This is a test version of Biostars. For the public version, visit https://www.biostars.org.
Forum: When are you usually on ResearchGate?

I would really appreciate some input from the community about a recent experience with ResearchGate advertising.

We ran a campaign for one of our bioinformatics workshops, targeting verified researchers matching our criteria. However, the entire campaign budget was spent between midnight and 7 am. Nothing was left for the rest of the day.

I contacted ResearchGate because this seemed very unusual. They explained that researchers work around the clock and that people online during these hours can be just as relevant as those active during the day.

Still, I would like to understand how other researchers see this:

  • Are you regularly active on ResearchGate between midnight and 7 am?
  • Are scientists who are online at 3 am the ideal target audience for courses?
  • When do you usually use ResearchGate?

I am not trying to criticize ResearchGate. I would simply like to know whether my expectation is unrealistic.

work research daytime
• 611 views • link
written by David Langenberger 1.1K

I think you should say what time zone you are referring to...?

• 0 views • link
written by dariober 1.5K

Good point. The campaign is only being run in countries in our time zone, which is why it doesn’t matter.

• 0 views • link
written by David Langenberger 1.1K

On second thought, you should ask for your money back. Unless they can provide you with a list of unique IP addresses for the ad views and implement standard robot protection.

• 0 views • link
written by Michael Dondrup 5.6K

As it’s only a test, I’ve factored in the possibility that I might lose the money. It’s not worth the stress to me. And I’ve learnt something from it, after all.

But what’s interesting is that they don’t offer payment per click, but only per ad displayed. That surprised me at first, but it makes a lot of sense now.

• 0 views • link
written by David Langenberger 1.1K

3 answers

The problem with the answer you received is that there is no way for you to independently verify it.

ResearchGate has an incentive to spend your advertising budget, while you have an incentive to have that budget spent to maximize your reach.

These incentives are not aligned, the information imbalance makes their explanation almost impossible to evaluate.

The next question, who is the target audience?

The authors employed an online survey approach to target scientists who have an active RG account. Scientists who were not users were also recruited in order to get a better idea of the reasons for their nonuse. Findings - Most academics who have an RG account did not use it very heavily. Users did not perceive many benefits from using the site,

Paper written in 2017

• 0 views • link
written by Istvan Albert 10K

Good point. That also fits very well with my own experience with RG. The current campaign is also intended more as a trial run to find out whether it makes sense to invest there.

RG has now set up time slots for me to get round the problem to some extent. But here’s what’s happening: the daily budget was used up within 20 minutes. The algorithm also seems a bit too eager to me. Which ties in with your point that RG naturally wants to maximise my expenditure and their income.

• 0 views • link
written by David Langenberger 1.1K

I'd second Istvan; in my opinion, RG is a "bragadoza" for some folks to compare their irrelevant ... scores as if they had any real-life meaning. I am there too :) I assume researchers only go there to register their publications and, at best, upon getting some notification about their weekly scores. Also, I am using uBo lite (and possibly everyone else who learns about web browsing), so I likely won't see your ads. </rant>

On topic, I suspect your budget may have been eaten by AI crawlers. I don't see the common CAPTCHA protection there, at least, and their signup process is easy to robotize.

• 0 views • link
written by Michael Dondrup 5.6K

AI agents that search for knowledge and member data there. That’s a very good point. That’s right. There are certainly plenty of them.

• 0 views • link
written by David Langenberger 1.1K

AI agents that search for knowledge and member data there.

I suspect mostly member data...

Isn't that ironic, once we thought we would have less tedious work to do because of AI. Now they even sucking up your ad budget, so an education provider cannot reach out to potential customers.

• 0 views • link
written by Michael Dondrup 5.6K

What will it be?

  • Vibe code a ResearchGate crawler, let it harvest email addresses, and then spam them yourself? "Dear Professor , hope all is well ..."
  • Instead, buy some leaked customer data on a darknet marketplace
  • Pay "professional" click workers
  • Buy some Google ads and sell "Revolutionary Air Coolers - German Design"?
• 0 views • link
written by Michael Dondrup 5.6K

haha. The only thing we spend money on is Google Ads. Around 45% of sign-ups come through that. 50% are referrals from former participants. Around 5% come via posts here, Seqanswers and LinkedIn.

Every now and then I try paid advertising on sites like LinkedIn, Reddit or, as is the case now, ResearchGate. But they’ve really yielded absolutely nothing so far. I reckon the target audience is simply too niche.

I won’t be sending any cold emails. To be honest, I find it too unpleasant. I don’t like them myself and I don’t read those emails. It was just a joke. ;)

• 0 views • link
written by David Langenberger 1.1K

Pretty much never. I couldn't even tell you what the landing page looks like. My only real use for it was early in my career to see when somebody cited one of my works, but now I consider those emails an annoyance as well.

I'd delete the account if I could be bothered to figure out my login details again.

• 0 views • link
written by jared.andrews07 1.9K

Log in to answer this question.

More posts like this