Washington Division of Child Support Digital Marketing Grant
For its third and final intervention, Washington State Department of Social and Health Services’ Division of Child Support explored the use of streaming radio advertisements, through the iHeartRadio platform, to reach new clients and encourage enrollment in the program. Over 10 weeks, DCS ads were streamed to two distinct groups in 60 Washington zip codes:
- Zip codes in selected counties with a higher rate of single parents to custodial parents and a lower rate of participation in child support services.
- Zip codes categorized as perceived need compared with zip codes with higher child support usage rates.
DCS streaming ads offered multiple opportunities for engagement, including clickable banner ads and the creation of a vanity URL for listeners to type directly into their browser. The ads streamed to 488,865 impressions, with 857 clicks from mostly new visitors to the DCS webpage.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Streaming advertising on iHeartRadio, like advertisements on the other interventions’ platforms, is effective at generating responses from listeners.
- Visitors who typed in a vanity website address were more engaged, with more time spent, pages visited, and return visits to the DCS webpage.
- There are influences and differences among applicants from areas with different rates of existing participation in DCS services.
The documents below include:
- Final Evaluation Brief for the intervention.
- Style Guide used to develop the advertisements.
- Standard Operating Procedures for creating a streaming radio advertising campaign, including the steps DCS took to mitigate effects from the COVID-19 pandemic.
