Facebook, Fundraising and the Dawn of a New Age
Facebook Custom Audiences
Next up, in September 2012, Facebook Custom Audiences launched, finally enabling Facebook to be a part of targeted multichannel campaigns. Specifically, Custom Audiences allows you to:
- Find donors and other supporters in your database on Facebook, regardless of whether the person “likes” your nonprofit fan page or not. You can match via e-mail address, phone number or Facebook user ID. Conducting a major integrated campaign? Target the same supporter base you target via mail, e-mail and other channels with Facebook Custom Audiences ads targeted at the same individuals.
- Acquire new donors via Facebook’s Lookalike models (as of March 2013). Specifically, Facebook can track those that convert via Facebook (to donors, activists or whatever the desired action is) — and then create “Lookalike” models to target people with similar Facebook profiles and behavior. The models are ever-learning and improving based on who converts.
And then there’s …
Another recent innovation on the paid search side, Facebook has made advertising a lot more effective by creating new ad types, “sponsored posts” that appear in users’ news feeds. We’ve heard reports of this new ad type receiving 35 (yes, 35!) times the clickthrough rate and CPAs at less than 50 percent of regular Facebook marketplace ads in the right column among commercial firms. These stellar metrics may change as people become numb to these ads, too — but the potential is certainly there. We suggest that smart marketers focus on keeping these sponsored posts conversational like a regular news feed post so they get equal attention.
