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Fundraising Gamer Style, Writing Better Content & Why No One Likes SEO

Good Content Keeps ’em Coming Back 
It is easy to get caught up in increasing website traffic and forget that you need quality content to keep them there – and get them to return. This recent Forbes article reminds us of common mistakes nonprofits make in developing content. First, stop copying your print materials. What works in a flyer isn’t right for online. If volunteers help maintain your website and social media, be sure to train them on style and content. Finally, good writing is important. Just because someone is an expert on a topic, does not mean they can write well about it. Don’t be afraid to get out your red pen (or activate Word’s track changes).

Making a Game out of Fundraising
Bored with the same old silent auctions, 5Ks and Facebook fundraisers? The brave new frontier of digital fundraising is in gaming. According to this article in Nonprofit Quarterly, game company Activision Blizzard donated nearly $13 million to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) through their online game, Overwatch. Blizzard, which makes World of Warcraft, sold limited edition avatar skins as well as merchandise like t-shirts for players. Another game company recruited champion players to livestream their gameplay, donating tips from viewers to a charitable cause.

Poor, Misunderstood SEO 
If you don’t really understand what SEO is, you aren’t alone (even outside the nonprofit marketing world). A recent survey found that businesses ranked search engine optimization (SEO) as the “least popular digital marketing channel.” Only 44% of respondents named SEO as part of their online marketing strategy (social media, website and email were the three most popular.) The researchers expressed surprise over this finding, attributing the lack of popularity to a misunderstanding of SEO and the fact that results from SEO efforts often take some time to show.

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Facebook Fundraising Changes, Automating Your Ad Grant & Analyzing Mario Kart

Advertisers and Audiences: Destined to be Frenemies?
I hate to even bring up the E.U.’s General Data Protection Regulation, after I spent late May drowning in emails. (I’m still cleaning out my inbox!) However, I wanted to highlight this New Yorker article by Ken Auletta, which puts the issue into a broader context. He examines how the use of Big Data to improve targeting brings to light the tensions between the desire for personalized content and concerns about consumer privacy. The article asserts that: “The advertising and marketing world scrambles for new ways to reach consumers. Big Data, they believe, promises ways they might better communicate with annoyed consumers—maybe unlock ways that ads can be embraced as a useful individual service rather than as an interruption.” What do you think? Is it possible to meet the needs of both audiences and advertisers?

Get Verified! Facebook Political and Issue Ads
Facebook has started enforcing their new ad verification rules. As this article explains, all advertisers wanting to run political content need to verify their identity and location (aka Facebook sends you a postcard in the mail). This is meant to allow users to clearly identify the organization that has paid for an ad. Facebook is also creating a searchable archive of political and issue ads. If your nonprofit runs ads on Facebook, I recommend getting verified. Even if you think your ads aren’t political, Facebook might think they are.

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Tips to Fix Your AdWords Grant for Google’s New Rules

So you’ve heard the news!  Nonprofit Google Ad Grants new rules rolled out in December, and organizations have two months to get into compliance. The February deadline is looming, and a lot of organizations are scrambling to rethink how they run their accounts.

No one’s quite sure what’s Google’s purpose with restructuring the program. Some say this is beginning of the end for the program (and the free $10K/month in ad dollars). Others claim that Google is simply cracking down on nonprofits who don’t properly manage their accounts and reflect badly on the advertiser.

But let’s not ponder what logic drives the Silicon Valley giant. All we know is we want to get the most out of our free ads. And no one wants to get their account shutdown! Here’s a quick rundown of the rules and my suggestions for how to fix your account.

Nonprofit Google Ad Grants New Rules:

  • The good! No more $2 bid cap (but you will need to set up goals in Google Analytics and use them to run maximize conversions bidding.)
  • The bad! Your account must have a 5% average click through rate (and if it fails to meet this two months in a row, it will be shut down. Yikes!)
  • And the easy: 
    • You must make use of geo-targeting (I once talked to a nonproft that only operated in one state. However, it accidentally ran its free AdWords nationwide. Preventing that sort of bad user experience is probably exactly what Google had in mind).
    • You must have at least two active ad groups. These must contain related keywords and two active text ads.
    • You must have two sitelink extensions
    • You cannot advertise against other brand names

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Newsfeed Exile, Creepy Chat Bots & Why GA Stats Never Match Facebook

Facebook’s New Pay or Disappear Model
It’s been a few weeks, so of course Facebook has made some changes. What’s new this time? FB is rolling out a new Newsfeed called “Explore.”  In most markets, Explore has updates from pages that you don’t follow. But in a few cities, Facebook has bumped brand content to this secondary feed. Only those who pay to promote posts appear in the main Newsfeed.  Look for a follow up soon with metrics about what this means for organizations on Facebook (aka everyone).

The Facebook vs. GA Saga, the Final Word
Ever wondered why Facebook and Google Analytics are different? Yes, it’s a topic that’s been covered before here. But I had to give this article a shout out for falling squarely in the category of “I’m happy they did this, so that I never have to.” The TL;DR version: this article is very kind to Facebook, telling you to add 20% to whatever Google Analytics conversations you attribute to Facebook.

Those Lucky 15 People in Florida
Yeah, yeah. It’s another piece about politics and Facebook ads. Epolitics boiled down the 60 Minutes interview with Brad Parscale (“the first pure-digital consultant to run a major presidential campaign”) to a few gems about the Trump campaign’s savviness with Facebook ads. In one spot, Parscale said the Trump campaign used Facebook to reach clusters of rural voters, such as “15 people in the Florida Panhandle that I would never buy a TV commercial for.”

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Got a Government Contract for Public Education & Outreach? Five Ways to Measure Your Success

Most government contracts for public education and outreach contain an important clause: you must provide analysis and reporting. It’s part of your contract… and a big one. No matter how creative your message, compelling your graphics or innovative your approach, you need to show Uncle Sam the numbers (or the state or local government). Whether you are promoting smarter energy consumption, encouraging flu vaccines or touting local tourism, here are the must-dos for government public education campaign analysis.

Not into reading? Check out my webinar on the “Five Must Dos to Take Action from Your Digital Data,” which contains many of these same tips in webinar format.

spreadsheet with too many metricsMust Do #1: Stop Trying to Track Everything

First thing is first. Get get over your data FOMO (aka. fear of missing out). Many contract administrators and/or marketing firms make the mistake of tracking everything when trying to measure outreach effectiveness of a government contract. But just because you have a lot of stats and a large Excel spreadsheet, does not mean that you have true analysis and understanding of what worked and what didn’t.

The following steps will help you get clear about what’s important to track.  This will help you start recording data in a way that’s not overwhelming.

 

Must Do #2:  Get Clear on the Goal of Your Campaign

Ask yourself, “What is the point of this campaign?” The end goal isn’t likely to be driving video views, Facebook clicks or blog pageviews. Those are simply techniques. The reason you got the contract in the first place is to help you accomplish the broader goal of changing behavior or promoting public awareness. Start with that big picture and work backwards. We live in a society that’s so excited by tracking for tracking’s sake (Fitbit, anyone?) it’s easy to start recording data and lose sight of the “why.”

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