Online advertising is fast becoming a popular way for agencies to generate public involvement
in transportation projects and plans.
Often linking directly to a project survey, website, or Facebook page, ads are an economical
way to boost participation in the transportation planning and project development process.The
options for placing online ads are continually evolving.
Agencies can choose from a wide array of social media ads and promoted posts, as well as internet
search ads and display ads that appear on websites and apps.The North Jersey Transportation
Planning Authority used targeted ads to increase public participation in the development of
their long-range plan.Our social media campaign for Plan 2045 outreach lasted approximately
six weeks.
During that time, we implemented a variety of different messages and the messages were
geo-targeted to different parts of the NJTPA region where we happened to be conducting
in-person outreach at the same time.
We gave people an option to participate virtually and in person.
We tried to use messaging and advertising on social media for Plan 2045 outreach in
a way that would relate to most of the people in the region.
They would find a personal connection.For example, one of the messages had an image
of a young child and then an older adult 30 years later so people could understand, think
about how things were 30 years ago and how they are today.
We want you to apply that same standard 30 years forward.More than 1.6 million people
our ads reached, which is a lot, so we got a lot of impressions and link clicks and shares
and likes and comments that we probably never would've gotten if we just asked standard
questions at a meeting.The robust response to the survey helped the NJTPA identify broadly
shared priorities for improving transportation in the region, which were incorporated into
the long-range plan.The Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization targets ads to locations
where they’d like to see more participation.For example, with our Complete Streets Master
Plan, we actually did some Facebook ads and that drove a lot of people not only to our
Facebook page, but it also drove them to the survey, which was a link that people could
access from that ad.
That way, we weren’t just talking to ourselves, we weren’t just talking to our current audience,
we were expanding that audience.That was pretty successful, we got over 1,000 surveys back
for that process.
We also did it organically with other platforms because we also use Twitter.
We also use LinkedIn, and we also use Instagram.As part of this effort, Broward MPO identified
three under-represented areas of the region for a geographically targeted ad campaign.
The MPO received a total of 378 survey responses from these areas where participation had been
low in the past.
The survey results informed the development of a prioritized list of Complete Streets
projects.Online ads can also be targeted to specific demographic groups.Say you're doing
a campaign that you're trying to reach out to college-age kids or say you're trying to
reach out to seniors, specifically.
You can zero in by age or gender, or anything like that.
Facebook ads gives you the capability to do something like that.During outreach for their
statewide plan, the Minnesota DOT used geo-targeted ads to reach various areas of the state, and
they did some demographic targeting.We were also able to target Spanish speakers through
their language preference in Facebook.
We were also able to target and increase our engagement with women.
We did ads that showed up in newsfeed.
There would be an image and usually a statement at the bottom.And we did a short demonstration
project, and whichever image got the most clicks, we would then use that image for the
full campaign.Online ads are often paired with traditional print, radio, or television
ads, and with other types of publicity.
While online ads can be one of the most cost-effective forms of public outreach, in planning an ad
campaign, it’s important to consider your goals, target audiences, and any regulations
that may apply.
In some circumstances, print newspaper ads may be required.