FacebookIf you have a personal Facebook account, you are probably already use to seeing a steady stream of targeted business ads in either your newsfeed or sidebar.  You may have even clicked on one to learn more about a company, or to take advantage of a special sale offer.

Since it seems that nearly everyone is using social media these days, you might be tempted to try targeted Facebook Ads for your Not-for-Profit’s (NFP) next fundraising drive.

Deciding whether or not a Facebook ad will benefit your NFP’s fundraising efforts is not a question that has a simple, straightforward answer.  A well-crafted, targeted Facebook ad, as part of coordinated strategy, does have the potential to boost your visibility and donations. The following advice can help improve the chances that your Facebook Ad will truly improve your results.

Don’t Forget to Create Goals, Set Benchmarks and Test Results

  • Setting up a Facebook ad is so easy, that many times creators will forget to set goals so that they can measure their progress and make tweaks to get the best results.  Before you create your ad, think about what it is that you want your ad to achieve, and how this will fit in with your existing marketing strategy.
  • The ultimate goal of many NFP’s is to increase donations, so set some benchmarks for what you want to achieve, and develop a plan to measure your results. You may want to consider testing more than one ad, so that you can have a better idea of what will, and will not work for your NFP to increase donations.

Set a Budget

  • To be cost effective, your advertising campaign needs to be affordable. Increasing your donations doesn’t really help your NFP if the advertising costs far exceed the amount of your donations from the ad.
  • With a Facebook ad, you can set either a daily or a lifetime budget.  When setting your budget, you need to decide if you will pay for your campaign based on pay per click or pay per impression. Once you’ve spent that amount, the ad will no longer be visible or recommended to others, unless you modify the ad and increase the budget limit.

Targeting and Design Tips

  • Current studies suggest that nationally known NFPs as well as those with large existing social followings see a higher conversion rate with Facebook ads. Regardless of the size of your NFP and its existing exposure, it’s important to target your ads to those who are interested in your cause.
  • The customer audience feature can help you to narrow your focus on your target audience, and choosing to promote your posts in the news feed of your target audience tends to be more successful for increasing donations.
  • When creating your ad, ensure that you choose a 1200 X 670 pixel image that connects and catches the eye of viewers. Images that show the work that your organisation does, or that are related to a specific event for which you are raising funds are good choices.
  • No more than 20% of the ad can be text, so choose your words wisely, and anchor your ad to point back to a specific page on your site that prompts action – such as the donations page on your site when you are trying to raise funds.
  • Most will be seeing your Facebook ad and visiting your site from a mobile platform, so make certain that both your site and ad are optimised for mobile users and that your site is formatted to make mobile donations easy and straightforward. 

These tips will help you decide if Facebook advertising is suitable for you and your NFP, and to bring you the best ROI possible.