One Donor Named Shelly

A faith-based charity raising money through Facebook. I've touched more than a hundred ad accounts across industries, nonprofits and donations included.

A donation campaign has to make one kind of person care before it asks for anything. The creative gets written for nobody in particular when there's no clear avatar.

We built the campaign around one person. Shelly is 45 to 55 and lives on the West Coast, in an area where she doesn't interact with kids. She works a whole lot and desperately wants to give back, and she doesn't have the know-how. Then we asked what Shelly would move on, what she'd enjoy, and what stories she'd want to hear when she goes to church, and we made those stories. One was about inner-city kids who had been through the program. The first ads asked for nothing. They ran to a broad audience in long video, short video and carousels, and we followed up with the people who watched. I kept the targeting open and let the age and gender breakdown show which groups actually performed. Then I read frequency against engagement to see whether people were building a relationship with the charity.

• One written donor avatar
• Story-led video, long and short, plus carousels
• Retargeting the people who watched
• Age and gender breakdown analysis
• Frequency read against engagement

The first ads asked for nothing and went wide, and the follow-up ads went to the people who had watched the stories.

Every creative decision had one test: would Shelly stop for this? That gave the content a direction before a single ad asked for a donation.

Write the donor down as a person, with an age, a place, and a reason she hasn't given yet. Then keep the targeting broad and let the data tell you how many Shellys are really out there.