In Australian Facebook ad experiments, messages styled to feel familiar to particular audiences drew more clicks than neutral versions—even when both versions linked to the same official information. The 2026 study offers evidence about attention, not proof that the approach changes minds or corrects false beliefs.
What the study tested
Researchers JooYoung Lee and co-authors asked a practical question: how can reliable information reach people who may not be looking for it? They observed Australian Facebook groups and pages associated with anti-vaccination and far-right narratives, collecting 8,986 posts and conducting months of online observation. From those patterns, they developed three fictional, context-specific audience personas and communication styles—not universal descriptions of people.
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The team then tested whether familiar styles could attract clicks to trustworthy information. In paired Facebook ad comparisons, the wording changed while the ads linked to the same Australian government or government-affiliated fact sheet. The sponsor, image, target, campaign objective, attribution setting and budget were held constant within each pair. That design focused the comparison on presentation rather than a different source of evidence.
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Researchers designed 15 pairs. Facebook cancelled two, and one additional run repeated an Aaron-targeted supplements comparison. The primary analysis therefore included 12 unique paired comparisons. Most campaigns used a modest AUD 100 lifetime budget and ran for one week. Ads ran from May 1 to September 30, 2023.
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What “copy its style” means in this study
The researchers drew on communication patterns they observed in the communities, then applied elements of those styles to messages pointing to official information. They did not use false claims as a model for the facts in the ads. Some original misinformation styles included inflammatory or misleading traits; the experiment tested familiar presentation of reliable material, not replication of those claims.
Intimacy: Jennifer
Jennifer represented a young mother anxious about her child’s vaccinations. The associated intimacy style was personal and emotionally open.
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Expert: Patrick
Patrick represented a retired schoolteacher concerned about his grandchildren and issues such as schooling and climate. The expert style was authoritative and explanatory.
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Aaron represented a young man interested in fitness, supplements and technology. The empowerment style was motivational and action-oriented.
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These are research tools for tailoring message presentation to observed concerns; they should not be treated as stereotypes or scripts for impersonating community members.
What the results show—and what they do not
The University of Technology Sydney’s October 6, 2026 summary reports that styled wording produced a higher click-through rate in 11 of 12 comparisons. The journal paper reports that styled versions had higher observed click-through rates across the comparisons, but one Aaron-targeted supplements comparison was not statistically significant after Bonferroni correction.
Two examples from the UTS summary show the size of differences in particular experiments: school-education ads were clicked 6% of the time with familiar language versus 1.1% with neutral wording; vaccination ads were clicked 0.98% versus 0.65%. These are results from those specific ad experiments, not rates to expect in future campaigns.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchClick-through rate is the percentage of ad viewers who clicked. It measures an action that can indicate attention, but it does not establish whether people understood the material, trusted it, retained it, changed an attitude, or read the linked page. The authors describe the result as higher engagement; here, “engagement” means ad clicks, not belief change. The peer-reviewed paper and the UTS summary report the study and its findings.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How far the findings can be applied
The evidence comes from Australian Facebook groups and ad campaigns run in 2023. It does not establish that the same results would occur in other countries, on other platforms, with different audiences, or under today’s ad-delivery systems. Facebook’s delivery optimization influenced who saw the ads.
The researchers also changed several wording features together, so the experiment cannot identify which specific feature caused the click-rate differences. And the non-significant supplements comparison is a reminder that a higher observed rate is not automatically a statistically reliable result.
What responsible communicators can take from it
The practical lesson is to learn what questions and concerns an audience actually raises, then test different ways of presenting the same accurate evidence. For example, a vaccination message can acknowledge parents’ questions and point to reliable vaccination information without exaggerating risks or pretending to be a fellow parent.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors- Keep the evidence stable: vary the presentation, not the underlying facts or the reliability of the destination.
- Listen before tailoring: base message choices on real questions and concerns, rather than assumptions about a group.
- Be transparent: do not impersonate community members or heighten fear to attract attention.
- Measure the right outcome: clicks can show whether a message earns attention; separate measures are needed to assess understanding or decision-making.
The authors propose follow-up work that would measure whether readers understand the information and feel better able to decide. Until such outcomes are tested, this study supports a narrower conclusion: in these particular experiments, familiar wording helped more people click through to reliable information.
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