Get ‘ducks in a row’ before going all in on paid social media ads

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30367
• Date: 01 October 2017
• Published date: 01 October 2017

OCTOBER 2017

5

NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR

© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

DOI: 10.1002/nba

Marketing

Get ‘ducks in a row’ before going all in

on paid social media ads

Paid ads on social media sites are growing in

popularity among nonprots, and with good reason:

They work. Data from M+R Strategic Services’ 2017

Benchmarks Study show that charities increased their

spending on social media ads by almost 70 percent in

2016, which helped them counter a drop in email open

and response rates. And the technology behind them

has improved as well—sophisticated data crunching

and algorithms help organizations target very spe-

cic subpopulations that offer the best likelihood of

success. But that doesn’t mean it’s the right strategy,

right now, for all nonprots.

According to Madeline Rufn-Thomas and Sa-

mantha Halpin of Atlanta-based marketing rm

BKV, charities should have certain “ducks in a row”

before investing in paid social media ads.

“They don’t need to be big and well-funded, but

they do need to be prepared to handle the clicks they’ll

get from the ads,” said Rufn-Thomas.

According to Rufn-Thomas, that includes the

following:

• Having a landing page and website that are op-

timized and mobile-friendly.

• Having the staff on hand to monitor the com-

ments that result and respond to them.

• Having an established online “voice” that they

are presenting to the world via their ads.

“They should create ads that align with their

organic content,” Rufn-Thomas said. That means

their paid ads and their daily posts—whether it’s

Facebook, Instagram or a website—should have the

same feel, look and substance.

When it comes to choosing which social media

platform to advertise on, Halpin said Facebook is

king.

“They offer very granular targeting of ads, because

they have such good tracking data on their users,”

she said. “They are also easily read across devices—

whether it’s a phone, tablet or laptop.”

The site allows organizations to easily set the fre-

quency and desired reach of the ads, as well as the

order in which they will appear—which is especially

helpful in campaigns that use sequential messaging.

And, nonprots can also take advantage of Face-

book’s Audience Insights tool.

“If you upload your donor CRM [customer rela-

tionship management] information (email address,

physical address or phone number), Facebook ano-

nymizes it and matches it to Facebook accounts,”

explained Rufn-Thomas. “Not only is targeting

this CRM audience and its lookalikes (Facebook

has its own propriety clone model algorithm) usu-

ally very successful for our nonprot clients, but

Audience Insights also gives you a demographic and

behavioral prole of your donor le. Many of our

nonprot clients love this free donor prole tool

because it provides insights that can be applicable

beyond Facebook.”

In short, the site offers a cost-effective way to try

out new messages—or “creative” content—on a range

of target audiences.

“The site offers creative testing at a low cost of

entry compared to other platforms out there,” Halpin

said.

According to Halpin, most nonprots will want to

place paid ads on an assortment of social media sites.

But levels of commitment—and the end goal of the

ad campaign—will vary depending on the platform.

For example, she said, if the goal is to drive

donations—think a “Donate Now!” or similar

call-to-action ad—then Facebook or Instagram are

the best bet. Snapchat and Pinterest, on the other

hand, are good for brand awareness campaigns.

Twitter can be tailored to a variety of purposes,

although Halpin said the platform isn’t seeing the

same conversion rates as others.

Timing is also a consideration. Just as the holiday

season is a busy time of year for print advertise-

ments, paid social media should also include a heavy

presence during November and December, Rufn-

Thomas said.

“Nonprots should usually try to launch cam-

paigns right around Giving Tuesday and run them

(See MARKETING on page 8)