Brandon McRaeConsultant, Community Boost Consulting

Ernad CivicFacebook Area of Practice Manager, Community Boost Consulting

Facebook Ads: 5 Tips to Increase ROI

#NMS2020

Facebook and Instagram as platforms reach

40% of the world’s population and 75% of high income earners.

Over $2,000,000,000 has been raised on Facebook directly.

On Giving Tuesday 2019 alone...

$120MRaised

1.1M Indiv. Fundraisers

97,000NPO’s

Benefited

Story Time... What Happens when TCF-USA Tries Facebook & Instagram Ads for the First Time?TCF-USA had never tested Facebook & Instagram advertising until 2018.

In 24 years, TCF-USA has built 1,567 schools, providing quality education to 252,000 children,

with a 12,000 all female faculty of teachers.

Upcoming Campaigns:● First ever Back to School Campaign

○ Summer 2018

● Year-End Giving 2018 Campaign

○ Year-End 2018

Strengths:● Strong donor list to build off

of● Tangible & transparent

donation appeals

Weaknesses:● First BTS campaign ever for

the organization● No Facebook ad history to

build off of● Limited Google Ad Grant

work● Minimal Instagram following

Impressive Positive ROAS for All CampaignsQuickly FB & IG Ads Has Become One of the Most Scalable Marketing Channels.

FB & IG Ad Campaigns Timeline Ad Spend Clicks Donation Revenue

Online Donations

Return on Ad Spend

Total Online Donation Revenue

1st Time - Launch of first ever Back to School campaign Summer 18 $5,186 3,686 $17,296 76 3.34X $62,000

2nd Time - YE 2018: A Promise to the Future Campaign Year-End 18 $8,866 7,053 $217,658 124 24.3X $493,000

3rd Time - YE 2019: You Give Them Hope Campaign Year-End 19 $9,535 6,578 $187,744 140 19.69X $634,284

Total All $23,587 17,317 $422,698 340 17.9X $1,189,284

This donation data refers to individuals that engaged with TCF-USA ads (liked, clicked, commented, shared, etc.) and donated on the TCF-USA within 28 days.

3.34XROAS

BTS Campaign

24.3XROAS

YE 2018 Campaign

19.69XROAS

YE 2019 Campaign

Poll: What has your Facebook advertising experience been like?

Tip 1:

Lead With Gratitude

Tip 1: Lead With GRATITUDE

Thank You

Key Benefits of Leading With Gratitude

● Earned Virality● By standing out from the competition and just saying thank

you, we see much higher engagement rates on these ads. This makes it much cheaper to distribute this content across Facebook, reaching brand new audiences.

● Connection to Donors● After being thanked for their support, like real humans,

donors are much more likely to donate again when asked.

● Retargetable Engagement● We can track all of this valuable engagement, signs of

donation intent, and run ads against it once we want to run

an important appeal campaign.

● Often Times They Convert● We oftentimes even see positive return on ad spend just for

saying thank you to our donors.

Tip 1:

Lead With Gratitude

Tip 2: MEASURE What Matters

By Ad Set/Audience:

You Can Even See Key Metrics by Ad:

Lay your measurements first— before you dive into the creative work.

● Focus on the right metricsSet yourself up for success by identifying clear metrics that you want to keep an eye on before launching a campaign.

● Value your best supporters.● Instead of measuring transactions alone, model the lifetime value you

derive from your supporters.

● Prove your marketing impact.● Use controlled experimentation to understand what happened only

because of a given marketing spend change (and would not have happened without it)

Tip 2:

Measure What Matters

Tip 3: Compelling CREATIVE

Create Mobile-Friendly Content96% of active user accounts access FB on mobile.65% of FB Video views occur on mobile.91% of FB ad revenue comes from mobile ads.

Shorter HeadlinesAt cBC we have found that short, to the point, catchy headlines that

emphasize the donor benefit, not the CTA, perform best.

Emojis WorkFacebook is crowded and feeds are saturated, our goal is to stop

scrolling and grab attention, and emojis help by making the readers

job easier, and capturing visual real estate.

Appeal to EmotionsAs nonprofits, this is the most powerful tool we can use to tell our

beautiful stories. Use compelling imagery and copy.

Tip 3:

Compelling Creative

Video Creative

Tactful EmojisTactful EmojisAppeal to

Emotion

Short Headline

Urgency

Tip 4: People Prefer

PERSONALIZATION

Set The Tone The best performing campaigns stand out by having one message that is concrete and specific. Ensure that your campaign messaging is consistent with its readers.

Relevant Messaging “People don’t ever mind being interrupted if the ad’s message is interesting to them.” Focus on delivering timely and relevant

messaging, segmenting by visitor traffic is one way to do this.

Map It Out Identify what content would be of unique interest to each persona and map it using a diagram. Then focus on your marketing funnel and

where these users will fall

Tip 4:

Personalization

Your Donors Are Different— Treat Them That Way

Loyal Advocates“I already love you, and understand your mission… you don’t need to sell me.”

Lapsed Donors“Thank you for following up, I had forgotten all of the great work you do.”

Completely New To Your Mission

“Who are you and why are you asking for my

money?”

Brand Engaged but Never Donated

“I don’t have the money to donate, but I will like and

share this post.”

Tip 5: Always Be Testing

A B A B

A/B Test Both Ads and Ad Sets

Facebook’s algorithm is always changing and we can never fully predict what ads will resonate with our donors the most, so A/B testing is essential— copy, headline, image and targeting.

Find the Relevance and Frequency that Works for your Audience Some audiences get fatigued more easily by “stale” content and ads, while others love what your organization is doing and will engage more healthily with frequent ads.

Ideal Frequency will vary on campaign - typically our ideal frequency is a 3. We highly discourage a frequency higher than 6

Impressions

FrequencyReach

per time framemeasured*

Remember our 5 Tips to Increase Your Facebook and Instagram Ad ROI.

Lead With GratitudeA simple “thank you” goes a long way.

Compelling CreativeStand out from the crowd with thumb-stopping, mobile-friendly, video-centric creative.

Always Be TestingDon’t operate from a “focus group of one”... Test EVERYTHING

Measure What MattersBetter measurement = better data-driven decisions.

Personalize Your MessagingBe extremely intentional about who you’re speaking to and how you’re doing so.

Any Questions?

Free 1:1 Strategy Session for All AttendeesWhether your organization is looking to audit your current Facebook & Instagram ad efforts, or

your completely new to the channel but are interested in testing during year-end fundraising, let’s talk!