, Vietnamese-speaking parents across the rural Midwest – this matters.
2. Demographic targeting. Meta’s tools let you define audiences by age, location, language, and interests. The targeting is imperfect (more on this below), but it’s more precise than a flyer in a waiting room.
3. Cost efficiency. In a study comparing online and offline recruitment methods, Christensen et al. (2017) found that social media ads were more efficient and had a lower average cost per recruited participant compared to offline methods like press releases, posters, and flyers (Benedict et al., 2019). The variation depends heavily on how specific your target population is and how competitive the advertising market is in your area.
4. Iterative testing. You can run multiple ad versions simultaneously, and Meta’s algorithm will identify which versions perform best. Unlike a printed flyer, you get data on what’s working and can adjust.

That said, social media recruitment has its own biases. It skews toward people who use these platforms regularly, which varies by age, socioeconomic status, and digital access (Benedict et al., 2019). Different social media recruitment strategies can influence the demographics and accrual of participants, so ongoing evaluation and comparison to the broader target population is necessary. It’s a supplement to other methods, not a replacement for them.

Before You Start: IRB Considerations

Your IRB needs to approve your social media recruitment plan before you run any ads. This affects the timeline and the materials you prepare.

When preparing your IRB submission, you’ll need to provide:

1. A description of your social media recruitment method. Explain that you’ll use online advertising through Meta (Facebook/Instagram), what the ads will contain, and how clicking the ad leads to study enrollment. Sample language that IRBs have approved: “Online advertising will be used to recruit potential participants. Advertisements will be targeted based on study eligibility criteria (e.g., age, location, language). Advertisements may appear as banners, text, or URL links for users to click on. By clicking on an advertisement, the user will be directed to our online screening questionnaire.”
2. Your ad content. Submit a comprehensive list of text and image options. Platforms sometimes reject ads, and having IRB-approved alternatives saves you from filing amendments mid-campaign. If you plan to use Meta’s “dynamic ads” feature (which automatically mixes and matches headlines, body text, and images to find the best combination), you can submit all dynamic content in one document for IRB review.
3. Character length matters. Facebook’s ad text has specific length limits (primary text around 125 characters recommended, headline 25 characters, link description 30 characters). Draft your materials with these constraints in mind.
4. Avoid language that “asserts or implies personal attributes.” Meta’s advertising policies prohibit content that directly references race, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, mental health conditions, or financial status. You can’t run an ad that says “Are you diabetic?” but you can say “This study is for people managing diabetes.” The distinction matters both for IRB approval and for getting your ad past Meta’s review system.

Setting Up Your Meta Business Account

To run ads, you need a Meta Business Account and an Ad Account within it. Please watch this video on creating a facebook Ad for research.

How to Create a Facebook Advertisement for Research

Watch this video on YouTube.

For more recent updates, you can also watch this tutorial (not specific to research, though):

The ONLY Meta Ads Targeting Tutorial You Need in 2026

Watch this video on YouTube.

Step 1: Create a Meta Business Account

Go to business.facebook.com and click “Create account.” You’ll log in with a personal Facebook account. Meta requires this to verify you’re a real person, but the personal account you use doesn’t have to be your “work” account; it just needs to be legitimately yours.

Enter your business details: your organization’s name (likely your university or research center), your work email, and basic contact information.

Step 2: Create an Ad Account

Once your Business Account exists, navigate to Business Settings > Accounts > Ad Accounts in the sidebar. Click “Add” and select “Create a new ad account.”

Pay attention to two fields when setting up:

1. Currency: Choose the currency your institution uses for payments. You cannot change this later without creating an entirely new account.
2. Time zone: Select your local time zone. This affects when your ads run and how reporting timestamps appear.

Step 2: Configuring Audience Targeting

The “Audience” section of Meta Ads Manager is where you define who sees your ads. The controls are organized at the “ad set” level, under “Audience Controls.”

(1) Location Targeting. You can target by country, state, city, postal code, or radius around a specific address.

• One constraint: Meta’s “Special Ad Categories” rules (designed to prevent discrimination in housing and employment advertising) require a minimum targeting radius of 15 km for certain categories. Health research ads usually don’t fall under these restrictions, but if your ads get flagged, you may need to broaden your geographic targeting.
• Be aware that if you’re in a small or mid-size market, your total reachable audience may be limited. This affects how quickly ads saturate (i.e., the same people see your ad repeatedly) and how much useful testing you can do.

(2) Age and Gender. You can specify age ranges and gender. For research studies, set these to match your eligibility criteria. If your study enrolls adults 18 and older, set the minimum age to 18.

One practical note from the Cody Gardner (UR CTSI Study Subject Recruitment & Retention Leader): a study recruiting participants ages 55+ initially received more interest from women than men. The team addressed this by creating a separate ad set targeting men only, which balanced the gender disparity but increased costs. Monitoring demographic breakdowns early and adjusting ad sets accordingly can help you meet enrollment targets across subgroups.

(3) Language Targeting. Under “Audience Controls,” you can specify languages. By default, this is set to “All Languages,” but you can select specific languages like Korean, Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin, or Tagalog.

• An important caveat: Meta determines language based on the language settings users have chosen for their Facebook or Instagram interface, not their actual language abilities. Someone who is bilingual but uses Facebook in English won’t be reached by an ad targeted only at Korean-language users. Consider whether you want to:
  • Target Korean-language users only (more precise, but misses bilingual users with English interface settings)
  • Target all users in your geographic area and use Korean-language ad creative (broader reach, but may show to non-Korean speakers)
  • Run parallel campaigns in both languages

There’s no single right answer. It depends on your study’s language requirements and your budget for running multiple campaigns.

