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by admin

January 27, 2025

GA4 Consent Mode V2

How can GA4 Consent Mode V2 help charities and nonprofits?

Many charities know how important data is to understanding your audience, running successful campaigns, and showing their impact. But with privacy regulations like GDPR, how we collect and use data, it’s tough to find the right balance between gathering insights and respecting privacy. That’s where Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Consent Mode V2 can really help.

Google’s Consent Mode V2 is all about adapting to people’s privacy choices. When someone visits your site and interacts with your consent banner, this feature lets you collect data only in ways they agree to. If they accept cookies, everything runs as usual. If they don’t, GA4 doesn’t collect personal data but still provides useful insights by estimating trends with “cookieless” tracking.

How Basic Consent Mode Works
If you set up basic consent mode, Google’s tracking tools (tags) won’t load until the visitor interacts with your privacy banner. Once they give consent, the tags load and start collecting data. If they don’t, the tags stay completely blocked—no data is sent, not even their consent status. When this happens, Google relies on broad trends and general models to estimate things like conversions. It’s not as detailed, but it’s still helpful and fully compliant with privacy laws.

How Advanced Consent Mode Works
In Advanced Consent Mode, Google tags load right when someone opens your website or app, even before they interact with the privacy banner. Until the visitor gives consent ( banner), the tags send very limited, cookieless data for basic measurement. If the user agrees to share their data, the tags start sending full data. This gives you better insights than the basic version since it uses anonymous data to enhance Google’s modeling from the start.

Today, many nonprofits and charities need data to measure how their campaigns are working and where they can improve. GA4 and Consent Mode V2 help you gather insights while giving your supporters control over their data. Even if someone declines cookies, you can still get useful information through Google’s modeling tools—without breaking privacy rules or trust.

Have any questions? I will try my best to answer them..

by admin

January 9, 2025

Facebook Ad Categories 2025

As you know, Meta has started implementing restrictions on data-sharing for certain categories of websites under sensitive topics. Charities and brands who are in some restricted categories, such as the health & wellness and politics, will not be able to run any lower funnel conversion events at all. For example, purchase or add to cart events.

If you are a charity, log into your Facebook ad account and see if any categories have been assigned to your data source ( website) in Meta Events Manager. Review the categories assigned to you and if you think a category is inaccurate, you can ask Facebook to review it again.

You will not be able to use conversion events such as add to cart, purchase, website lead, complete registration and more.
You won’t be able to create custom audiences, lookalikes or retarget audiences s

This includes, CAPI ( Conversion API)

I am a fan of CAPI ( Conversion API and Server Side Tracking) but these will also be affected.

Meta: “This means that all events from your website or app will not be shared with Meta, or will be subsequently removed when received (if it’s sent server-side, for e.g., CAPI), through any of our Business Tools. Please note that this change may impact your campaign performance. The impact you may observe to your campaigns will depend primarily on if and how you are currently using standard events.”

What Action’s therefore can you take?

Log into your Facebook ad account and determine if this is going to affect your charities brand. If your charities brand is miscategorised then request a review asap.
Review your ad campaign strategy and focus on upper funnel events, for example, the engagement or traffic objectives) .
Look at alternative events in order to replace the restricted events. For example, landing page views, donate, phone call and more.
Run campaigns on other social media platforms and test how successful they are or not.

Some good news however is if will not effect Facebook Lead generation ads that are use the Meta Instant form as the conversion point. It will however effect fundraising campaigns that are reliant on restricted conversion events.

Overall, if your charity comes under the health and wellness category, its so important to move fast in order to minimise the impact, especially for campaigns reliant on restricted events.

Let me know your thoughts?

by admin

December 16, 2024

Social media for charities and non-profit’s in 2025

So, what should Social Media look like for charities and non-profit organisations in 2025?

I must admit, navigating social media is getting more and more difficult – especially with the changes at X, the rise of Bluesky, how to make the most of LinkedIn and understanding the ongoing challenges within paid social media advertising.

This question remains, how will your charity or non-profit connect with your audience in 2025?

First, the more engaged a digital community is, the greater opportunities you have to make a real difference. Remember to welcome new followers, initiate conversations and respond to all incoming communication.

