Digital campaigns can provide remarkable value for money for charities. They are critical tools for raising funds, developing awareness, building brand and generating leads. Under the right conditions, they provide far better returns on investment than most other campaign approaches. But those conditions are vital, and can be difficult to identify amidst the jargon.
That’s why we created three simple rules for all of our digital campaigns. It’s our way of making sure you get the impact you should for your investment, and that you can understand how we did it.
The Golden Rule: 50% or more of total campaign cost should be pure media/ad spend
You go to a creative agency for the strategy and content that will deliver low-cost, high-quality leads. But how many people are engaged or converted depends on both the content, and how many people see it. Your agency determines the quality of the content, while your media spend determines how many people it’s delivered to. That’s why on all of our digital campaigns, at least 50% of the total investment goes behind media spend.
We charge no margin and make no profit whatsoever on media spend. Every penny of media spend in our budgets goes to buying ad space in front of the audiences who will donate, engage or support.
This is also why, contrary to much of the sector, we calculate Cost per Acquisition, Cost per Lead and ROI relative to the total cost of the entire campaign. Unlike other agencies, we believe a meaningful ROI figure is the return we secure relative to your total investment in the campaign.
The Silver Rule: Metrics Matter (But Only Some)
The social media and digital landscape is overflowing with metrics. Likes, shares, followers, CPM, CPCs, CTRs, ClickThru %, 95% ClickThru %, AER, Bounce Rate, Impressions, Reach, Amplification, Applause, Virality, Heat, Insiders, Insomnia. Ok, those last three are Al Pacino films, but would you have confidently called them out?
Everything we do on a digital campaign is focused on what you tell us you want to achieve at the outset. If you want new donors, you should only care about metrics that feed directly into that.
If you wanted new donors but aren’t getting them, we’re not going to hide behind engagement metrics or quantity of new followers. If your CPM looks great – we’re getting your ads in front of thousands of people at a low cost – but they’re not becoming donors, then we’ll be finding ways to improve donor conversion, not bragging about our targeting.
And we measure not just total leads but also leads opted-in for future communication. Thousands of Gifts in Wills Guide downloads are valuable, but that’s not the most meaningful measure of success if you can’t message them further. So we strategise to maximise opted-in leads, whatever your charity’s regulations around this, and always show you both figures.
The Bronze Rule: Expertise is necessary but not sufficient
We’re specialised, experienced, and collaborate with some of the best digital campaign experts in the business. But these facts alone don’t set a campaign apart or guarantee extraordinary results. So what does?
The quantity of time spent building and refining targeting sets, and the number of targeting sets created for use. The amount of time spent creating diverse, varied, rich creatives and copy. And the number of hours spent amending and actively managing a campaign once launched. This hard work is what determines value for money.
If you’re hiring a creative agency to create digital content and they offer only one or two final assets, they probably don’t understand the specific advantages of digital campaigning. If you’re hiring a media agency which doesn’t suggest running a wide range of interlinked campaigns with a test and learn approach, they’re unlikely to get you the best possible results.
We devise the strategy, develop the content, and deliver your campaign in-house from start to finish. So each element can act as a force multiplier for every other.
We work from a transparent rate card, so you know exactly where your investment is going – and you’ll see it’s always towards getting you the best possible results.