Social Networks ads for your crowdfunding campaign 101 (Part 2)
(TL;DR)
This article explains how to structure an advertising campaign on Meta and Reddit. It details the goals you should strategically choose for your ad campaigns, how to set up your ad sets and ads, how to choose your budget and how to spend it.
It will be followed by one or more articles presenting other essential aspects to consider when working on an advertising strategy.
🗒️ Author’s note: This article uses a number of technical words that are difficult to replace with more common ones. To help you with your understanding, a glossary is included at the end of the article, and each word used in the glossary is followed by an asterisk.*
As the name suggests, this article is the second part of a series in which I share my knowledge of advertising. Knowledge gleaned from several years’ practice in advertising for games related crowdfunding campaigns at The Crowdfunding Agency. To access Part 1 (which I strongly recommend you read before this article), click here.
Without further ado, let’s get to the heart of the matter, because, as usual, the subject is dense!
Summary
- Structuring an advertising campaign
- Your budget: how much to spend and how to spend it
- Glossary of technical terms used in this article
1. Structuring an advertising campaign
Advertising campaigns on Meta and Reddit are structured into 3 distinct, interlocking parts:
1️⃣ The campaign: It’s at the campaign level that you’ll choose the goal for your ads (a point covered in part 1 of this article and detailed a little further on). You can also decide on a global budget (on Meta), which will be distributed automatically by the algorithm*, according to the ad results, between the ad sets.
2️⃣ The ad set. Each campaign must contain at least one ad set, which allows you to define an audience to display your ads to, choose the accounts that will display them, specify the budget (if you wish to manually allocate a budget to each ad set), determine the start and end dates for display, as well as the placement of your ads.
3️⃣ The ads. Each ad set comprises one or more ads. Each ad must contain media (image/video), text zones, a Call to Action* and a target URL.
1️⃣ The campaign
The campaign allows you to define a goal. We talked about this in the previous section, and now we’ll go into more detail about these goals.
There are 6 goals for Meta campaigns, but we generally use the following for crowdfunding campaigns:
- Traffic (link clicks or page views): this goal shows your ads to people who will click on the URL present on the ads belonging to this campaign. This URL redirects to a web page of our choice. In our case, it’s either a web page with a newsletter sign-up form, or the crowdfunding campaign page (whether it’s the pre-launch page or the active campaign page).
❌ To be perfectly honest, if we have a Pixel and/or API (see Part 1 of this article) installed on the target page, we avoid using a traffic goal, which is too imprecise. Indeed, it will seek to show your ads to people who click, and not to people who convert* (who give you their email address, who click on the “follow” button on your pre-launch page or who participate in your campaign). This isn’t possible for advertising on Reddit if the target page is a crowdfunding campaign, so, failing that, on Reddit we test campaigns with a traffic goal. - Prospects (conversions*): this goal enables you to display your ads to a target likely to take a specific action (click on the sign-up button on your mailing list form, or make a purchase on Kickstarter or Gamefound). This goal requires you to install the pixel (or even the API, where possible) on the target page.
- Prospects (instant forms): This goal enables you to integrate a registration form for your mailing list into your ads. In concrete terms, people who see these ads don’t need to leave Facebook to give you their email address (and Facebook can even pre-fill the “email address” field).
💸 In financial terms, an email address obtained using this method is less expensive than an email address harvested using the external landing page* method. Nevertheless, we have noticed that these “cheaper” addresses are less qualitative in the long term: the open rate/click rate* of email campaigns sent to this mailing list is not as good. I should point out that we haven’t carried out many tests (only 2) with this method, so our results aren’t necessarily representative. However, given the more qualitative results obtained with the landing page* method, we recommend the latter to our customers. - Sales (conversion*): this goal allows you to display your ad to a target likely to make a purchase on your crowdfunding campaign.
🪙Depending on your choice of spend (we’ll come back to this point a little later in the article), the budget can be configured either at campaign level, or at ad set level.
