TY - JOUR
T1 - Null effects of social media ads on voter registration
T2 - Three digital field experiments
AU - Unan, Asli
AU - John, Peter
AU - Foos, Florian
AU - Cheng-Matsuno, Vanessa
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust and the UK Democracy Fund.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024/1/1
Y1 - 2024/1/1
N2 - Civic organisations and progressive campaigns regard digital advertising as an essential method to register to vote low-participation groups, such as ethnic minorities, young voters and frequent home movers like private-sector tenants. Digital strategies appear to be promising in countries like the UK, where the registration process can be completed online, usually in less than 5 minutes, using a web link in the advert. But are typical digital campaigns effective in registering voters? To find out, we provide evidence from three randomised controlled trials: two conducted with advocacy organisations and the third run by the research team, carried out in two types of UK elections (general and local) and assigned either at the aggregate (Study 1 and Study 2) or individual (Study 3) level. Despite wide reach and relatively high rates of engagement, we find that the digital ad campaigns trialed across three studies did not affect under-registered groups’ voter registrations. These null findings raise questions about commonly-used digital advertising strategies to register marginalised groups. They are consistent with other studies that report either null or minimal effects of digital ads on other types of political behaviour.
AB - Civic organisations and progressive campaigns regard digital advertising as an essential method to register to vote low-participation groups, such as ethnic minorities, young voters and frequent home movers like private-sector tenants. Digital strategies appear to be promising in countries like the UK, where the registration process can be completed online, usually in less than 5 minutes, using a web link in the advert. But are typical digital campaigns effective in registering voters? To find out, we provide evidence from three randomised controlled trials: two conducted with advocacy organisations and the third run by the research team, carried out in two types of UK elections (general and local) and assigned either at the aggregate (Study 1 and Study 2) or individual (Study 3) level. Despite wide reach and relatively high rates of engagement, we find that the digital ad campaigns trialed across three studies did not affect under-registered groups’ voter registrations. These null findings raise questions about commonly-used digital advertising strategies to register marginalised groups. They are consistent with other studies that report either null or minimal effects of digital ads on other types of political behaviour.
KW - digital ads
KW - elections
KW - social media
KW - voter registration
KW - youth mobilisation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85184205148&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/20531680231225316
DO - 10.1177/20531680231225316
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85184205148
SN - 2053-1680
VL - 11
JO - Research and Politics
JF - Research and Politics
IS - 1
ER -