Friday Five 015: How to See Your ROI from Digital Marketing

3 min read ✭ Join us in Episode 015 of the Friday Five, as we cover incorporating Google AdWords and Facebook advertising into your marketing strategy, and how to track their success.

What is the Friday Five?

Each Friday, we will be answering your most pressing questions from our Digital Marketing for Nonprofits Facebook group. If we don’t cover a challenge that you or your nonprofit colleagues are facing, drop us a comment below or tweet us @CommunityBoost and we’ll add it to the queue. 

Let’s dive in! 

Nonprofit Marketing Challenges

1) Your Biggest Marketing Challenge: “Converting digital/social presence into donations.” – Joe, Wellness in the Schools

Our Solution: Think through your full donor marketing funnel. What is a smaller way you can have people start to invest prior to bigger donations? How can you warm up a supporter into a potential donor? You must have compelling donation asks that are both tangible and transparent. You can try running a “sprint” when you are thinking through a new campaign idea, come up with some minimum viable content and run it by your current donors and potential donors. Get feedback and then take it to the market.    

2) Your Biggest Marketing Challenge: “I’m newer in the position and the paid ads is still relatively new. Figuring out which metrics to look at and how to make decisions based on those metrics is a challenge. ” – Michelle, Alzheimer’s Association – Northern California and Northern Nevada Chapter 

Our Solution: With the beauty of digital, everything is truly measurable when you set up your Analytics foundations correctly. First, identify the ultimate macro goal you are looking to drive, online donations for example. With certain donation platforms, you can track full donation revenue and the analytics, and then bring that data to Facebook and into Google Ads. Then, determine how close you can measure that, can you track actual donation revenue in Google Analytics with your tech stack, can you only track clicks to donate because you are using a sub-par donation platform like Paypal? From there, identify the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for your platform that can be your guidelines for how well your macro goals are going. In Facebook ads this might be your cost to acquire a donation transaction. Another beneficial metric you can track is the click-through rate. All of these metrics can help to decrease your cost to acquire donors and ultimately increase the ROI of your ad spend. 

3) Your Biggest Marketing Challenge: “Effectively using our advertising budget. We invest in AdWords and are getting more into Facebook advertising, but don’t see the direct ROI.” – Juliana, Northern Illinois Food Bank

Our Solution: Google Ads can sometimes be difficult to see immediate ROI from initially. However, you should definitely be utilizing the Google Ad Grant if you are not. You can get $10,000 a month in free in-kind Google Ads. When you don’t have to put up your own money for the ad spend, it really helps your ROI, so use the Ad Grant as much as possible. For Facebook and Instagram ads, you have the potential to see 2-3x return on ad spend year round and upwards of 10x on year-end giving campaigns when you pair the ad cycles with strong campaign seasons and creative. Facebook will work, you just have to dial in your targeting and creative. If you need year-round gifts outside of year-end fundraising, focus on building a recurring giving program. Food is something that is needed constantly and there is a way to inspire people to support your cause consistently. Check out Charity: Water’s Spring Monthly Donation Program or Pencils of Promise Passport for inspiration. You have the data to show what a tangible donation means, so be sure to use that.

4) Your Biggest Marketing Challenge: “Being very new to the role and needing to expand knowledge.” – Shelby,  Rockfish Camp and Retreat Center

Our Solution: Use the Digital Marketing for Nonprofits Facebook group as a valuable resource. Post often anytime you need help or feedback and let the community chime in with their support. Also, be sure to follow the leading nonprofit marketing resources, like Classy blog, Community Boost’s, webinars, and, of course, Google is your friend! It’s the best way to have an answer right at your fingertips. 

What digital marketing strategies do you use? How have they worked for you? Comment below or tweet us 

Want A Free Audit?

Let’s talk – schedule a call today!