Insights & Analysis

✨How can Instagram help you recruit research participants?

Looking for a large consumer base for recruitment? Instagram has you covered! Here are some techniques we learnt from our own recruitment process on this platform.

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Looking for a large consumer base for recruitment? Instagram has you covered! Here are some techniques we learnt from our own recruitment process on this platform.

When is the best time to recruit an Insta audience?

This depends on the type of audience you are looking for. While you can presume that weekends will almost always give you better impressions, your audience of interest might be active on Instagram even on weekdays. People working in social media marketing, for instance, might be going through Instagram daily to get an idea of upcoming trends. Influencers might be continuously uploading Instagram content to keep their social media active. 

In short, start with weekends and then test weekdays. 

Should I pay the participants? If so, how much?

A key metric of recruitment success is a lower cost of acquisition of a participant. A paid study will no doubt increase your CAC but it signals professionalism and respect for a participant’s time so you are likely to attract better quality participants when you include an incentive. In short, our advice is to budget for incentives. If you are unable to provide monetary benefits, suggest other possible forms of promotion that might suit your client, including company swag. 

What should my advertisement copy be?

To get responses for your study, you want to make sure you have a good advertisement copy to grab those eyeballs! While there is no perfect design, focus on keeping it minimalistic and to the point. Call out to your population of interest, and ensure you mention important features of your study such as duration, location and topic. If a monetary incentive is involved, be sure to highlight it. Most importantly, don't be afraid to change your copy once they stop getting impressions. Play around with various styles and formats, and see what gets you the best responses. 

Here are some examples of creatives that we, at Poocho, have run over the years for research participant recruitment on Instagram that have worked for us:

While Instagram does offer location, age and tag specifications, the ad algorithm is not always reliable and necessitates double-checking responses to see if they fit your sample criteria. However, with a large audience and an advertisement system that is easy to experiment with, Instagram provides a great starting point for recruiting participants for your research.

Cover photo by Prateek Katyal

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SPOTLIGHT
Insights from the most recent consumer transcript added to our database
Last question, which apps on your smartphone do you think you can’t live without?
In my life there are different priorities currently...usually my social media is very active , but since I am thinking about my career right now, I’ve turned off my notifications... I like Facebook, Instagram, and a bit of Whatsapp...for shopping I use Myntra, Flipkart, Amazon, Meesho...in games, there is a game called Beach war, and Pubg of course...I joined Facebook in 2012, but 2013 is when I started coming on more actively. Facebook has news feed...what is happening around us...those things, pages that tell you what all is happening...I look at those.
Can you take me through your schooling and college experience a little in-depth?
If I talk about my study schedule as to how I was, I was in another school till class 3 in a Hindi medium school (Adarsh Shiksha Niketan school), I was not at all into studying - wouldn’t study at all. Then, in 2006 my father enrolled me in an English medium school....there were exams in every term... I came first in all three terms. Everyone supported me a lot... my father, my teachers...because to change from a Hindi medium school to an English was a very hard thing to do. I really struggled...I did a lot of labour work, as i became a success...my confidence level rose as well. In 11th and 12th, there wasn’t an option for English medium school, so I had to enrol in a Hindi medium school, and took English coaching on the side, studied and gave my exam I got 66 percent  .  Then there was an option for B.Sc (Bachelors in Science), but I knew I wouldn’t understand much of it... so its better if I do BCA (Bachelors in Computer Applications). I did 3 years of college for BCA...I did a lot of coding which I really liked, so I came back and I did but there were some parts of coding which I didn’t want to do...so in the 2 years I realised that it wasn’t for me. After completing 2 years of it, I wanted to get into teaching which is why I did Diploma in education Elementary education. I decided that I don’t want to teach in a private school, I want to teach in a government college for unprivileged kids. Either I am able to do this or turn to having my own start-up.
What else do you get up to online?
I love watching web-series and movies, so when any new movie or web-series comes, I first read about the what the movie is based on then I watch the movie. For example , there is a movie or a web-series , I search the name on google and it shows the cast, the story...so I read the whole thing. Then I get to know and understand what the motto is to make the movie. If I like what I read only then I go and watch it. Also no matter how good the start is or the story , If I don’t vibe with it in the beginning...then I don’t vibe with the movie as a whole. ...have you always done this, or just with movies and web-series ? I have started doing this for 3 years and at first I would watch movies through the day, but then work would come to me out of the blue therefore there would be distractions... so my system is that If you ever watch a movie , watch it with full dedication and only then would you have fun. ...so after that do you download it, or do you watch it online on a platform?  I watch online if it is available... the rest I haven’t gotten the subscription. The thing is that I’m a student right now, can’t afford to spend, I have to save up. When you start earning only then I can think to spend... I don’t have the money right now , when i do have it then i will surely do it, when I earn well.
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