DIGITALNINJAS.COM

DIGITAL OPTIMISATION & CONVERSION

DIGITALNINJAS.COM

INTRO

Me:

1. Jonathan Dawson

2. 20+ year career in digital

3. 12 years working with nonprofits

4. Startup advisor

Digital Ninjas:

1. Specialists in digital fundraising and

communications

2. Work with 100s of not for profit organisations

from really big well known brands to micro

organisations tackling big challenges

3. We’re obsessed with measurement and

driving results from digital

DIGITALNINJAS.COM

AGENDA

Tracking

• Google Analytics

• Pixels

Infrastructure

• Landing pages

• A/B testing

• Funnel (making the ask and capturing donations)

Creative

• Old way

• New way

Driving traffic

• Paid

• Owned

• Earned

TRACKING

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TRACKING IS CRITICALLY IMPORTANT!

1. Tracking is often an afterthought for marketing campaigns, it is really the most important bit.

2. Make sure you:

a. Use Google Analytics to measure and monitor results across multiple channels

b. Use Ad Platform specific pixels/analytics to optimise your media buys

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TRACKING - The 2 types of conversion...

Micro Macro

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TRACKING - The 2 types of conversion...

If you can’t see this, then you need to revisit!

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TRACKING: THE OTHER BITS

• Third party pixels

• Facebook

• TikTok

• Taboola

• Make sure they’re all tracking

• Volume

• Value

• Type - one-off, monthly, p2p, shop etc.

INFRASTRUCTURE

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INFRASTRUCTURE

1. Humans

a. Your team

b. Your suppliers/external partners

2. Technical

a. Website

b. Landing pages

c. Payment enablement/processors

3. Your Digital Toolkit

a. Email

b. Landing page optimisation software

c. User insights software

d. Next generation analytics platforms

e. Advertising platforms e.g. Facebook/Instagram, Google, TikTok, Taboola

CREATIVE TIPS

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1. Creative is super important:

a. Facebook’s own research has shown that as much as 50% of a campaigns’ performance can be

attributed to effective ad creative

b. Platforms like TikTok say they are focused on providing entertainment as opposed to being “social

media” platforms

1. 3 laws of ad creative

a. Your ad must stop them from scrolling past.

b. Your ad must hold their attention for a short period of time.

c. Your ad must inspire them to act.

CREATIVE TIPS

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Next time you’re on a train or bus and you see someone on

Facebook, watch how fast they scroll and take in information.

This will show you how much of a challenge it is just to get

someone to stop on your ad!

A few tricks we can use to stop the scroll

• The most basic is to use video - add motion to your ads

• Use Kinetic Text - engage them subconsciously with large,

fast-moving text

• Use interesting ad formats like 360 images, video

carousels, 3D, Canvas

• Use interesting video formats like split screen,

cinemagraphs, live photo and parallax

• Leverage your BRAND - if this is part of an integrated

effort across channels create some consistencies between

channels

CREATIVE TIPS - LAW 1 - STOP THE SCROLL

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CINEMAGRAPH EXAMPLES

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People are busy and are bombarded with information everywhere they look. It’s not just enough to stop them

scrolling, we need to hold their attention for long enough to get our message across. Don’t worry all it takes is just

10 - 30 seconds

Here’s a few ways we can hold their attention:

• Speed - you can tell interesting stories in a short amount of time

• Kinetic text - used to drive the story along quickly and spoon feed the information

• Use interesting Facebook ad formats to hold their attention

• Use interesting video formats to hold their attention

• Using language to promote social norms around giving E.g. ‘Many of our supporters just like you choose to…’

CREATIVE TIPS - LAW 2 - HOLD THEIR ATTENTION

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Every ad in every campaign must have a purpose, an objective that is meaningful and can be measured. Getting

the audience to act is your final task to achieve with your ad.

No matter how pretty or entertaining an ad is, it’s not a GOOD ad until it gets people to act!

Here’s a few tricks we can use in Facebook ads:

• Don’t wait for the end to reveal your CTA

• Use imagery and copy that resonate with your audience segment (Creative / Audience Fit)

• Build a sense of urgency with speed and transitions

CREATIVE TIPS - LAW 3 - INSPIRE THEM TO ACT

DIGITALNINJAS.COM

• Long videos / movies telling stories

• All about us and our work

• Long production times

• High costs

• Slow sign off process

• Often external agency / skills required

• One video for several channels - or slight edits

• Assumed creative / audience fit

OLD WAY

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• Short videos 10 - 30 seconds

• Cost effective

• Focus on audience’s motivations

• Fast storytelling - VERY FAST!!!

• Concept to production in 2-3 days

• Multiple videos created that are completely different

• Use existing assets

• Designed specifically for Facebook - including ad formats

NEW WAY

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Stop making videos about you!

Part of the old way of creating videos was to focus on

• Your organisation

• Your cause

• Your appeal

Instead we need to focus on

• Their passions

• Their motivations

• Their purpose

IT’S NOT ME...IT’S YOU

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Not subtitles!

