68. Some Personal News

Redefining “on brand” creative and How to accelerate your growth through the disruption of an upcoming election cycle

Oct 08, 2023

A very warm welcome to all the new subscribers. I’m thrilled to have you as readers and truly appreciate your feedback and support.

Talking of support, shout out to Aidan who’s been a reader of SPN since September 2022. And this Quarter his company Feathr is supporting SPN, ensuring I can keep bringing you the insights and features you enjoy.

So, the next time you see Feathr mentioned in SPN or elsewhere give them a cheer. And check out their marketing platform built specifically for nonprofits. You can run your ad campaigns, email and reporting all out of one place. It’s powerful stuff.

Today’s SPN includes the following:

What is it that makes creative perform so well + Ad library inspo.
Which mediums and formats can you be experimenting with.
How to navigate an Election Cycle while accelerating your growth → 2024 planning.

As with every edition of SPN please reach out with any questions or comments. I respond to every single one.

Let’s dig in.

Making Better Creative

My favorite takeaway from this week was one that I’ve always believed to be true, but it was nice to hear others say it too: You don’t need a $100k piece of creative to start running TV. You just need to make sure you have a good story, a good hook, and a good offer.

From conversations I’ve had with media buyers over the years and also just buying media myself, one thing is clear: the best form of targeting is your creative. The angle and messaging in your creative will determine who sees it.

I saw UNICEF leverage an eye-catching new ad format this week and it prompted me to check out their Ad library. These libraries are treasure troves. You’ve been warned! By the time I came up for air, hours had passed by, I’d scanned thousands of nonprofit assets and I’d started to look at the evolution of Airbnb’s campaigns. It’s telling what’s working for brands when you see lots of ads all lined up next to each other. Check out some of the Ad libraries here:

Facebook Ads Library

Google Ads Library

TikTok Ads Library

LinkedIn (go to an Org’s LinkedIn Page > Post > Ads)

But what is it that makes creative perform so well?

Create ads that YOU would screenshot or share. If it won’t perform well organically, don’t make it into an ad. You might remember my post about the Content Playbook of Sorts from SPN #33: create content, test it organically, and then push it into paid. Content that won’t get shared into the group chat, isn’t content worth putting out.
Let the data help you decide. There’s nothing worse than a CMO saying “That’s not on brand,” and then having their “On brand” creative perform 10 times worse. Until you’re doing $50M in digital fundraising revenue, your “brand” is built by getting your mission into the heads and hands of donors who can become recurring donors and advocates for your Org.
Hire actual creators to make your content. Want amazing video creative? Go search for creators who do this for a living and contract them. If they’ve built their own audience online making content like the ads that you want to see, they can make strong creative for your Org. If you work with content creators, don’t try to tell them exactly what to do either - you hired them, let them do their job.
Experiment with all mediums and formats. You absolutely should be doing a “media mix” of stats, videos, studio shot, donor-generated-content, comparisons, testimonials, story based creative, ads that are emotion-driven, ads that are education-driven, founder stories for younger nonprofits, fully animated ads, advertorials, articles, Holiday-themed creative, influencer creative and more… to see what works best for your Org. The learnings from testing all of these formats will be worth their weight in gold.
Build a “creative reference bank.” Every time I see an eye-catching ad from another brand or creator online, I take a screenshot or save the link. Obviously I don’t want to copy the ads directly. What I’m doing though is building creative references that can help inspire agencies and teams with elements for future campaigns. Maybe you like a color, font, hook, or something else. Save it to spark ideas for future ads.
H/T to an SPN reader who shared that their team created an Instagram DM group for Ads inspo. So whenever someone sees something good they send it in there with 1 sentence on why and what they like about it. Inspired idea!
Match Ad creative to your landing page. One of the fastest ways to boost CVR is to match your ad creative to your landing page. Real example: I was served an ad asking me to donate money to purchase a blue watering can and when I clicked it I was sent to a homepage that featured 10 other unrelated products.
There’s simply no reason to do this in 2023. If you feature a blue water can in your ad, send your prospective donors to an LP with a blue water can featured front and center. This will make the full donor journey feel frictionless and reduce unnecessary clicks.
Focus on the hook. With video ads, the first 1-2 seconds are really what matters most. How can you grab a donor’s attention and hook them with the right setup, shot, or leading question? Test more hooks than anything else.
Repurpose your top performers. Once you’ve tested multiple concepts, start doubling down on the top 5 highest performing ads. Make 5-10 new variations of your top performers. Try a different opening shot, different music, capital letters instead of lowercase, different overlays, etc. There are nearly endless ways that you can continuously remix your top performing creative. Follow the data and keep tweaking your winners to see if you can continue to improve CPMs and CPAs.
Focus on clear, concise, compelling copy. The copywriting in an ad can make or break its performance. You typically only have a second or two to catch a donor’s attention and get them hooked to want to learn more.

Here are some of my rules for copywriting:
• Present the ask first (i.e don’t bury the lead!)
• Speak in benefits and value props
• Use copy to explain how someone/thing’s life will change for the better after donating to your Org
• Use CAPITALS, emojis, punctuation, line breaks, etc., when necessary to highlight key points
• Explain concepts like speaking to a 5 year old
• Avoid using big words
• Keep editing until you feel like you can’t remove any more words
• Then edit one more time
Low-fi ads work! You don’t need a fancy camera or a high-production value commercial. Some of the highest performing ads I’ve ever seen were shot on an iPhone, selfie style. Don’t overthink it; just shoot, add text, and publish.
Bonus: Run your traditional press as ads. If your Org gets written about in you name it, run that article as an ad. The easiest way to make the most out of your earned media is by amplifying through a paid campaign. You’d be surprised at how well this works to drive fundraising. Just be cautious of the affiliate commission, if there is one. You can also take the screenshot of that headline + the publication and run it to a landing page.

