A statewide collaborative’s grant-funded Facebook ad campaign to explain the importance of local news generated nearly 400,000 impressions with targeted audiences, according to a new analysis of the news literacy campaign.
In August 2024, the nonprofit Oklahoma Media Center released a “Schoolhouse Rock!”-inspired animated video with an original song designed to bolster trust and support for local newsrooms.
After commissioning the creation of Mike Hosty’s “Free Press Isn’t Free” song, the nonpartisan 501(c)(3) provided 18 local newsrooms stipends to execute paid social media ads. The messaging was based upon 2023 research that showed 77 percent of surveyed Oklahomans cited Facebook as their main source of local news and information among social media platforms.
The OMC-funded Meta ads started in the fall of 2024 and ended prior to Facebook canceling its third party fact-checking program in 2025.
Rob Collins, OMC executive director, said the data-driven campaign targeted people in demographics within specific geographic locations. Newsrooms spent an average of $350 for each Meta ad campaign featuring the 60-second animated song to demonstrate the significance of subscribing, advertising and/or donating to their newsrooms.
“A lot of newsrooms have never done paid Meta campaigns, but we knew we were reaching people not engaging with local news,” Collins said. “That was what we hoped to accomplish. The main point of this literacy campaign was to reach audiences where they are.”
The individual ads were relatively low investment for the amount of audience engagement. The cost per ad for public radio stations ranged from 42 cents at KGOU to 4 cents at KOSU and 2 cents for Griffin Media, the owner of CBS affiliates in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
Other key findings from the campaign analysis included:
- The ads reached 473,281 Facebook users and made 388,633 impressions.
- The 55-plus age demographic accounted for more than 60 percent of nearly every outlet’s ads.
- The under-35 demographic accounted for less than 15 percent of viewers.
Digging more into demographic data provided by newsrooms, audiences for Griffin and the Sequoyah County Times newspaper skewed more female. Griffin reported a 75-25 percent split and Sequoyah County Times a slightly more modest 74-26 percent.
In contrast, more even gender breakdowns were reported by other outlets. KGOU showed 56-42 percent with more women, The Lawton Constitution newspaper’s campaign skewed 1 percent toward men, while KGOU showed an exact 50-50 split between male and female.
KGOU, Griffin and Lawton also showed a notable trend in click-through rates, with Griffin reporting 6.6 percent, Lawton 4.1 percent and KGOU achieving 3.2 percent of people actually clicking on and viewing the ads.
“With a variety of new, low-cost advertising strategies, these outlets reengaged their local audiences in a conversation about the importance of having accurate local information as an essential means for taking part in civic life,” said OMC Program Coordinator Zach McGrew.
OMC’s local news literacy project was funded by the Oklahoma City-based Kirkpatrick Foundation.
Several news outlets discussed lessons learned from their campaigns with the collaborative. Violet Hassler, the Enid News & Eagle’s digital communications coordinator, said she focused on pointing out facts, realizing some followers don’t always agree with their publication. Enid also created a web page with the video embedded with information about the local newspaper, emphasizing its importance to the community and other interesting info they will continue to add in the future.
As Meta tightened up its advertising rules a great deal during the last week or two before the 2024 presidential election, several publications ran into technical issues. When KGOU tried to run the cartoon with copy featuring the word “democracy,” Membership Director Cate Howell said the ad was flagged and the radio station had to change the verbiage before it could run.
Howell noted a certain amount of negative comments, but she said the video received good reach overall.
Responding to The Norman Transcript’s campaign, reader Becca Bean expressed gratitude.
“We deeply value the role The Norman Transcript plays in our community,” Bean commented on the Meta ad. “Local newspapers are vital to our democracy.”