Large text overlayed in prominent position

Appears word by word if possible

Drives story forward taking pressure off the imagery

Takes pressure off ad copy

It has to be fast….very fast

WHAT IS KINETIC TEXT?

DRIVING TRAFFIC

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THE MOST IMPORTANT BIT: AUDIENCES

• Build your audience targeting hypothesis – free template available at the end of this session

• Think about:

• Your best “types” of donors

• What are their demographics

• What are they interested in

• What are their online behaviours (hint: use the digital platforms to inform your research)

• Map it all out in a spreadsheet (make sure you download your template later)

• Leverage your existing supporter base to create custom and lookalike audiences:

• Existing one-off donors

• Existing monthly donors

• Leads

• Newsletter subscribers

• Peer 2 peer event participants

• Etc.

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SOME GENERAL NOTES ON DIGITAL AUDIENCES

• Easy to find:• Small audience that respond well

• Large audience that don’t respond

• Harder to find:• Large audience that respond well

• You’ll often find success with:• On site remarketing

• Look-a-like of existing donors

• You can often scale more quickly when using:• “Competitor” targeting (on social media i.e. people who like others pages like yours)

• If you use demographic targeting alone you’ll probably get really low response rates

DIGITALNINJAS.COM

PAID CAMPAIGN SUCCESS TAKES COMMITMENT

• Make sure your budget is sufficient to give your

testing plan adequate exposure

• Audiences

• Creative/variations

• Set clear KPIs and targets before you begin

• BUT don’t expect to achieve them from day

one – optimisation takes time

• Don’t give in too soon – see our “avoiding the

valley of death” bonus content (QR code at end of

session)

DIGITALNINJAS.COM

DON’T ASSUME WHEN IT COMES TO CHANNEL/PLATFORM DEMOGRAPHICS

• Facebook has the highest percentage of older

users

• Followed closely by YouTube

• TikTok and Snapchat are dominated by younger

users - but don’t discount them from your channel

mix!

• TikTok 30% of those surveyed between age

30-49 say they’ve used it

DIGITALNINJAS.COM

• $10k (USD) per month of free ad spend

• Great as part of a wider fundraising and communications activity mix – however you can’t rely on the Ad

Grant as your only marketing/fundraising activity!

• Use a Google PAID ads account alongside the grant to get more traction, faster

A few limitations compared to a “standard” paid Google Ads account:

• Can only advertise on the Google Search network (no partners or

display)

• Maximum $2 per click bid limit

• $10k is divided into a daily maximum budget of $329

• Minimum 5% click through rate must be maintained

• Account must be regularly optimised (at least once every 2 weeks)

• Keyword specific:

• No single word keywords (a few exceptions here)

• No keywords with quality score of 1 or 2

• Minimum standards of campaign and ad group structure

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YOUTUBE

1. YouTube second biggest search engine in the

WORLD!

• Forget pre-rolls (unless you want brand

exposure)

• Explore Discovery Ads (if you want results)

2. Lags only behind Facebook in its ability to reach

older demographics at scale

3. Remember user mindset is different when

browsing YouTube - most ad formats on

YouTube are interruptive - they appear just as

the user is about to get to that all important

content about how to tie a tie!

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TIKTOK – SOME TOP PERFORMING CREATIVE FROM NOT-FOR-PROFITS

TikTok Top Tips:

1. Install the TikTok tracking pixel

2. 9:16 aspect ratio preferred (same as

standard mobile screen). Can also use 1:1,

however this won’t take up the full screen

3. Suggest 2 versions - one 5 second version

and one 15 second version (can be up to

60s in length if extremely compelling

content)

4. Use music/sound - however ensure that

any spoken text is subtitled or IDEALLY

uses kinetic text

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CHANNEL COMPARISON & MYTHS

GOOGLE AD

GRANT

GOOGLE PAID

SEARCH

FACEBOOK/

INSTAGRAM

TIKTOK TABOOLA

Description Free $10k /month Pay per click search

advertising

Leading social ads

platform

Videos ads Native advertising

Status Established Established Established Emerging Emerging

Pros • Free ad spend

• Can hone in on

cause specific

search terms

• Reach Bottom of

Funnel searchers

quickly

• Sophisticated

behaviour and

interest based

targeting

• Less competitive

than Facebook/

Instagram

• Less competitive

with solid results

• Powerful interest

and behavioural

data

Cons • Ad Grant

restrictions

• Can be tricky to

get 100% share of

impressions

• Can be expensive

especially during

competitive times

of year

• Algorithms decide

who wins

• More heavily

reliant on video

creative

• Slightly less

engagement per

visit than some

other paid

channels

Myths Doesn’t work for

fundraising…

Too crowded… All charities are doing

it…

Only reach young

people…

People don’t pay

attention to

placements…

SUMMARY

DIGITALNINJAS.COM

THANK YOU

Download your free audience targeting hypothesis template and how to avoid the valley of death bonus

content by visiting:

digitalninjas.com/fp or scan the QR code below:

WWW.DIGITALNINJAS.COM

THANK YOU.ANY QUESTIONS?