Meta Platforms : Recruiting Volunteers with Facebook Ads

A grassroots network is paramount to campaigning.

Candidates running for office need volunteers to make contact with potential voters and spread the word of a candidate's good work. If you're an advocacy group, your grassroots base is often responsible for much of the day-to-day work supporting your cause.

Advertising could help you grow your support systems quickly, at scale and without losing the passion and integrity of your network needed to win.

Advertising Objective Considerations

You might consider two of the 11 available advertising objectives when running Facebook or Instagram ads to recruit grassroots volunteers.

Lead Generation: The lead generation objective allows you to run lead ads on Facebook and Instagram. Lead ads provide one of the best ways to recruit supporters and learn more about them. Supporters can simply tap your ad and a form pops up - it's already pre-populated with their Facebook contact information and ready to be sent directly to you. With just a few taps, they can get the information they want, and you generate a qualified lead for your campaign.

Consider our best practices for creating a lead ad and be sure to be mindful of our lead ads policy for political affiliation.

Conversions: The conversions objective helps you drive valuable actions on your website or app. If you have a volunteer or registration form on your website, you may consider using the conversions objective.

When potential volunteers click on your ad, they land on your website to complete a form. Once they sign up, you'll be able to contact them for further action or have them sign up for volunteer opportunities with your campaign or organization.

You can take Meta's Blueprint course on conversions, "Closing the Deal with Conversions", to become a conversion objective expert.

Note: For conversions objective campaigns, you will need theMeta pixel placed on your website to track and measure your results.

Creative Considerations

We encourage thumb-stopping content that is geared toward your audience on mobile devices. Use messages that will connect your campaign to the people you're targeting. Your pitch doesn't always have to come from the candidate. Consider asking an existing volunteer to record a video inviting others to join them in their advocacy efforts.

Review our creative best practices and consider running different types of ads to see what works best for your target audience of potential volunteers:

• Mobile-optimized content
• Build square or vertical images or videos
• Design for sound-off viewing with text overlay
• Shorter videos at 15 seconds or less
• Consider using immersive formats, like Stories ads and Instant Experiences

Facebook's advertising solutions could help you grow your volunteer base or grassroots network. If you have questions about running recruitment ads or other types of ads on Facebook or Instagram, check out our advertising resources, or reach out to our team.