Paid Search – Not Just for Donations

I understand the pressures of allocating dollars to marketing. You need to gain a return on your investment quickly. The most effective online channel, of course, is your internal email list because you have a list of people who are already familiar with your brand and were interested enough to learn more.

Marketing to your in-house list is a great first step, but I’m sure you want to grow the list or start one if you don’t already have a list – this is where paid search can help.

Paid search, as mentioned in the last post, delivers strong ROI because you can target your message to people who are interested in your type of cause through what is called “keywords” (I will talk about this in another post). However, just as important, you can direct people to any page on your site. This means you don’t have to send them to your home page – and you shouldn’t. Send them to custom pages where users can learn more about your cause, but also commit to action very easily, whether that’s donations, or email signups.

The screenshot above is from “Children International” – I’ve used them as an example before of how to run a great online marketing campaign. This page is what users land on when they click on their paid search listing. This is NOT their homepage, it’s a custom page made to convert users to their desired actions – signing up for an information kit or donating for a specific child.

Do the same, make custom pages and send traffic it to it. Make it easy for them to donate or give them the option of signing up for your newsletter. If you get users to donate, you will get an instant ROI, however, even if users only commit to signing up for the newsletter, you know the long term value of a that user, they may actually donate more in the long run.