Measuring success with the right metrics

When creating digital campaigns for your fundraising, it’s easy to get caught up on the vanity metrics that everyone’s talking about: the cost per lead, or the click-through rate. But are these really good measures of success? We think not, and here’s why. 

Vanity metrics only snapshot success in a moment of time

The best way to explain why a low cost per lead doesn’t necessarily provide a good outcome is that the metric doesn’t show the ROI with a longevity perspective. While a low CPL might seem efficient, it doesn’t always translate to quality leads, conversions, or long-term donations. 

The quality of a lead is a lot more indicative of your advertising success

Think of it this way, if you spend a little more money to find the right kind of supporter who will not only donate but fall in love with the whole mission of your cause, the likelihood of them giving again, giving a higher amount and possibly even choosing to become a regular giver (or even a GIW consider) is a lot higher. 

When that is the case, investing a little more to get someone in the door who will give a little more, in the long run is truly worth the investment.

So, how do you find more of the right people?

At Bigfoot Fundraising, we’re not about boosting posts here and there hoping to catch some fish on some creative ad copy and visuals.

When fundraising for our clients, we see a digital fundraising campaign as only part of a larger integrated (and often multi-channel) approach. With that in mind, we are always thinking about who we already have in your database. Who they know. How to reach them online AND how we can find more people like them. It is not a case of ‘one size fits all’. We know that no charity is the same, and know how to tailor the approach to the charity at hand - what their audience looks like, what their goals are and what their key messages are all about.

And how about converting the right people?

It’s one thing to get the right people seeing your ad. But actually converting them requires a more thorough strategy. 

That’s why although the creative is essentially the most important thing that will need to be tried and tested, ensuring you have a retargeting strategy in place to scoop up those who have already viewed the campaign will be key. Repetition matters. Did they get distracted on the donate page? Did they realise they were getting paid next week and decided to hold off? Never create an ad with the intention to set and forget… if you do, you’ll be pushing yourself into a corner and failing to optimise your ads for true innovative success.

Finally, when creating your ad in the campaign creation section of Meta Ads Manager, be sure to optimise each ad with the right metrics and to ensure you are tracking a landing page view that is linked to the ‘thank you’ or ‘confirmation’ page. At the end of the day, you want more people who go through with the complete transaction rather than those who read and bounce.

Did you find this write-up helpful? We’d love to help you level up your next campaign or help you create a fundraising strategy that works.

Click here to get in touch.