Picking the best participant source for research recruiting

During discovery, you’ll want to work with your project stakeholders to establish the list of requirements for your participants. Once you have this list, you’ll need to figure out how to find people that meet those requirements. These days, this tends to happen online, though offline recruiting is often still highly useful. Finding the right participant source can help save time and money over the course of the project, as well as ensure that you find the best possible participants for your research questions.

Below, I’ll discuss some of the online recruiting sources that I use most often, and the pros and cons of each.

Research Panels

There are a number of these out there, but the two I use most often are UserInterviews and Respondent.io, both of which work roughly the same way.

Pros

• Panel software manages everything in one place, including sourcing, screening, scheduling, and incentive payment.

• Relatively low learning curve, with helpful customer support.

Cons

• You’ll encounter and want to avoid “professional testers,” who make their living participating in research studies, and frequently put in minimal effort to earn the incentive.

• We’ve struggled to find highly niche audiences, as well as certain minority groups.

Social Media Posts

If individuals or organizations have strong enough social media followings, sometimes you can simply post a call for participants and generate a strong response that way.

Pros

• Free!

• Low effort.

Cons

• Requires a large following.

• Self-selecting audience may not be a truly random sample.

Paid Ads

We’ve posted targeted ads on Google, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Each has differing abilities to target, and choosing the right one will depend on who you’re trying to recruit.

Pros

• Recruit a more random sample of participants.

• Advanced targeting abilities.

• Works well for ongoing projects.

Cons

• A high learning curve; requires technical skills.

• Can require fine-tuning of targeting criteria, and may not be effective on short timelines.

LinkedIn InMail

LinkedIn allows for advanced searching of profiles for a number of criteria and messaging of individuals.

Pros

• Great for super targeted professional requirements that may elude panels.

• You are in control of who you reach out to.

Cons

• Can be a long and laborious process.

Online Forums and Message Boards

Targeted message boards, as well as forums like Reddit, can be a great online corollary to IRL recruiting sources like trade shows and meetups.

Pros

• Often free.

• The right source can be extremely fruitful.

Cons

• Often difficult to find the right source.

• Many sites prohibit solicitation posts.

Live Site Intercept

This places a popup on your website to ask visitors if they’re interested in participating in a study. The tool we use most often for this is Ethn.io.

Pros

• If you’re looking to recruit actual site visitors, this is the most direct way to do it.

Cons

• You’ll need someone to add a few lines of code to your site.

• Leadership is often not thrilled about popups that may annoy visitors or distract them from converting.

• Many people are in the habit of closing out popups without reading them, so the response rate is typically low.

Newsletters

If your company has a user newsletter, adding a quick blurb seeking participants is often a quick and easy way to find willing users.

Pros

• Free and easy.

• Finds actual users.

Cons

• Requires a large and engaged readership.

• Self-selects for the most passionate users, which may not be a random sample.

Craigslist

I view this as a last resort, but I’ve definitely found myself using it from time to time.

Pros

• There are tons of people willing to participate in any paid gigs.

• Generally low effort.

Cons

• High percentage of people willing to lie on a screener to try to be selected.

• High percentage of people willing to put in minimal effort to earn an incentive.

• Low targeting abilities.