{"doi":"10.1017/cts.2025.61","title":"Domain-specific participant recruitment exceeds the application of “Targeted” advertisement from common online advertising platforms","abstract":"Abstract Introduction: Insufficient sample sizes threatened the fidelity of the primary research trials. Even if the research group recruits a sufficient sample size, the sample may lack diversity, reducing the generalizability of the results of the study. Evaluating the effectiveness of online advertising platforms (e.g., Facebook & Google Ads) versus traditional recruitment methods (e.g., flyers, clinical participation) is essential. Methods: Patients were recruited through email, electronic direct message, paper advertisements, and word-of-mouth advertisement (traditional) or through Google Ads and Facebook Ads (advertising) for a longitudinal study on monitoring COVID-19 using wearable devices. Participants were asked to wear a smart watch-like wearable device for ∼ 24 hours per day and complete daily surveys. Results: The initiation conversion rate (ICR, impressions to pre-screen ratio) was better for traditional recruitment (24.14) than for Google Ads, 28.47 ([0.80, 0.88]; p << 0.001). The consent conversion rate (CCR, impressions to consent ratio) was also higher for traditional recruitment (66.54) than for Google Ads, 2961.20 ([0.015, 0.030]; p << 0.001). Participants recruited through recommendations or by paper flier were more likely to participate initially (Χ 2 = 23.65; p < 0.005). Clinical recruitment led to more self-reporting white participants, while other methods yielded great diversity (Χ 2 = 231.47; p << 0.001). Conclusions: While Google Ads target users based on keywords, they do not necessarily improve participation. However, our findings are based on a single study with specific recruitment strategies and participant demographics. Further research is needed to assess the generalizability of these findings across different study designs and populations.","journal":"Journal of Clinical and Translational Science","year":2025,"id":564102,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9549,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1467545,"name":"Kyle Webster","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1467546,"name":"Siobhan Efionayi","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":584382,"name":"Timothy Engelman","orcid":"0000-0002-1682-9425","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":30816,"name":"W. H. Wilson Tang","orcid":"0000-0002-8335-735X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":965107,"name":"Ping Li","orcid":"0000-0001-9810-3312","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":536735,"name":"Joseph Powell","orcid":"0000-0002-0798-2196","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":2,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:56:20.933088Z","pmid":"40599175","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}