Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research
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University of Nebraska Medical Center
Home — Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research — Research Resources — Clinical Research — Clinical Research Recruitment — Social Media

Social Media

Paid Ads on Facebook and/or Instagram

Paying for an ad on Facebook/Instagram is a great way to reach a younger target demographic quickly. This works well for surveys and when linking to a study landing page. 

You can post your ads on department social media accounts, but primary UNMC social media accounts give the option for boosted content. This means you pay an amount of your choice to Meta (Facebook and/or Instagram), select the demographics you want the ad to be shown to, and Facebook will promote your ad to the selected audience.

Here are the steps if you want a boosted (paid) ad on social media:

  1. Fill out the Clinical Study Facebook request form.
  2. The ad will be designed and mocked up by the Vice Chancellor for Research's Recruitment Team.
  3. When you receive the mockup, you can provide feedback or edits to the image. 
  4. When you're satisfied with the ad mockup, submit it to the Internal Review Board as a Request for Change. 
  5. Once approved, let the Vice Chancellor for Research's Recruitment Team know, they'll send it to Strategic Communications to be posted. 
  6. Strategic Communications will contact you to receive the demographic information, how much you want to boost the post with, and a cost center number.

*Expect to invest a minimum of $250.

Having a photo chosen ahead of time will make the process of completing your Facebook ad go quicker. See below for how to access images. 

Review the IRB guidelines for digital advertisements.

Facebook/Instagram has certain restrictions for wording in advertisements. Take a look at their transparency guidelines.

Are you compensating participants? Please review the compensation language document for Internal Review Board approved phrases for recruitment materials here. Compensation Language PDF

Photos

Having an image or graphic is mandatory for social media ads. The most important thing to remember is that you cannot take a random image off of the internet and use it in your ad or recruitment materials. You must have the rights to use the photo. To find an image you have the rights to, you can use a UNMC photo, pay for an image or find a free photo from one of the sites listed below.

There are a few different options if you do not have a department photo. One option is to look at royalty free images and select a photo from a site. A few places to look are:

If you can’t find what you need on a free website, there are sites where you can pay to have access to a photo. Some examples of these are istock.com, adobestock.com (paid section) and shutterstock.com.