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DIGITAL ADS FOR MEMBERSHIP SHOULD NOT

BE OPTIONAL

Yoon Lee, M+R || Louise Adler, American Museum of Natural History

M+R

We are communicators, marketers, fundraisers, and campaigners who help causes that inspire people to act. We work exclusively with nonprofits who are alleviating

suffering, fighting for human rights and democracy, dismantling inequality, making art and knowledge

accessible to everyone, and fostering a healthier and sustainable world. Our services include:

DIGITAL FUNDRAISING+ ADVOCACY

DIGITAL ORGANIZING

MEDIARELATIONS ADVERTISING SOCIAL

MEDIA

Some of the other clients we have worked with:

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1st year together: 2x EOY revenue

1st online membership drive together:273% revenue growth YOY

1st 2 years together: 37% growth in online revenue

1st year Annual Fund together:113% revenue growth YOY

The M+R Benchmarks study is an annual, in-depth review of digital data from over 135 nonprofits. It gives you a bird’s eye view of what’s working, what’s

trending, and what’s changing for online fundraising, advocacy, and marketing.

www.mrbenchmarks.com

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Top Line Data

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Top Line Data

Retained donors

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Top Line Data

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Top Line Data

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Top Line Data

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Top Line Data

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Top Line Data

ROAS = Return on Ad Spend

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MEDIA PLANNINGMoving “Up The Funnel”

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MEDIA PLANNINGMoving “Up The Funnel”

Retargeting Membership/

Donation Page Visitors

Re-activation Ads to Lapsed Members

Native Ads Promoting Blog

Content

Facebook Ads to Lookalike Audience

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MEDIA PLANNINGMoving “Up The Funnel”

+ Smaller audience size+ Smaller budget requirements+ Lower CPAs+ Higher ROAS+ Lower % new donors

+ Larger audience size+ Large budget requirements+ Higher CPAs+ Lower ROAS+ Higher % new

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First 3-5 months: Focus on ROI positive, and retargeting/search that will capture future investments

Next: test acquisition strategies, ramping up spend into EOY

Next: Cut what doesn’t work, replace with new things.

Next: Rinse, repeat.

2-3 Vendors

Add 2-3 Vendors

Cut 2-3 VendorsAdd 3-4 Vendors

Cut 2-4 VendorsAdd 5 Vendors

Year 1Year 2

Year 3Year 4

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American Museum of Natural History

FLASHBACK: HOW WE GOT STARTED

GOALS

Increase revenue

Source new members

M+R AUDIT FINDING

Lead with multichannel digital campaigns in new member/donor acquisition

22What did the website look like back then? The Titanosaur was big news!

FOUR MONTH PILOT

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CHANNELACTUAL SPEND

BUDGET

AdWords Search Advertising $40,704 $40,000

AdWords Display Retargeting $9,631 $12,500

Facebook Retargeting $14,148 $12,500

TOTAL $64,483 $65,000

November 2016 - February 2017

TIMING

Capitalize on EOY emails and promotions for general membership, move website visitors and ticket purchasers to convert to members

AND THE RESULTS WERE...

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ROAS$2.96 for Membership$5.46 for All Revenue

REVENUE$154,538 Membership-specific$285,091 All sources (Membership + Ticketing)

RETENTION

FY17 Ads PilotNew

MembersRetention Rate

(through May 2018)

Facebook 31 39%

Google Search & Display

259 24%

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GOAL: Build on past EOY ads successes

HOW: Mirror our email strategy with the $20 discount on membership and a 12/31 deadline

CHALLENGE: Limited budget of $16,000

FAST FORWARD: CALENDAR YEAR END 2018

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HOW DID WE DO?

ANSWER: BIG WINS!100% Click-through attribution; 60% View-through attribution for Facebook

Channel Cost ImpressionsTotal Conversions

Total Conversion Revenue

ROAS CPA

AdWords Search

$9,435 75,623 564 $45,051 $4.77 $16.73

Facebook $6,874 890,080 462 $39,297 $5.72 $14.89

Total $16,309 965,703 1,026 $84,348 $5.17 $15.90

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CYE FACEBOOK AUDIENCES

There are factors.

+ Recency+ Geography+ Loyalty+ Activity

Then there are factors. And combinations of factors.

+ Recently lapsed members within 12 months geo-targeted in the greater NYC area

+ Lapsed within 36 months multi-year members

+ Active member lookalikes in the 5 boroughs

+ Multi-year active member looklikes with no geo-targeting

+ Membership pages site retargeting

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Spend Impressions Member Conv.