Secondly, create inviting content that engages your followers and makes them feel included in your charity’s mission. Personally, I think charities that that focus on visual storytelling, live video and other immersive formats will lead the way. For example, TikTok with short, immersive videos, while Instagram loves visually creative content

Question, would your charity use podcasts to reach their audiences and champion their causes?

Use social media to steward new supporters and hopefully, turn supporters in advocates. Talk less about your charity and more about what you do and the impact you are making. Share real life stories, educate, actionable content, sharing content, highlight relevant data or simply answer their questions.

Use both organic and paid social media when publishing content on social media. Don’t think of them as separate. Better still, understand your why, charity goals, audience and more.

Use both organic and paid social media when:

Reach a wider audience
Engage with your audience
Implementing a comprehensive social media strategy
Promoting a service
Scaling up more effectively
lead generation or maximising your ROI

Lastly, Social Media is not dead and the important thing is we need to change our thinking accordingly. I have noticed some charity leaders hinting at this but its simply not true.

Let me know your thoughts?

by admin

September 18, 2024

Performance Max – Google Ad Grant

Performance Max is being added to the Google Ad Grant

On September 4th, Google announced that it is making Performance Max campaigns available to Google Ad Grant users.

Does your charity use the Google Ad Grant?

This is a significant update, and it offers charities the opportunity to maximize their online visibility, although there are some limitations to be aware of.

Initially, you may not see the Performance Max option in your account, as it is being gradually rolled out. If you do see it, please let me know—I’m very interested to hear how a PMax campaign performs for a charity or nonprofit.

It’s important to note that the Google Ad Grant version of Performance Max currently only shows ads in search results, so it’s not the full Performance Max experience available in paid Google Ads accounts, where ads run across all Google platforms.

So what is Performance Max?

Essentially, Performance Max is a goal-based campaign type in Google Ads that allows charities to advertise across all of Google’s advertising channels from a single campaign. These channels include Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and Google Maps.

The primary goal of Performance Max is to help advertisers maximize their campaign’s performance across all Google advertising channels by leveraging Google’s machine learning and automation capabilities

Final thoughts!

Personally, I am very excited about seeing Performance Max in the Google Ad Grant despite that the fact we are getting a diluted version of it.

I would love to know how you get on with it?

by admin

August 1, 2024

5 GA4 configurations every charity or nonprofit should make..

Let’s be honest, most charities or nonprofits don’t use Google Analytics 4 (GA4). It’s another thing they have to learn while also learning Facebook, Meta, AI, and other tools. Despite this, I am on a mission to change that. To get you started, here are 5 GA4 configurations every charity should make in every new GA4 property you create…

1. Change the data retention from 2 months to 14 months

By default, GA4 keeps user data for just 2 months, which can limit your ability to analyse the effectiveness of online fundraising campaigns. Extending this period to 14 months gives you more historical data to work with, allowing for better year-over-year comparisons and deeper insights into donor behavior.

2. Define and exclude internal traffic

Internal traffic from your own fundraising or communications team can skew your analytics data, making it difficult to accurately assess how external users are engaging with your content. By defining ( adding your IP address) and excluding internal traffic, you ensure that your data reflects only the activity of genuine visitors to your website.

3. Remove any unwanted referrals

Referral traffic can sometimes include websites you don’t want to see your traffic reports, which can distort your data and mislead you about where your visitors are coming from. By identifying and removing unwanted referrals, you can clean up your data and focus on the sources that actually drive traffic to your site.

4. Change the default session time

The default session timeout in GA4 is 30 minutes, but this might not be appropriate for every nonprofit. If your visitor tend to spend longer periods of time on your website, such as making a donation, reading in-depth reports or watching videos, you may want to extend the session time. Adjusting this setting ensures that your data accurately reflects user engagement without inflated session counts.

5. Configure domains if running multiple websites from the same GA4 property

If your charity manages multiple websites under the same GA4 property, it’s essential to configure your domains properly. This setup prevents data from being combined incorrectly, ensuring that you can accurately track user behavior across different sites while still viewing data in one place. This is crucial for charities that operate various microsites or campaigns.

Configuring these 5 settings will ensure your GA4 account is correctly set up, the data you collect is accurate and actionable for every charity or nonprofit.

If you want to learn more, I am hosting a GA4 workshop on Monday 2nd September 2024.