Ok. What did I miss that you’d add? Let me know in a reply.

Accelerating Growth Through Disruption

Most organizations spend lots of time preparing their fundraising operations for unexpected emergencies.

The first organization to activate in the category usually raises more funds than the runners-up. Speed, templatized emergency creative assets, and automated rules are table stakes.

But what rules apply when you know what’s coming but it’s still going to be sky high on the Richter scale of a category-wide disruption? What do I have in mind?

How about a nationwide election campaign.

Next year the US elections will take place and very likely there’ll be a General Election in the UK. Probably around the same time too.

So here are some facts and then thoughts to factor into your 2024 planning.

Media costs will rise and you can do nothing about it! Efficiency is a lost cause when the media landscape is full of political campaigns aiming to skew public opinion or raise funds to continue doing so – and those marketers aren’t very cash-restricted.
Donors feel overwhelmed and you can do nothing about it either. In 2020, we faced steep declines in average CTRs, conversion rates, and average donation values. Everybody I’ve spoken to at different Org’s encountered the same. Prospective donors will be jostling with another (big) category to consider when deciding where to allocate their discretionary spend.
Creative production is now cheaper thanks to the rise in people adopting Generative AI. And therefore even more dollars will be made available for media buys.

Yet a rising tide lifts all boats – and an increase in overall spending on digital channels can propel innovation, making every Org that chooses to compete much better in the long run.

When efficiency is off the table, focus on the effectiveness. I’ve been reading a lot of news about eCommerce businesses going bankrupt recently blaming raising CPAs on Facebook. The recent bankruptcy of Smile Direct Club (dental), an acquisition of Blue Apron (meal kits) for pennies on the dollar, and the underwhelming stock performance of Purple (mattresses) or Allbirds (despite my love for their Tree Runners) are frequently cited as examples.

Whether that’s accurate or we’re seeing the impact of stimulus checks on businesses wearing out, one thing stays true – lots of Org’s grew to rely on cheap traffic from Facebook and Google. Nonprofits aren’t immune to it either.

Time-bound events such as elections, which raise media prices beyond profitability thresholds are necessary. They also require organizations to re-center on effectiveness and better targeting.

Whenever talking about the Donor Lifecycle in SPN, I’ve used the below visual as an example for structuring the program in alignment with the “next best action” for every donor.

One way for your fundraising team to be better prepared for a radically rising media cost is to take the above one step further and add probability as a dimension. It might be as simple as the “Conversion Likelihood” metric in GA4 added as a qualifier to every audience, in tiers of “under 50%”, “50-80%”, and “80-100%”.

But by having that dimension available for targeting, you’re enabling the organization to quickly turn off marketing to the lower 50% of the potential donors and increase the frequency of messaging to the higher tiers – mitigating the impact of the rising media cost, lower conversion rate, and lower average donation value.

Organizations that know their donor base well and can focus their program only on the best current and prospective donors in times of lower efficiency are bound to come ahead of the competition.

Automated rules rule the game. In the event of rapidly and unpredictably rising media costs, having automated controls to change bids and turn off separate campaigns and ad groups based on specific CPA or CVR rules will save you lots of money for potential reallocation. My favorite is establishing these rules not on CPA or AOV but on ROAS – to account for both sides of the equation.

This moment is the right moment to double down on Donor Experience. Times of higher media cost driven by externalities outside your control demand it.

Experimentation – and personalization – on your website, email, direct mail, and other owned channels to are both “offense” and “defense” in this scenario. Don’t confuse this with me encouraging the “we need your support” email blasts to existing donors. That’s the opposite of providing a solid experience. I spoke in greater detail about “experience” in this and this edition, check them out.

“Attach but disconnect” in your creatives. Broad topics that overtake the public’s attention and dominate the cultural space present great opportunities for less-known Org’s to gain significant awareness, leveraging the branding effect of the category itself.

An Org working hard to provide access to reproductive rights is better off staying away from any Blue vs. Red confrontation – but the Org providing access to clean water in African countries would only benefit from a campaign centered around a “Regardless of which side you’re on, we all get thirsty” slogan.

Lean on organic. Last but not least, when paid becomes too expensive – organic channels quickly return to being in vogue. Even though organic is a top conversion driver for most Org’s, it’s frequently forgotten in the Optimization flow. The associated lack of proper analytics and much slower speed of change doesn’t help its cause.

Yet when paid media becomes unaffordable or limited, organic remains the only safety net to capture those lower-probability donors who might still be looking for you online. I’ve shared more in-depth thoughts here on organic channel optimization.

Wrapping up

With proper upfront preparation, the “regular irregularity” of election campaigns, which can destabilize an entire digital fundraising ecosystem, should be embraced by Org’s looking to accelerate their growth.

While I focused on using elections as an example since they represent more of a shock to the system, these five approaches can easily be leveraged to counter other cyclical, disruptive events like November 28 or December 31, and EOY more generally.

Now onto the fun stuff!