Are Meta (Facebook) Ads Right For Your Nonprofit?
Meta Ads: What are they?
Meta is obviously the parent company of multiple apps, but for the purposes of this blog post, I’m going to be using “Facebook” instead of Meta.
Facebook Ads are nothing new, but the benefits of Facebook Ads to nonprofits may not be immediately apparent, especially if you’re an org with $2MM or less per year in revenue.
In this series, we’ll be talking about the benefits of Facebook Ads for nonprofits, how to track the ROI and the best practices to optimize ads and maximize performance and results.
In short, Meta Ads is a type of online advertising platform that allows your organization to create and display advertisements across Meta’s various products including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Audience Network.
Why Your Nonprofit Should Use Facebook (Meta) Ads
Almost every nonprofit I work with comes to me with the same challenge: Reaching new prospective partners (donors and volunteers) and nurturing current partners. While there are many ways to approach the solution to this challenge, one thing to consider is digital paid advertising.
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Measuring ROI
Think about this, how much budget do you dedicate each year towards direct mail (snail mail)? And how do you measure ROI for direct mail? Typically it’s receiving mailed checks or maybe placing a QR code on the piece of mail and tracking engagement there. But that’s about it. You don’t know how many people opened your mailed piece, let alone read it.
Now, what if you could put a specific amount of budget towards digital advertising and be able to specifically measure the ROI? You could see how many people saw your ad, “Liked” it, Shared it, clicked on it, and donated because of the ad. How helpful would it be to have all of those metrics to be able to measure the impact of your marketing? My guess is that it would be more helpful than what you currently can measure with your direct mail.
I’m not advocating to stop direct mail completely, although that may be the right move for your organization, but I am advocating for re-evaluating your marketing efforts and where your resources are going.
Targeting
With Facebook Ads your organization can target specific groups of people based on demographics, interests, behaviors, location, and even whether they have similarities to your current network of partners.
Algorithms
It’s not enough anymore just to post to Facebook and Instagram. Whether we like it or not, those Facebook and Instagram posts that you are spending time planning, writing, and posting are only being seen by a fraction of your overall audience on those platforms. In fact, your posts most likely are only getting a 1-3% engagement rate. Meaning if you have 1,000 followers on Facebook, at most only 30 people are engaging with that post. Facebook’s algorithms for a long time have been de-prioritizing “brand posts” in individuals’ newsfeeds, for various reasons, but ultimately it means that in order to reach a healthy amount of your followers and especially reach new audiences, you have to utilize paid ads.
Risks of Facebook Ads for Nonprofits
No Strategy
If you just start creating Facebook Ads without a strategic framework on how to create awareness, drive traffic, and convert traffic to leads, then you’ll just waste money. You must have a high-level vision of your organizations digital journey and ensure that every piece of the journey is setup to give people the best experience possible.
No Tracking
The other way you’re just going to waste money on Facebook Ads is if you don’t have tracking setup properly for your ads. This has become a bit more challenging in recent years due to Apple’s iOS changes, but it’s not impossible to track ROI through Meta Ads.
A few things to keep in mind when tracking Facebook Ads:
Utilize UTM parameters - You can create these within the Facebook Ads Manager for ease of use.
Utilize a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) - If your CRM is setup properly, you should be able to track UTM parameters from your ads all the way through to leads or donations. Popular CRMs that are great for this are Hubspot and Salesforce.
Are Facebook Ads Right For Your Nonprofit?
Every organization is different. I never recommend a digital marketing strategy to your organization without first gaining some context on your goals. With that said, Facebook Ads may be the right choice for you if you’re looking to engage your current network or reach new audiences to grow the impact the of your work.
But you can’t know for sure until we talk. If you’d like to learn more about whether Facebook Ads is right for your nonprofit, I’d love to connect! Schedule a free clarity call. I know these calls can sometimes seem intimidating, but just imagine that you’re scheduling a call with a friend who happens to have over a decade of digital marketing experience for nonprofits :-) Schedule a call today!
