Have you been thinking about creating a Facebook page for your nonprofit to build support, but aren’t certain how to get started, or, if Facebook can truly help your nonprofit to increase its reach and impact? Perhaps you’ve already created a Facebook page, and, you’ve been posting great, thought provoking content, but you can’t seem to break through that ceiling and collect more than 50 to 500 Facebook followers?

If either of these scenarios sounds familiar then you may want to consider using Facebook Ads for your nonprofit!

Non-Profit Success Stories with Facebook Ads

Every day, there are thousands of nonprofits and other organisations of all sizes that successfully use Facebook Ads to raise awareness and increase support for their goals.

One such success story is Sudara, a clothing company that hires women in India that have escaped sexual abuse, and slavery, and provides them with jobs. By offering employment to these disadvantaged women, the company helps them learn new skills, and provides these women an income that helps them maintain their new found independence.

With Facebook Ads, Sudara was able to increase their sales so that they could provide more support for more of these at risk women, while decreasing the cost of their advertising in other channels.

Vida is another organisation that used Facebook Ads to raise awareness about the plight of drought victims in Brazil, and raise over $7,000 via t-shirt sales to help 220 people in Brazil to be able to receive the food and water that they need to survive.

While there are thousands of other success stories, there can be potential pitfalls, in addition to benefits, when using Facebook Ads to boost support for your non-profit. The following are some tips and tricks to help you make the most of this type of advertising for your NFP!

Which Type of Facebook Ad is Best for Your NFP?

General Facebook Ads are typically the better option when you first begin creating your Facebook Ad campaigns, especially if this is your nonprofit’s first foray into social media and you currently have few followers. The regular Facebook ad appears on the right side of the Facebook page and allows you to use an image or your logo and combine it with up to 90 characters to promote your page or direct others to your nonprofit’s website.

This type of ad allows you to cast the proverbial wide net, and draw in a larger number of people than more targeted ad.

Once you have begun to build your following, a targeted, Like Page Ad allows you to target the friends and connections of people who are already your supporters, and are likely to share their interests. This allows you to utilise the network of your existing connections to expand your non-profit’s reach. This type of ad is the best one to use once you have built up your following.

Sponsored Posts are a third type of ad that appears in the newsfeed of your existing followers. They allow you to draw attention and increase the visibility of specific posts. Images work really great with this type of ad to increase an emotional connection and interest in your NFP. They are also best used to target followers who may be interested in upcoming events, polls, questions or “breaking” types of news stories.

Important Points to Keep in Mind When Creating a Facebook Ad

Regardless of the type of Facebook Ad that you choose to use, you should take care to ensure that both your ad and the rest of the posts on your page are still interesting, add value, stir the emotions, promote conversations and help you increase engagement and build real relationships with followers to increase support for your NFP.

Ads are generally better for building your base of supporters on Facebook, rather than fundraising, which can quickly become quite expensive. Ads are paid for based on cost per click (CPC) which can get expensive over time, so make certain you are setting a daily limit, as well as an end date for a specific ad campaign to help you control your budget.

Facebook Ads can also be a way to build campaigns to raise support for petitions. Consider ads that direct visitors to your own site, with a call to action to sign up for email list and/or newsletter, so that you have greater control over the ability to contact followers and greater control over the message as well.

Facebook ads can take a day or longer to go through the ad approval process, so don’t wait until the last minute to create your ad campaign. Over time, ads become less effective, so make certain that you continue testing, updating and refining your nonprofit’s message and its target audience.

Getting Help and Support for Creating Facebook Ad Campaigns

With so many benefits, and potential drawbacks, when using Facebook Ads, it can be difficult to know exactly how to best get started using these ads to benefit your nonprofit.

Action Sprout is one of many groups that offer assistance to NFPs in the form of easy to use Facebook tools. They offer a free level of assistance for nonprofits, which can be upgraded to a paid option for greater support.

This site also provides informative how-to articles and blog posts that help charities and other non-profits learn more about how to use Facebook Ads to create campaigns to increase their reach, grow their list of supporters, and raise funds via direct donations.

Facebook itself also has its own page dedicated to helping nonprofits learn more about how to use their site and its built-in tools to build their following and increase their impact. Along with posting helpful tips, this page also features the stories of nonprofits that have used Facebook to benefit their service community and reach their goals more easily.

Facebook Ads are currently being used by thousands to help them increase support for their cause and raise the funds that they need to carry out service projects and meet the needs of their community. If you’ve used Facebook Ads in the past, why not share your experience with our readers in the comments section? What tips and advice do you have to make Facebook ads work better for others?