Reaching every resident — not just the ones who attend meetings
Council Clearsight uses targeted social media advertising to reach a representative sample of your community — including younger residents, renters, and families who rarely engage with traditional council consultations. Every campaign is transparent, independently verified, and designed to produce results that can withstand public scrutiny.
Why social media advertising?
Traditional council consultations — public meetings, paper surveys, and email newsletters — systematically under-represent younger residents, renters, and working families. Research by the Local Government Association (2022) found that the average attendee at a parish council meeting is 58 years old, white, and a homeowner. This is not a representative picture of most communities.
Reach the under-represented
Targeted social media campaigns reach residents aged 18–45, renters, and non-English speakers who are systematically absent from traditional consultations.
Higher response rates
Mobile-optimised surveys delivered through social media achieve 3–5× higher response rates than email or paper surveys for the same population.
Demographically weighted results
Responses are weighted to match the ONS Census 2021 demographic profile of the council area, ensuring no age group or tenure type distorts the results.
Our platform strategy
No single platform reaches all residents. Council Clearsight runs simultaneous campaigns across multiple platforms to ensure broad, representative coverage. Each platform is used for its specific demographic strengths.
Source: Meta advertising data via Herd Digital, 2024
Why we use it
Highest reach among 35–65 age group — the core council taxpayer demographic. Geo-targeting to parish/ward level. Event promotion and community group integration.
Targeting parameters
- Parish boundary geo-targeting
- Age 25–75+
- Homeowners & renters
- Community interest groups
- Local news followers
Ad formats used
- Sponsored survey link posts
- Lead generation forms
- Community group posts
- Event promotions
Source: Meta advertising data, October 2024 (via Talkwalker)
Why we use it
Reaches younger residents and families who are under-represented in traditional council consultations. Visual storytelling about local issues drives higher engagement rates.
Targeting parameters
- Geo-targeting to council area
- Age 18–45
- Parents and families
- Local lifestyle interests
- School-age parent demographics
Ad formats used
- Story polls and sliders
- Carousel posts on local issues
- Reels highlighting community topics
- Link-in-bio survey CTAs
Nextdoor
Hyperlocal UK communitiesAge 30–65+Source: Nextdoor UK
Why we use it
Verified neighbourhood-level targeting — every user is verified to their address. The highest-trust platform for local government engagement. Ideal for parish-specific surveys.
Targeting parameters
- Verified address-level targeting
- Specific street or neighbourhood
- Homeowners
- Long-term residents
Ad formats used
- Neighbourhood posts
- Public agency posts
- Sponsored local deals
- Community polls
X (Twitter)
~21.1M UK usersAge 25–55Source: Ofcom Online Nation 2024
Why we use it
Reaches engaged civic voices, local journalists, and community advocates. Effective for amplifying survey launches and sharing transparency report findings publicly.
Targeting parameters
- Interest: local government, civic engagement
- Keyword: council, parish, planning
- Follower lookalikes of council accounts
Ad formats used
- Promoted survey tweets
- Conversation ads
- Amplified organic posts
Source: Ofcom Adults' Media Use and Attitudes 2024
Why we use it
Community WhatsApp groups are the primary communication channel for many parish communities. Council Clearsight provides shareable survey links optimised for WhatsApp forwarding, reaching residents who are not on social media.
Targeting parameters
- Community group sharing
- Clerk and councillor networks
- School parent groups
- Village hall and community groups
Ad formats used
- Shareable survey links
- QR codes for printed materials
- Click-to-WhatsApp ads from Facebook
How we ensure fair representation
Reaching residents is only the first step. Council Clearsight applies six fairness measures to every survey campaign to ensure that the results are representative, honest, and publicly defensible.
Representative sampling by design
Each survey campaign is designed to match the demographic profile of the council area using ONS Census 2021 data. We set target quotas by age group, tenure (owner-occupier vs renter), and neighbourhood before launching any campaign.
Multi-platform reach to reduce platform bias
No single platform reaches all residents. By running simultaneous campaigns across Facebook, Instagram, Nextdoor, and WhatsApp, we ensure that residents who use only one platform are not systematically excluded.
Hyperlocal geo-targeting
All campaigns are geo-targeted to the council's exact boundary, not a postcode approximation. We use the council's official boundary polygon to define the ad audience, ensuring only residents within the council area are surveyed.
School engagement evidence as a complementary measure
Social media cannot reach all residents. Council Clearsight's school engagement assessment uses publicly verifiable evidence from council websites, meeting minutes, and accounts to assess community connectivity — ensuring the assessment reflects documented engagement, not just digital presence.
Minimum response thresholds
Results are only published when a minimum of 50 responses have been received, or 1% of the adult population (whichever is lower). This prevents small, unrepresentative samples from producing misleading scores.
Full transparency of methodology
Every published survey result includes the sample size, demographic breakdown, platforms used, campaign dates, and any known limitations. Councils and residents can scrutinise the data collection process in full.
School engagement evidence: assessing community connections beyond social media
Social media advertising cannot reach all residents, and online engagement alone does not capture the full picture of a council's community connections. Council Clearsight's school engagement assessment provides a complementary, evidence-based measure.
Using the Department for Education's GIAS register, we identify schools in each council area and then search for publicly verifiable evidence of engagement across three sources: the council's website, published meeting minutes, and published accounts (including the AGAR).
This evidence-based approach rewards councils that have documented their engagement with local schools — not just those that happen to be near schools. Where no evidence is found, this is noted transparently on the council's profile page.
Our transparency commitments
Council Clearsight is committed to the highest standards of transparency in how we collect, process, and report resident data. The following commitments are non-negotiable and apply to every survey campaign.
- All ad spend and targeting parameters are disclosed to the subscribing council
- Survey questions are published in full before the campaign launches
- Raw response data is available to the subscribing council on request
- Demographic weighting methodology is published and transparent
- No personally identifiable information is collected or stored
- All data processing complies with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018
- Survey results are never altered or selectively reported
- Councils cannot suppress or delay publication of results
Important: Council Clearsight operates as an independent data processor under UK GDPR. We are not a data controller on behalf of the council. Survey respondents are informed of this distinction in the survey introduction. No council can instruct Council Clearsight to alter, suppress, or delay the publication of survey results.
How a survey campaign works
Survey design
Council Clearsight works with the council to design a survey covering the four Council Clearsight pillars. Questions are standardised to enable benchmarking, with up to 5 council-specific questions added. The final survey is published in full before launch.
Audience targeting
We define the geo-targeting boundary using the council's official boundary polygon. We set demographic quotas based on ONS Census 2021 data for the area. Targeting parameters are shared with the council before the campaign launches.
Multi-platform campaign
The survey is promoted simultaneously across Facebook, Instagram, Nextdoor, and WhatsApp over a 2–4 week period. The campaign budget is allocated across platforms based on the demographic profile of the council area.
School engagement evidence review
For Clearsight+ subscribers, Council Clearsight conducts a detailed review of the council's engagement with local schools, assessing publicly available evidence from the council website, meeting minutes, and published accounts. This assessment is independent of the social media campaign.
Demographic weighting
Once the minimum response threshold is reached, responses are weighted to match the ONS Census 2021 demographic profile of the council area. The weighting methodology is published alongside the results.
Report publication
Results are compiled into the Council Clearsight report and published to the subscriber portal. The full dataset, including demographic breakdown and weighting factors, is available to the council on request.
Ready to hear from your whole community?
Request a sample report to see how Council Clearsight's social media engagement strategy would work for your council area — including a demographic breakdown of your community and an estimate of expected response rates.