ArticleJournal of clinical and translational science2023
Cost-effectiveness of social media advertising as a recruitment tool: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Article in Journal of clinical and translational science, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Effective and cost-effective strategies for recruiting rural adults into a civic engagement and health behavior change research study.BMC public health · 2026Trial
- An evaluation of paid social media advertising and traditional advertising for addiction research recruitment.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Trial
- The Feasibility and Cost-Effectiveness of Tailored Social Media Advertising to Recruit Sexual and Gender Minority Adolescents in the Southern United States: Online Survey Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Social Media Influencer Marketing as a Clinical Trial Recruitment Modality: Tutorial Informed by One Study's Approach.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Enhancing Participation in Alzheimer's Research: A Comparative Study of Community Health Worker -Led and Digital Recruitment Strategies in Hispanic/Latino Communities.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- How Australia's social media minimum age law may reshape research recruitment for adolescents under 16.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2026Review
- Creating a Youth Sex Trafficking Prevention Curriculum Using CBPAR: Challenges, Successes, and Lessons Learned.Journal of child sexual abuse · 2026Article
- Leveraging social media to promote targeted advertisements and key messaging for optimal recruitment into clinical research.mHealth · 2026Article
- Feasibility of the Social Media-Based Prevention Program "Leduin" for German Adolescents on Instagram: Mixed Methods Pilot Study.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- Laypersons' esthetic assessment of teeth with de- or hypomineralization - a web-based survey.Acta odontologica Scandinavica · 2025Article
- Using media to enhance paediatric patient recruitment for research in primary care.Primary health care research & development · 2025Article
- The Ways of Using Social Media for Health Promotion Among Adolescents: Qualitative Interview and Focus Group Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Using Social Media to Engage and Enroll Underrepresented Populations: Longitudinal Digital Health Research.JMIR formative research · 2025Observational
- Improving recruitment and retention of people with Parkinson's disease to clinical studies: A scoping review.Journal of Parkinson's disease · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Recruitment of study participants is challenging and can incur significant costs. Social media advertising is a promising method for recruiting clinical studies and may improve cost efficiency by targeting populations likely to match a study's qualifications. Prior systematic reviews of social media as a recruitment tool have been favourable, however, there are no meta-analyses of its cost-effectiveness. Methods: Studies evaluating recruitment costs through social media and non-social media methods were identified on MEDLINE and EMBASE. Articles were screened through a two-step process in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Cost data were extracted from selected articles and meta-analyzed using the Mantel-Haenszel method. The primary outcome was the relative cost-effectiveness of social media compared to non-social media recruitment, defined as the odds ratio of recruiting a participant per US dollar spent. The secondary outcome was the cost-effectiveness of social media recruitment compared to other online recruitment methods only. Results: In total, 23 studies were included in the meta-analysis. The odds ratio of recruiting a participant through social media advertising compared to non-social media methods per dollar spent was 1.97 [95% CI 1.24-3.00, Conclusions: Social media advertising may be more cost-effective than other methods of recruitment, however, the magnitude of cost-effectiveness is highly variable between studies. There are limited data on newer social media platforms and on difficult-to-reach populations such as non-English speakers or older individuals.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.