The Parkinson’s Foundation’s first experiment in digital advertising paid off handsomely. A $10,000 test-case purchase of Google ads tied to search keywords netted $90,000 for its 2015 year-end campaign.
That success begot more investment and more success. Over time, the organization expanded advertising in its year-end drive from a few weeks to several months and launched advertising efforts on websites, social media, and search engines. Revenue from year-end digital advertising reached $365,000 in 2021, thanks in part to an important tactical change, according to Cathy Whitlock, the organization’s associate vice president of online communications.
With consultant Stephanie Schug of Media Cause, Whitlock and her team analyzed privacy measures introduced in Apple’s 2020 update of its iOS 14 operating system and the response of Facebook. They concluded that new protocols — particularly Apple’s prohibition of certain data collection and tracking via apps unless users opt in — limited the effectiveness of audience-targeting strategies.
“We can no longer target anything related to health conditions or health organizations,” Schug says. “That’s really hampered our ability to reach people who might follow a related organization or be interested in Parkinson’s research on social platforms.”
With Schug’s counsel, Whitlock’s team redirected some of its digital-ad budget from Facebook spending to search. Among other things, they expanded the search terms they linked to ads: Previously they had focused on keywords directly related to the organization and its programs, but last year it also bought ads for more “nonbranded” phrases such as “donate to Parkinson’s.”
The group also purchased ads with a second search engine, Microsoft’s Bing, in addition to Google. During GivingTuesday, it redirected money from its social-media advertising to bolster its paid search work.
The result of the changes: $210,000 in revenue from year-end search ads, a 75 percent increase from 2020. Search advertising likely will be a key part of the 2022 year-end campaign, Whitlock says. “We will follow the same type of strategy and probably go harder on search than we did before.”
Parkinson’s marketers are not the only ones revisiting tactics. Businesses and nonprofits alike are adjusting to stricter protections for consumers adopted by Apple, Facebook, Google, and other tech companies, says Nic Miller, head of special projects with Fundraise Up. Paid search was a top-performing digital-ad channel for charities in 2021 and netted organizations larger gifts on average than the previous year, Miller says.
Many groups also are seeking data directly from supporters through surveys, quizzes, polls, and other interactive tools. “Value is provided to supporters, and the organizations use what they collect to tailor their marketing content,” Miller says.
Advice for Growth and 2022
The Parkinson’s Foundation is a newcomer to digital advertising. Direct mail remains the anchor of its mass fundraising program, along with Moving Day, its walkathon, and Parkinson’s Revolution, its indoor cycling fundraiser. But digital ads have become important as the organization broadens outreach beyond those with the disease to loved ones and friends.
Here’s advice from Whitlock on digital fundraising and 2022’s year-end campaign.
Persuade leaders to invest with evidence of impact. Whitlock says colleagues at other organizations say it’s a challenge to get buy-in from top officials to spend on digital ads. Each year, she makes a presentation to senior leaders with Schug to drive home the impact of digital ads on fundraising, brand awareness, event participation, recruitment for clinical trials, and more.
“I strategically time that meeting for about a month before we start budget planning so we can keep those successes top of mind when we go through making our initial proposals,” she says.
Consider digital ads — particularly search ads — as a donor-acquisition tool. “A lot of organizations don’t think about search in that way,” Whitlock says. “And we’ve seen that between 60 percent and 70 percent of year-end donors from search are first-time donors.”
Couple advertising investment with refinement of your website. The Parkinson’s Foundation did significant work on search-engine optimization and evaluating content and structure against best practices. “You can dump all you want into paid search,” Whitlock says, “but if your website isn’t up to par, you’re not going to see the best results.”
Expect to compete against a wave of political advertising in the fall. “We’re all expecting a pretty busy midterm election season,” Whitlock says. “You may see advertising costs go up significantly as we get closer to Election Day.”
In years past, she adds, “we’ve tried to push a little more to our ads to cut through that political advertising and reach donors and people in the community generally.”
Expect smaller gifts this year. The average size of donations has been dropping all year, says Schug of Media Cause, as inflation pressures family budgets. Groups with a fixed-in-stone revenue target may need to spend a little more to reach that goal, she says. Others more worried about an efficient return on investment may want to hold back a bit.
