The purpose of the Investigating Digital Advertising and Online Self-Response report is to evaluate the role of digital advertising in directing respondents to complete the census online. This was done by using the 2020 Census’s Internet Self Response (ISR) instrument’s referral paradata, which can describe how each respondent navigated to the ISR.

This report describes how respondents navigated to the ISR, including which types of advertisements directed more respondents to the ISR, whether the rate at which advertisements are clicked or the rate at which responses are referred differ between different types of advertisements, and whether targeted advertisements were able to reach their target audience.

The results of the research presented in this report provide insight into how respondents came to the ISR and highlight the useful role that mailed material sent from the Census Bureau, online search results, and paid advertising had in directing respondents to the online self-response option. The results describing how people chose to navigate to the ISR may assist communication planning for 2030.