Member Revenue

Cost per Mem

All Conv. All Conv. Value

CPC

Child Ticket Buyers (Lookalike)

$1,620.62 256,898 32 $7,625 $50.6 62.6 $8,974.7 $25.8

Retargeting AMNH site

$2,194.93 198,321 33.8 $4,294 $64.9 177 $11,557.6 $12.4

Membership Lookalike – Multiyear

$1,001.67 172,944 13.6 $1,707 $73.6 39 $2,524.2 $25.7

Membership Lookalike – NYC

$960.72 177,930 12.6 $1,670 $76.2 41.4 $3,103.3 $23.2

Recently Lapsed Members

$442.19 35,769 43 $5,951 $10.3 51 $6,089.6 $8.7

Lapsed Members $182.42 16,966 6 $828 $30.4 7 $858 $26.1

Cart Abandonment $271.87 13,148 23 $2,940 $11.8 63.8 $5,093.9 $4.3

CYE FACEBOOK RESULTS

Two things to consider: Member Conversions and All Conversion Revenue

Just showing ads to site visitors brought in the most additional revenue

ROAS for these cart abandoners was incredible - $18.74 per dollar spent. Cost to acquire a members was the lowest.

Lookalike audiences are the least connected - no recorded transactions or interactions.

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December 13-31

Restricted geo targeting to NYC

+ Initially showed a high CPA, but overtime it improved.

Added groups targeting historically high-performing cities and counties

+ These were the most successful ad groups for membership CPA.

Keywords like, “things to do with kids” and “+kid +museum” had good engagement (CTR 6.83%) but no memberships.

CYE GOOGLE ADWORDS SEARCH

TOP ADS FOR MEMBERSHIP

TOP ADS FOR CONVERSIONS

How this works all year round for museums

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MARCH 2019: The first, big, new exhibition in a year on a very popular topic!

CHALLENGE: Limited budget of $9,500

APPROACH: M+R recommended a spend focused on strong performers, with a small budget for trying a new tactic...

NEW EXHIBITS

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90% Tried and True

10% Fresh and NewWHAT WORKED?

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AND THE RESULTS WERE...Tremendous.

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WHAT DIDN’T WORK

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MEMBERSHIP CAMPAIGN

JUNE 2019: Celebrate 150th anniversary with a special membership discount

CHALLENGE: No member preview days. Budget of less than $5,000

APPROACH: M+R recommended spending on what worked so well for T.Rex: Facebook and Gmail.

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Gmail offers! Membership ROAS = $3.27

WHAT WORKED?

How this works all year round for museums

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AND THE RESULTS WERE...

Cost ImpressionsMembership

CPATotal

MembershipsMembership

ROASMembership

Revenue

Facebook $3,000 437,266 $84 36 $2.06 $6,181

Google Display (Gmail)

$1,848 92,258 $77 24 $3.27 $6,048

Total $4,848 529,524 $81 60 $2.52 $12,229

TAKEAWAYS

Lookalike audiences on Facebook still have great potential - but we need the budget!

With small budgets, our focus has to be on lower-hanging fruit, but that means we are leaving those new acquisitions behind.

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FALL MEMBERSHIP CAMPAIGN CALENDAR YEAR END 2019

FINISHING 2019 - WHAT’S NEXT?

M+R recommends expanding ads to

include Search

Double the budget from 2018

Playful illustrations over photos

Animated gifs = Videos on Facebook

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PUSHING DESIGN WITH NEW IDEAS

BUILDING OUT THE BUDGET

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BIG PLANS FOR 2020

● Demonstrated success through each of these campaigns over the past 3 years,

● Built the case for a renewed membership ads budget in 2020

● Ads is now part of the monthly operations of the department, like direct mail, telemarketing

● Year-round Membership ads, not just for special campaigns!

● Partnership with M+R and Marketing department with better-aligned goals

HOW WE’LL SPEND IT

Trying new thingsOngoing, sustained investment in ads

allows for testing and innovation

Break the 20% text rule!

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FACEBOOK VIDEO

Overall video cost per

impression is higher for 90% of

organizations but CPA is lower

for 72% of them.

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SNAPCHAT/INSTAGRAM STORIES

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FACEBOOK INSTANT EXPERIENCE

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Cluster Analysis

Cluster analysis is the process of grouping objects in such a way that objects in one cluster are more similar to each other than to those in other clusters.

HIDDEN AUDIENCES

Cluster 1 Characteristics

More likely to be:

• African-American

• Evangelical Protestant

• Ages 25–34

• Household Income $75k–$99k

Less likely to be:

• Married

• Catholic

• Homeowner46

Cluster 4 Characteristics

More likely to be:

• Married

• Parents

• Younger than 65

• Household income of

$150,000 or more

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Targeting Strategy Cost Per Donation Annualized ROAS

LAL Cluster 4 $134 1.03

LAL Cluster 2 $162 1.02

LAL Cluster 1 $109 2.04

New cluster audience test results

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Audience-specific creative (Cluster 4: Parents)

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AUDIENCE TESTING: Membership Renewal Autos

QUESTIONS?

Join our 2020 report! We’re taking new participants now.

mrbenchmarks.com mrss.com