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
• 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
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• 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)
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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
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• $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/
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/
• 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?