First Cause Camp Fall speaker revealed! Check out our conversation with Dana Snyder of Positive Equation on our podcast!
Are your social media ads helping or confusing your donors? Dana Snyder, the brilliant mind behind the major nonprofit movement Movember, joined us for a chat on the Hubcast podcast. This episode focuses on donor attraction in the ever-changing world of social media advertising.
It’s no secret that technology is constantly evolving. Recent privacy changes and iOS updates led to a discussion about what social media advertising tools are worthwhile for nonprofits. We also touched on what smart targeting looks like. Ultimately, Dana explained how creating a journey rather than a transaction helps maximize every dollar invested in social advertising.
About Dana
Dana Snyder is an entrepreneur, digital strategist, and passionate conscious consumer. She founded Positive Equation in 2017 with a focus on helping nonprofits cultivate passionate online audiences of donors, partners, and advocates using social media.
Currently based in Atlanta, Dana has worked with Movember, Dress for Success, USTA, Honest Company, Sports Illustrated, American Idol, The Global Foodbanking Network, The Gary Sinise Foundation, LA84 Foundation, and many more organizations on their digital strategies.
Dana is also a member of the Purpose Collaborative. Purpose Collaborative is an invitation-only global group of 40+ boutique firms, consultancies, and experts—all passionate about social purpose.
Dana graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Advertising and Public Relations from the University of Central Florida.
One and Done is Not a Strategy
How can nonprofits do better with social media ads? Having a clear approach is key. Dana provided some caution on placing ads without a strategy that stop short of creating a connection. She affirmed that the $5 boosting of posts on Facebook here and there is equivalent to throwing hard-earned funding into a black hole. For her, it’s a challenge to work with nonprofits that place one social media ad and then stop if it doesn’t achieve instant results. Encouraging a long-term approach built around the donor’s gift-making journey, she shared this wisdom:
“Pay attention to when you’re targeted by for-profit brands. We’re the same! Their goal is to get you to make a purchase, to buy a product. Our goal is to get people to make a donation. A customer is a donor! It’s the same logic. When you make a purchase you’re excited to get something in the mail. When you donate, you’re excited to make a difference.”
Specifically, Dana advised retargeting ads toward engaged audience members. It’s important to place ads that keep your organization in front of users who have already shown an interest. This could be those who visit your website or watch your videos.
User Experience is Paramount
The ease of experience for users is key. As an example, Dana shared the story of one charity she worked with that had an issue with this. The charity received a disproportionately larger amount of donations on desktop computers compared to mobile devices. (This data can be found in your social analytics on any platform.) After looking into it, she realized that when donors tried to give a gift on mobile, they were redirected to a second donate page. Confusion ensued.
“We’re living in the world of Amazon,” Dana reminded us. “We need to make sure donating is a simple, one-click step.”
User experience throughout the donation process is best to look at with any marketing initiative. But, it’s especially important for processes with multiple touch points like social media advertising. To really understand the return on investment of your social ads, you should examine the full journey the donor went through. How many steps do they take from seeing an ad to submitting their payment?
Finding Inspiration
Some big names came up in this podcast. From NewStory to Mallory Erickson, Dana shared her “Mount Rushmore” of nonprofit influencers. She also shared her source for finding inspiration for beautiful ads: The Facebook Ads Library! Go here to check out any ad that has been placed on Facebook, including those from your peers and those you want to emulate.
Cause Camp is Coming…and so is Dana!
We closed the podcast with an exciting announcement: Dana is presenting at Cause Camp Fall this October! Her session is Turn Your Mission Into an Online Movement: The 4-Step Content Strategy I Used to Produce Movember’s 2019 North America Digital Campaign. It’s sure to be as full of inspiration and takeaways as this podcast was.