As mentioned earlier in this article, once you’ve launched a campaign, you can’t change the goal along the way. So it’s important to think carefully before you launch.
On Reddit, several goals are available, but we only use one (or even two):
- We generally use the Traffic goal, which shows the ad to people likely to click on the URL and, (theoretically), go and visit your crowdfunding campaign page, whether pre-launch or during the campaign.
Why do I use the word “theoretically” in my previous sentence? Because with this goal, the algorithm* only checks the action of the click. It’s perfectly possible for someone to click on your ad’s link and close the page before viewing it. In this case, the click will be accounted for by the algorithm*. - The conversion goal* could be used… But to do so, Kickstarter and Gamefound would have to agree to install the Reddit Pixel, which is not the case at the moment. You can, however, use it if you have a landing page* with a form for subscribing to your mailing list. In this case, set up a conversion campaign* so that the algorithm* shows your ads to people likely to subscribe to your mailing list.
- We don’t use the goals “brand awareness and reach”, “video views”, “app install”, “Catalog sales” because our marketing strategies have never met these needs. We prioritize advertising campaigns that lead to an action: following the crowdfunding campaign, subscribing to the mailing list or buying.
2️⃣ Ad set
The ad set allows you to define several key parameters:
🙋 Your audience: the people to whom your ads will be shown. Depending on your budget, we recommend a maximum of 2 to 3 ad sets in a single campaign.
🪪 On Meta, choose the page or account that will display the ad (necessarily a Facebook page or Instagram account on which you have admin or usage rights for ads). Generally, this will be the studio’s / editor’s / project creator’s page or account.
💥 The conversion* event that will be taken into account as the advertising goal:
- If you’ve chosen a Traffic goal, you can choose whether you want the event taken into account to be “click” or “Page view” (the latter is only possible if the pixel and/or Meta API is installed on the target page).
- If you’ve chosen a conversion* / purchase goal, you need to specify the event that will be taken into account by the algorithm*: purchase on the crowdfunding campaign? Lead (which is the follow on the pre-launch page)? Click on the “subscribe to mailing list” button on your landing page*? Display of the confirmation page just after someone has subscribed to your mailing list? It’s up to you, depending on your strategy!
🗓️ Define campaign start and end dates and times (note: when you send a complete campaign for approval, it may take Meta teams several days to authorize display. We advise you to send for validation no more than 48 hours before the start of display.)
💸 Define your budget if you haven’t done so in the campaign (we’ll come back to this point later in the article).
🗺️ Define your ad placements (as a general rule, I’d advise you not to play around with this parameter too much if you’re not an ad specialist. Let Meta and Reddit decide on the basis of the results — it’s much safer!)
3️⃣ Ads
You can create different types of ads, which must contain media from the following list:
- Image,
- Caroussel (several images to browse through),
- Video.
This media is accompanied by various texts, including description and title. It is possible to offer several text options for the same ad, and :
- Meta chooses which one to display, depending on the person and the moment,
- Reddit creates several ads with the different options entered.
In addition to text and media, each Meta ad is made up of a multitude of settings, including Meta enhancements (which can make you sweat over the final rendering of your ads). For example, one of the enhancements, which is offered by default, is the automatic addition of music from Meta’s sound library to your ads. I don’t know about you, but for my part, random music is out of the question when someone sees my ads!) For each ad, I advise you to click on the enhancements button and check each one (and yes, I know: it’s long and tedious)
🔗 Finally, for each ad, you can specify a URL. I refer you to Part 1 of this article to find out how to create and track your project URLs.
🔎 Finally, to see what your ads are going to look like in concrete terms, you have the option, when you edit them, of clicking on a button that gives you a preview of the ads on the different placements. I’d advise you not to skip this step either, to avoid any unpleasant surprises!
Find inspiration for your own ads
📱 If you’d like to see examples of ads currently being displayed on the Meta network, or check out the display of your own ads, check out Facebook’s ad library at this address.
