Face(book)ing the truth: initial lessons learned using Facebook advertisements for the chatbot-delivered Elena+ Care for COVID-19 intervention

Utilizing social media platforms to recruit participants for digital health interventions is becoming increasingly popular due to its ability to directly track advertising spend, number of app downloads and other metrics transparently. The following paper concerns the initial tests completed on the Facebook Ad Manager platform for the chatbot-delivered digital health intervention Elena+ Care for COVID-19. Eleven advertisements were run in the UK and Ireland during August/September 2020, with resulting downloads, post (i.e. advert) reactions, post shares and other advertisement engagement metrics tracked. Key findings from our advertising campaigns highlight that: (i) static images with text function better than carousel of images, (ii) Android users download and exhibit greater engagement behaviors than iOS users, and (iii) middle-aged and older women have the highest number of downloads and the most engaged behaviors (i.e. reacting to posts, sharing posts etc.). Lessons learned are discussed considering how other designers of digital health interventions may benefit and learn from our results when trialing and running their own ad campaigns. It is hoped that such discussions will be beneficial to other health practitioners seeking to scale-up their digital health interventions widely and reach individuals in need.