Doctors Without Borders uses remarketing and retargeting to extend reach

By Karin Kirchoff and Jeff Regen

While its program is big today — one of the larger online sustainer acquisition programs in the market — MSF started small with retargeting. By simply placing a pixel (a string of code that drops a “cookie” on a visitor and is stored in the visitor’s browser) on its website, MSF was able to promote a fundraising ask to visitors who did not make donations after they left the organization’s site. These “ads” appeared on news sites, social-networking sites and even on online games. Donors were omitted from these retargeting efforts through the use of exclusion pixels (they are exactly what they sound like!), further enhancing the donor experience and not wasting the marketing spend on prospects who already converted.