(4) Interest and Behavior Targeting. Meta maintains detailed audience categories based on user activity: pages liked, content engaged with, device usage, and more. You can target people interested in “parenting,” “diabetes management,” “immigration services,” “Korean culture,” and thousands of other topics.

Be thoughtful about how narrowly you target. Meta’s algorithm works better with larger audiences. If you over-specify, your ads may not reach enough people to exit the “learning phase” (Meta’s initial optimization period), resulting in higher costs and inconsistent delivery. A reasonable starting approach: use demographic targeting (age, location, language) and let the algorithm find people likely to respond. Add interest-based targeting only if you’re not reaching the right population.

(5) Lookalike Audiences. If you’ve already recruited some participants or run ads for a while, you can create a “Lookalike Audience” of people with similar characteristics. One approach that doesn’t require a tracking pixel: if you’re running video ads, you can build a lookalike audience based on users who watched at least 95% of your video. The UR CTSI tested this with a veteran sleep study and found that using a lookalike audience reduced the number of completed screens by 50% (131 vs. 282) while actually increasing the number of eligible participants (82 vs. 67) – in other words, less screening time spent on people who didn’t qualify (See Cody Gardner’s slides).

Step 3: Payment Setup

You’ll need to add a payment method before your ads can run.

Payment Methods: Meta Ads accepts credit and debit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover), PayPal, and bank transfers/direct debit (availability varies by country).

University Payment Considerations: Many universities don’t allow grant funds to be charged directly to personal credit cards, and processing reimbursements for advertising expenses can be complicated. Options to explore:

• Institutional credit card or P-Card. If your department has a purchasing card, add it as the payment method in your Meta Ad Account. This is often the simplest path.
• University centralized services. Some institutions (e.g., UCSF) will run ads on your behalf and charge costs directly to your grant account or speedtype. This removes the payment logistics from your end.
• Monthly invoicing. For accounts with significant ad spend and a Meta account manager, you can request monthly invoicing rather than threshold-based credit card charges. This option is typically available only for larger advertisers.

Setting Up Payment: In Meta Ads Manager, navigate to Billing & Payments (gear icon > Payment Settings). Click Add Payment Method, select your country, currency, and payment type, enter your card or account details, and save.

Billing Thresholds: Meta charges when you hit a “billing threshold” (starting around $25-$100) or at the end of each month, whichever comes first. As you build payment history, the threshold increases. Early on, expect many small charges. Over time, these consolidate into fewer larger charges. Keep copies of all invoices (available in Billing & Payments > Transaction History) for grant reporting.

Cost Expectations. Cost per enrollment varies widely across research studies. Some reported figures from campaigns run through the UR CTSI (See Cody Gardner’s slides):

• Long-COVID study: approximately $17 per enrolled participant
• Older adult cognitive study (ages 55+): approximately $4 per enrolled participant
• Parkinson’s disease study: approximately $330 per enrolled participant
• Foot pain from diabetes (PDPN) study: approximately $1,200 per enrolled participant

The variation reflects how specific the target population is, how much competition there is for that audience in the ad market, and how many people pass screening. Broad populations (e.g., adults over 55) cost less to reach than narrow clinical populations.

Step 4: Monitoring and Optimization

Once your ads are running, there are two categories of metrics to track.

Metrics available in Meta Ads Manager include reach (unique people who saw your ad), impressions (total ad displays), link clicks, click-through rate (CTR), and cost per click (CPC). These tell you how your ads are performing within Meta’s platform.

Downstream metrics that you need to track yourself include cost per sign-up and cost per enrolled participant. These are the numbers that actually matter for your study, and Meta can’t calculate them for you. Your research team needs to track how many people complete screening, how many are eligible, and how many actually enroll.

This distinction matters because problems show up at different points. If your CTR is low, the issue is probably your ad creative or targeting. But if you’re getting plenty of clicks with few completed screenings, the problem is likely your landing page – maybe it’s loading slowly, doesn’t look trustworthy, or requires too much effort to complete.

Check metrics at least weekly. Pause underperforming ad variations and let the better ones run. If your entire campaign is underperforming, revisit your targeting or creative.

Common Issues

Ad rejected by Meta. Review Meta’s advertising policies. Common triggers: personal attribute language, references to health conditions in prohibited ways, or images Meta considers inappropriate. You can appeal, but revising and resubmitting is often faster.

Low reach despite adequate budget. Your audience may be too narrow, or your ad creative may have low engagement scores. Broaden targeting or test new creative.

High clicks but low survey completions. The problem is likely downstream – your landing page, survey length, or a mismatch between who the ad reaches and who qualifies. Check that there’s continuity between what the ad promises and what the landing page delivers.

Saturation. In small or mid-size markets, your ads will reach most eligible people within a few weeks. After that, performance declines because you’re showing ads to the same people repeatedly. Plan for shorter, intensive campaigns rather than low-budget continuous advertising.

Account restricted. Meta sometimes restricts accounts for policy violations. Contact Meta support through the Business Help Center and document your situation. Institutional backing helps in appeals.

Resources

Meta Business Help Center: https://www.facebook.com/business/help

Meta Ads Manager: https://business.facebook.com/adsmanager

UCSF CTSI Social Media Recruitment Guide: https://recruit.ucsf.edu/social-media-recruitment

Guidelines for Using Social Media to Recruit Research Participants: https://research.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/socialmedia.pdf

Cody Gardner “Optimizing Meta Ads To Recruit More Participants”: https://trialinnovationnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Optimizing_Meta_Ads_TIN.pdf

Recruitment & Retention Resource Library: https://ictr.wisc.edu/recruitment-retention-resource-library/

Social Media Outreach & Recruitment toolkit: https://trialinnovationnetwork.org/material-details/?ID=205