What are the common challenges and opportunities for display advertising in the nonprofit sector?

1 Define your goals and metrics

Before launching any display advertising campaign, it is important to have a clear idea of what you are trying to achieve and how you will measure success. Depending on the mission, vision, and strategy of your nonprofit, you may have different goals and metrics for your display ads. For instance, some common goals include increasing brand awareness and recognition, educating and informing the public about your cause and impact, inspiring people to take action or support your cause, generating leads and growing your email list, driving traffic to your website or landing page, and increasing conversions and donations. To track and evaluate performance, you need to define key performance indicators (KPIs) such as impressions (the number of times your ad is shown), click-through rate (the percentage of people who click on your ad after seeing it), cost per click (the average amount you pay for each click), cost per lead (the average amount you pay for each lead generated), cost per acquisition (the average amount you pay for each conversion or donation generated), and return on ad spend (the ratio of revenue or value generated by your ad to the amount spent). By defining goals and metrics, it is possible to align your display advertising strategy with the objectives of your nonprofit and optimize budget and resources.

2 Choose the right platforms and formats

Choosing the right platforms and formats for display advertising in the nonprofit sector is a challenge and opportunity. Options such as Google Display Network, social media platforms, programmatic advertising, native advertising, and video advertising all have their own advantages and disadvantages depending on goals, budget, audience, and creative. For example, Google Display Network can reach a wide audience but may result in low CTR and high CPC. Social media platforms can leverage social proof but require frequent optimization. Programmatic advertising can target and personalize ads but may involve higher costs and complexity. Native advertising can blend in with content but raise ethical issues. Video advertising can capture attention but requires resources and skills to produce high-quality content. Thus, researching and comparing the different options is essential to determine which best suit your nonprofit's needs and capabilities.

3 Create compelling and relevant ads

Creating compelling and relevant ads is essential for successful display advertising. To do this, you need to consider your audience, message, design, and call-to-action. Who are you trying to reach and what are their needs? What are you trying to communicate and why? How can you make your ads visually appealing and consistent with your brand identity? What do you want your audience to do after seeing your ads? By crafting ads that take these aspects into account, you can increase CTR, conversions, donations, brand awareness, and reputation.

4 Test and optimize your ads

The final challenge and opportunity for display advertising in the nonprofit sector is to test and optimize your ads to improve performance and results. This requires constant monitoring, analysis, and adjustment. Setting up tracking and measurement tools, such as Google Analytics or Facebook Pixel, is essential. A/B tests or experiments should be conducted to evaluate different versions of your ads. Analyzing the data and insights can help identify trends and patterns that can inform changes and improvements to your ads. This process should be repeated regularly in order to maximize ROAS, increase conversions and donations, and enhance your display advertising strategy.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?