3 paid ad tests to run in January
Not to add more to your plate in the run up to Christmas, but have you thought about what you'll be testing in January, when the big retailers stop throwing their budget at Christmas campaigns and we all have a bit more breathing space?
You can't move on social media in December for the big brand gifting Christmas campaigns and the charity Christmas campaigns and the Christmas party outfit Christmas campaigns. I very occasionally see photos of family Christmas trees and friends in the snow but it's pretty much all Christmas campaigns. Which is to be expected. It's a crazy, busy, wonderful time of year.
It's also a brilliant time to be planning your January paid ad campaigns and what you'll be testing, so that once the final mince pie has been eaten and you've mulled everything you can possibly mull, you can hit the ground running into the best two months for testing. Why? Because the big retailers throw their budget at Christmas and they don't do as much in the first few months of the year, which means that there's less competition in those months and ad costs drop. So your budget can go further.
Here are three things to think about testing in January/February 2023:
New audiences - interest-based audiences and lookalikes of existing supporter or engager audiences are a great place to start here. For interest-based, always use your ideal supporter avatar as a starting point and delve into what that person is interested in. For instance, if you're an environmental non profit focusing on rainforest preservation, have you explored other interests around sustainability? If you're a children's charity have you explored interests in children's activities or schools? Remember that the interest doesn't need to be something you as a charity do, it should instead apply to the ideal supporter as a broader human being with interests in the same ballpark as what you do.
New year, new you messaging - this is a massive cliche, but it's also a message that will be everywhere come January and a lot of people see the new year as an opportunity to put new habits in place. This includes donation habits and signing up for volunteering. It's a great time to give your audience an easy way to do both and to reinforce not only how this will help move your charity forward but also how they will benefit. Focus on the emotional connection - how will they feel if they join your supporter community? Although this is specific to the time of year, it's a great way to test different supporter-led messages that you can then tweak later in the year.
New creative formats - if you've been putting off experimenting with Reel or Story ads, now's the time to take that leap and allocate some budget to testing how these work for you. These can be snippets of beneficiary interviews, service team stories or key stats pulled out in an eye-catching way, for instance. Remember that not every ad needs to ask for donations; these types of ads are brilliant for increasing your brand awareness with new audiences and starting people down that know-like-trust journey. You can use Reel or Story ads to build a pot of people that you can then retarget with follower, newsletter sign up or donation ads down the line, confident that you've already started familiarising them with what you do.
Think of January and February as your key testing months, where your budget goes further and you can be more experimental. The findings will inform your campaigns later in the year, so don’t miss out!