Measuring impact of digital conservation campaigns using culturomics

Abstract Conservation campaigns via digital media are becoming increasingly popular amongst conservationists. However, effectively measuring their impacts remains a challenge, and campaign effectiveness often goes unmeasured. Conservation culturomics, which explores the intricate relationship between people and nature in the digital sphere, can help fill this gap. Here, we used culturomics data to evaluate impacts of two digital conservation campaigns: one regional campaign promoting the importance of the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in India and one global campaign using humorous skits to address broader conservation themes. Specifically, we used a synthetic control approach to analyze Wikipedia pageviews of topics featured in the two campaigns and compared these to Wikipedia pageviews of related topics that were not featured in the campaigns. We found that across 21 topics in multiple languages, the regional campaign showed limited success in boosting engagement for specific topics in local languages, whereas the global campaign had no measurable impact on Wikipedia page views. We also found evidence on negative impact for one topic in the regional campaign. Overall, we found a limited effect of the campaigns in increasing online traffic to Wikipedia, with the impact detected being associated with localized topics as opposed to global ones. The study highlights the utility of combining digital data with counterfactual‐based methods for rapid, cost‐effective evaluations while acknowledging the need for deeper investigation into how digital engagement translates to real‐world behavior change. Future research should explore integrating digital and traditional evaluation methods to enhance the evidence base for conservation communication strategies.