Paying to advertise your cause on a free social-media platform may seem like an unnecessary expense, but changes to algorithms on Facebook and Instagram suggest it may be a good strategy, according to fundraising experts.
Moreover, if your nonprofit has assigned a staff member the job of posting on social media, it’s already paying to use that communication channel, says Ali Glazer, digital-advertising strategist at Whole Whale, a digital ad agency. Investing in advertising to support your online outreach “really isn’t as big of a next step as it often seems,” she said.
Even so, some charities are struggling to adjust in the new pay-to-play environment. One challenge is the ever-expanding menu of advertising-campaign goals, placement options, and style choices on social media. “At some point, it becomes potentially overwhelming,” said Cherian Koshy, development director at Des Moines Performing Arts.
So how should charities incorporate social-media ads into their strategies? Here’s what fundraising and marketing experts say.
Leave room for experimentation. Koshy estimates that 25 percent of the digital-advertising budget at Des Moines Performing Arts is spent on social-media ads on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Some of those ads request donations, while others are aimed at acquiring or reaching new donors. That investment amounts to about $5,000 annually.
At the Sierra Club, Andre Sternberg, associate director for digital advertising, estimates that 25 percent of the group’s digital advertising budget goes toward buying fundraising ads on Facebook and Instagram. The Sierra Club also runs social-media ad campaigns aimed at recruiting new donors as well as new subscribers to its email list; these efforts are allocated in their own budget groups.
As Sternberg wrote in an email, the Sierra Club’s investment in social-media ads “in each category is different and fluctuates month to month and year to year.”
However, not every charity has the bandwidth to accommodate this kind of flexibility. For its part, Des Moines Performing Arts supplements its social-media advertising budget with a line item that Koshy calls “failure money.” This funding supports experimentation across all channels of donor communication, digital advertising, events, and direct mail.
“We’ll try something just to learn the lesson,” said Koshy.
How Much Nonprofits Make From Online Ads
| Type of Ad | Share of online-advertising budget spent | Revenue earned per dollar spent |
| Display | 44% | $0.36 |
| Search | 16% | $4.78 |
| Social Media | 35% | $0.83 |
| Video | 5% | $0.30 |
Source: “Benchmarks 2019,” M+R
Balance immediate payoff with long-term investment. While experimentation is essential to a successful social-media ad campaign, paid search-advertising — which enables organizations to appear at the top of certain search results — requires much less innovation. Thus, some charities, like the Cancer Research Institute, have invested most of their digital-advertising budget in paid search ads.
“It’s as if someone’s already writing a check and we’re just saying, ‘Oh, give it to us,’” Alice Northover, senior marketing manager at Cancer Research Institute, said of the tactic. In November and December alone last year, her charity raised $150,000 through paid search ads on Google and Bing.
Paid search is far and away the most profitable investment in terms of the donations it inspires. Moreover, the direct movement of donors from keyword search to a donation page makes it easy to track that activity.
But this investment is not without its limitations. For one, people who donate through paid search typically already know about your cause or charity. A recent study by M+R cautions against overvaluing the revenue generated by paid search. .
The study’s author warns against drawing conclusions about those who give in response to paid search ads. For example, they could be first-time donors, or they could be existing supporters. You can’t capture the true value of a donor or know everything that factored into that person’s decision to give.
Liz Ertner, senior vice president at M+R, says paid search ads are a good first step for charities: They’re a reliable form of revenue, but they’re unlikely to significantly expand your network. “To really do a lot of donor acquisition and grow and scale a program, you need to invest in other channels as well,” she said.
“Boosted posts” aren’t worth it. Glazer at Whole Whale cautions against using Facebook’s “boosted posts,” which allow nonprofits to pay Facebook to show their posted content to people who have already “liked” the charity’s page, are friends with someone who has liked the page, or are part of a group that the charity is trying to reach. The idea is that the more people who see the post, the more people will engage with the cause.
The feature is appealing because it allows nonprofits to advertise using a familiar medium: the Facebook post. But while more Facebook users may learn about your charity through these posts, it’s difficult to determine whether a comment from a user will translate into sustained engagement.
Put simply: Beware of “vanity metrics” like that, Glazer says. Such responses may feel good but lack any long-term value. Rather, a strong social-media ad program should use experimentation to meet clear goals, such as recruiting new email newsletter subscribers, winning donations, or engaging new supporters in events.
