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Facebook Election Drama, Google Analytics 4 & What To Do About TikTok

The Huge Mess That Facebook Created

I don’t work on political campaigns, but I’m still alarmed by this article in Politico. Here’s the background: starting Oct. 27, Facebook stopped allowing new political ads (their VERY broad definition of “political” includes issues like climate change and health care). Then, all those ads will pause when the polls close on Nov. 3. Google is doing something similar. Facebook’s policy got off to a rocky start this week when they incorrectly blocked some campaign ads while launching others early. As Facebook straightens that out, I’ve moved on to worrying about what’s next. When will “political issue” ads be back? I help clients raise money to fight climate change and address other “political” issues. Will my ads be back by Giving Tuesday? The platforms are now saying “who knows?”

What to Know About Google Analytics 4

While you may have already heard the news about the update to Google Analytics, you haven’t heard my take. I’m pretty excited! GA’s new version has many promising new features. I’ll definitely use the improved integration with Google Ads. It will now be easier to remove someone from your campaign (say, automatically stop running “Donate Now” ads to people who have already given). It’s also promising that Google Analytics 4 is taking into account the phase-out of cookies (something we covered back in March). This new version can — allegedly — use machine learning to fill in the gaps in data. I’m going to see how that pans out. Other improvements included in the update? Expanded AI-powered predictive insights, better cross-device measurement capabilities, codeless event tracking (no more writing Javascript to track website scrolling), and more granular data controls.

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My Favorite Advice & Data Viz of the Month

My Favorite Advice

GDPR-Compliant Opt-Ins to Gain Consumer Trust.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions from clients (and when I teach Google Analytics) about analytics opt-in messages on websites. A few of the most common questions are: How much ability should I give users to opt-in or out of Google Analytics? What percentage of people click to “accept” cookies? What should my pop-up say and where should I put it? Lucky for you, I found an article to answer all the questions that have been piling up. DHL tested every various configuration and recorded their results in this article. The attention-grabbing elements resulted in more opt-ins, while banners in the footer were often ignored. While it’s important to do your own testing, this article is an excellent starting point for what to expect.

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Was the Facebook Ads Boycott a Success, Your Guide to Google Analytics & New Charity Navigator Rating System

The Results Are In: Facebook Ads Boycott

One fact we can all agree on? The boycott was not successful. Not only did Facebook ad spend increase last month — from $3.78 million in June to $3.83 million in July — but the recommendation of changes from Stop Hate for Profit were largely unmet. Despite this, many big-name companies are done posturing and have returned to the platform to advertise (or never stopped advertising on other Facebook-owned platforms). Also, the majority of Facebook’s total ad revenue comes from small advertisers — a group that includes many nonprofits — and many didn’t feel they could afford to pause campaigns during the COVID crisis. This boycott gives us all a lot to think about.

A Move To Smaller, More Frequent Donations

Did you know the average donation in 2018 was $128? If you think that number seems high for current times, you’re not alone. There’s a new wave pushing to lower the bar for smaller donations as a way to expand your donor pool. Especially if your nonprofit is targeting Millennial and Gen Z donors, smaller, more frequent donations make giving more manageable. If you’re wondering how to implement this, a good place to start is to encourage donors to round-up their donations or “set up their own peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns” that typically garner a few dozen dollars for your cause.

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My Favorite Advice & Data Viz of the Month

My Favorite Advice

How to Get Donors Coming Back for More.

My first meeting back after summer vacation was a planning call for a client’s year-end campaign. Even though 2020 has us all feeling stuck in a never-ending nightmare time warp, year-end fundraising season is indeed quickly approaching. That means now is the perfect time to think about overhauling your donation page. You want potential donors to feel confident when making a gift to your organization and ensure the process is simple. What does that mean about how you set up your donation page? It doesn’t mean include more text, more images or more donate buttons. It means include text that aligns with your organization’s mission, an image that speaks to your value proposition and an easy-to-complete donation form. If you’re looking for recurring donations, make a monthly recurring donation the default choice. It will help your organization stand out since “most nonprofits that offered monthly donations did so as an optional step.” And if your nonprofit has a lengthy donation checkout process (and you want to find out where users are dropping off and how to prevent it), check out this article on setting up a Funnel Visualization report on Google Analytics.

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