Search
Close this search box.

News

How charities can plan their online advertising budget for 2024
admin by admin
January 2, 2024

How charities can plan their online advertising budget for 2024

For every charity or non-profit, planning your online advertising budget for 2024 involves thoughtful consideration of your financial goals, past performances, campaign planning and lots more. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help charities plan their online budget for the upcoming year.

  1. Firstly, asses the performance of your 2023 online advertising efforts. Drill into which campaign or Facebook Challenge worked well and why. Use this data as a starting point. Compare previous targets against the results and see how they performed in terms of return on investment (ROI)
  2. Define your advertising goals for 2024. Increase brand awareness, generate leads, boost the number of once off or regular donations – having clear goals will guide your budget allocation. Identify the online channels that align with your goals. For example, use the Google Ad Grant for the awareness goal.
  3. Allocate Budget. Decide on what percentage of your overall budget will go toward different campaigns or Facebook Challenges.
  4. Plan your campaigns. I personally think the beginning of a new year is a good time to start planning your campaigns. Whose story will you use, content, target audience, channels and more.
  5. Factor seasonality. What specific times during the year or certain days impact your advertising efforts. Plan for increased or decreased spending during peak seasons.
  6. Always allocate a certain percentage of your budget to testing. Ad creatives, formats, wording etc and how they resonate with your audience.
  7. Stay informed about online advertising trends. AI is an absolute game changer!  AI can now optimise your campaigns by adjusting your daily budget, bids and targeting. AI will personalise ads for each specific user based on their demographics. And AI can now automate a lot of the tasks you do when managing a paid advertising campaign. Understand the benefits and challenges of AI.
  8. Measure the ROI: Establish KPI’s for measuring the ROI. Track conversations, CPA, Opt-In’s, leads, donations and other relevant KPI’s to access how effective your advertising is.
  9. Set up GA4 correctly. Have you set up relevant conversion events in GA4? Do you understand how to asses them?
  10. Review your main donation page. Using best practices optimise your main donation page; review its design, giving process, can you track donations and can visitors view it on a mobile device.

Top Tip: When visitors process their donation ensure they receive a thank you page and not a thank you message. This will make your life alot easier especially when setting Facebook Conversion events or events in GA4.

READ MORE
How charities create impact on social media in 2024
admin by admin
December 30, 2023

How charities create impact on social media in 2024

As Facebook and Instagram increasingly integrate AI tools and AI recommendations, the importance of authenticity grows. Charities need to start thinking more like creators to stay relevant.

While collaborating with creators or influencers is appealing, some charities may not pursue this avenue. In such cases, it is advisable to designate someone from the existing team to take on the responsibility of creating digital content. Alternatively, if planning to hire a digital executive in 2024, prioritise individuals with a primary skill set in digital content creation.

Staying ahead of the curve is crucial, as platforms like Instagram emphasise features like reels, stories, short-form videos, and lots more.

It is noteworthy that the organic reach of link posts has been diminishing, with Meta shifting away from news content toward entertainment. Crafting content that is both educational and humorous, as well as inspirational, hopeful, and impactful, is recommended.

User-generated content (UGC) remains integral for fostering authenticity and expanding a charity’s influence and trustworthiness. Simply writing a blog post is insufficient; charities must master the art of storytelling.

Ignoring social media comments is no longer an option, and promptly responding to donors’ messages on messaging tools is essential.

In 2024, the strategy should not be to reach everyone. Instead, identify your charity’s supporters and actively engage with them. Embrace authenticity, innovation, and connect with your audience online.

Paid advertising continues to be crucial for charities. Since most online interactions begin with a search engine or on social media, it is important to have a plan in place to enhance the charity’s discoverability through Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Whether potential supporters are looking to donate, volunteer, or seek support, running paid ads is vital to capturing their attention.

Let me know your thoughts?

READ MORE
admin by admin
October 4, 2023

How to create a Facebook Business Manager

As the name suggests, the Facebook Business Manager is a tool that allows you to manage multiple Facebook Pages, business assets and ad accounts, as well as Instagram accounts and product catalogs, in one place.

Visit: https://business.facebook.com/ to get started!

Here are my top 7 recommendations.

  1. Add your business information. This is to show Facebook your a legit business or charity.

2. Next, turn on two factor authentication and control how your sent your login code. My preference is BY text message.

3. View the security centre in the left column of the Business Settings page and add another admin.

4. Add your Facebook page to your Business Manager.

5. Add more people to your Business Manager. Ask people to join your business manager by entering their email address. Then assign their access and which accounts or tools they can use.

6. Add your Instagram account.

7. Don’t forget to add your ad account and payment information. Remember to add a second payment method incase something goes wrong with your first payment option.

Well, that’s it. Would else would you add?

Thanks, Andrew

READ MORE
admin by admin
September 4, 2023

Why should a charity advertise online?

Wouldn’t we all love to have a huge advertising budget, endless amounts of time and an amazing team that are strategically planning fundraising campaigns.

Unfortunately, some charities I work with don’t have these resources. Instead they advertise in an ad hoc fashion – you do what you can, and really, something is better than nothing, right?

So often, this will lead to inconsistent messaging and branding. No longer top of mind when a certain problem is being discussed on the TV or an international incident arises around the world.

No cohesive advertising strategy can take away from the charity’s brand and dilute their message. People can become less interested or attentive, which will affect a charities online reputation and make it difficult to build relationships with the wider community or their target audience.

Remember, regular engagement with this audience can help manage and respond to any negative feedback or misconceptions.

Running ads this way will also lead to charities spending more money and fail to generate real results. In particular, tracking the return on investment (ROI) of ad hoc online advertising campaigns can be challenging, making it difficult to determine which campaigns or ads were successful and why.

Ultimately, charities that advertise in an ad hoc manner may find it difficult to compete with organisations that have a well planned and an ongoing advertising strategy. Building brand awareness and engagement often requires a sustained effort over time, and sporadic advertising may not be enough to accomplish this.

Consistency will help charities stay competitive.  

How often does your charity advertise online?

READ MORE