Driving Membership Growth: How the Society for Neuroscience Built a Stronger Global Community with RhythmQ
Society for Neuroscience Membership Campaign
To support the Society for Neuroscience’s (SfN) annual membership drive, RhythmQ’s Marketing Team (RQ Marketing) launched a multi-channel digital campaign that combined search, display, and social advertising with insights from user behavior on the external membership portal. The campaign delivered strong results, meeting benchmark conversion goals and driving meaningful engagement across global audiences.
With conversion-based analytics, SfN was able to understand the user-journey. The campaigns were optimized at every step to maximize ROI.
70%
Visitors interacted with multiple membership pages, demonstrating strong interest and meaningful engagement.
68K
Total visitors to the Become a Member page from ads.
2X
The click-through rate (CTR) achieved was more than double the industry benchmark.
Introduction
Industry: STEM
Location: United States
The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is a global leader in advancing the understanding of the brain and nervous system. With tens of thousands of members worldwide, SfN connects researchers, educators, and clinicians through education, networking, and advocacy building one of the most influential scientific communities in the world.
Objective
Ahead of the 2025 membership renewal cycle, SfN set out to reignite engagement, attract new members, and simplify the digital experience for neuroscientists around the globe.
The goal: create a unified digital campaign that not only drove sign-ups but also showcased the value of belonging to a trusted, international scientific community.
Challenges
SfN aimed to expand its global reach, increase membership signups, and strengthen its digital presence, while gaining deeper insight into user behavior on an external membership portal that operated separately from the main website, making it more challenging to track conversions and understand the full user journey.
Referral-based membership process
New members were required to be referred by existing members, which often created friction for first-time applicants unfamiliar with the community.
Early drop-offs in the join process
More than half of visitors left before the first membership step, indicating confusion or friction in the experience.
Reaching Global Audiences
SfN needed to expand awareness beyond the United States, engaging researchers across diverse geographic regions while maintaining cost efficiency.
Fragmented platform performance
With audiences split across multiple ad channels, it was difficult to pinpoint what drove the highest engagement and conversion.
Limited urgency to act
The value of membership wasn’t immediately clear, leading to hesitation and incomplete sign-ups.
Inefficient Optimization Strategies
The optimization of ad creatives and audience targeting strategies lacked sophistication, affecting performance improvement.
Solution
RQ Marketing combined search, display, and social campaigns with insights from user behavior on the membership portal to refine performance and guide future improvements.
Integrated Multi-Platform Campaigns
A cohesive strategy across Meta, LinkedIn, Google, and StackAdapt ensured strong visibility across diverse audience segments—academics, medical professionals, and researchers.
Expanding Awareness with Display & Video
Awareness was expanded using the Google Display network over YouTube and science-related sites. These ads introduced the Membership to a wider audience, cost-effectively building visibility in neuroscience and related research communities.
Reaching Targeted Academic Audiences
Social media advertising was tailored to distinct segments. Meta focused on university affiliations, job titles, and international audiences, while LinkedIn zeroed in on professionals in healthcare, higher education, and research sectors across key U.S. regions.
Enhanced Member Referral Path
Introduced a Member Directory integration within the membership flow, enabling prospective members to easily connect with existing SfN members for referrals.
Membership Journey Analysis
We tracked where users slowed down or left the process and used that insight to suggest easier forms, clearer calls to action, and stronger reasons to join.
Implementation of Conversion Tracking
We tracked where users came from and how they moved through the membership process, using those insights to identify top-performing ad platforms and optimize campaign performance.
Impactful Creative and Messaging
Refined headlines and visuals emphasized member benefits, career advancement, research access, and global networking paired with testimonials to reinforce credibility and trust.
Results
Exceeded Engagement Benchmarks
The campaign achieved exceptional engagement across all digital channels. Overall interaction on membership pages surpassed 70%, with users viewing multiple pages per session and showing strong intent to join or renew.
Advertising Outperformed Industry Benchmarks
Paid campaigns across Google, Meta, and LinkedIn all exceeded benchmark performance, demonstrating that SfN’s messaging and targeting resonated with key audiences.
Google Ads achieved a CTR above 5%, surpassing the 3–5% industry benchmark and driving the highest intent traffic.
Meta Ads delivered a 2% CTR at an exceptionally low cost per click (~$0.25), reaching more than 60% of total campaign users.
LinkedIn Ads reached professional audiences with a 1.5% CTR, outperforming its 1% benchmark and generating high-quality traffic from research and academic sectors
Improved Conversion Pathways
Detailed user flow analysis revealed where potential members paused or dropped off, leading to clear recommendations for simpler forms, clearer CTAs, and stronger motivation throughout the join process. Once users began the membership process, the majority completed checkout—confirming an effective user experience.
Enhanced Referral Experience
To address the challenge of referral-based membership, the campaign introduced the Member Directory integration, making it easier for new applicants to connect with existing members for referrals. This feature removed a key friction point and supported a smoother path to joining.
Optimized Multi-Channel Strategy
RQ Marketing’s integrated approach combined search, display, and social media ads with real-time performance tracking. Insights on where users came from and how they interacted with the membership portal helped identify top-performing platforms and refine ongoing campaign strategy.
Reporting and Analytics
The implementation of comprehensive tracking solutions facilitated robust reporting and analytics, providing actionable insights for strategic decision-making. With fixed tracking mechanisms, the campaign was able to generate valuable data insights, enabling informed adjustments and optimizations to further enhance performance and drive success.