📰 You can also check out this Reddit post from 2023, which is full of ideas and tips for your Reddit ads.
Another tip: when you’re surfing Facebook, Instagram or Reddit and you see an interesting ad, remember to take a screenshot that you’ll store in a dedicated folder, which you can pull out again when you need inspiration! In particular, this is what has enabled me to show you a certain variety of ad examples above.
💡 When it comes to thinking about your own creations, this folder will be a godsend for finding inspiration. The aim is not to copy purely and simply, but to find inspiration.
2. Your budget: how much to spend and how to spend it
Choosing a budget
One of the first questions project owners usually ask is how much to invest in advertising. And I usually answer that it depends on the financial results expected from the campaign (yes, I often answer “it depends” to all the questions I’m asked. Because there’s no magic formula for success, and I advise you to run away from anyone who tells you otherwise, in any area of your life! I’ll close the parenthesis and get back to the subject at hand :)
Overall, on the previous campaigns we’ve supported at the agency, advertising expenditure on social networks has ranged from 0.6% (for our biggest project which raised €1 million) to 2.5% of the funding obtained (for a project which raised €200,000).
Expenditure during the campaign varies according to the results obtained and the ROAS*. If it’s very good, you can choose to increase your expenses, since they will be largely covered by the funding. If it’s not as good as you’d hoped, you may choose to reduce your spending if you don’t see any results. And, if necessary, redirect the remaining budget to a communication action that seems more profitable to you.
Finally, you should know that the minimum possible ad spend on the Meta network is €5/day. The same applies to Reddit, which requires a minimum spend of $5/day.
✉️ Once we’ve defined an initial “global envelope” for our social network advertising, I simply cut it in 2: half for the pre-launch, half for the active campaign. And then I divide my budgets between the different social networks. Which brings us to the next question:
❓ Should I turn off my ads if my ROAS* is too low?
Difficult question. I admit that I don’t like to cut out ads altogether, as they bring a certain amount of traffic to the campaign page, and can help collect follows during the campaign that could turn into pledges in the last 48 hours (when the crowdfunding platform sends a reminder email to people following the campaign). And, as far as I know, there’s no real way of tracking these cases.
💸 My opinion is to keep a minimum daily budget, if we see that the ads don’t convert* into a purchase. The “minimum” will depend on the publisher’s means, what he’s willing to invest. The idea is clearly not to advise a publisher with financial difficulties to continue investing crazy sums in advertising. But I do think that advertising is a very effective way of reaching potential backers. Whether it’s acquisition (people who don’t yet know about your project) or remarketing* (people who have already visited your campaign page or interacted with your publications), advertising enables you to reach people you’d never have reached otherwise, or to remind you of people who are interested in your project but haven’t yet decided whether or not to participate.
In the next article, we’ll look at some of the changes we make to ads when they don’t work. These tips aren’t revolutionary, nor are they 100% guaranteed, but they allow you to experiment and, perhaps, find a way to reach your target ❤️.
In the meantime, as I said, I’m rather reluctant to turn off everything. I prefer to lower the budget, do some testing, and continue to ensure a minimum of traffic on the campaign page.
How to spend my budget?
Once the amount of your budget has been determined, you’re faced with another choice: how it will be spent by Meta.
- If you decide to manage the budget at campaign level, Meta will choose which ad sets to spend it on. This means that if, according to Meta, certain ad sets aren’t performing well enough, the algorithm* may decide not to spend money on them at all until the end of the campaign. This can be problematic, especially if this set corresponds to a whole section of your audience, which you might have been able to convince by modifying your ads.
- If you decide to manage your budget at the level of each ad set, you’ll need to calculate the budget you want to allocate to each set, and Meta will spend it on the best-performing ads. It’s then up to you to check that each ad set meets your performance requirements.
🗓️ In both cases, you can choose to allocate a global budget (to be spent between the start and end date, set by you) or a daily budget. Both methods are completely valid and depend only on your calculation and tracking preferences.
❌ On Reddit, there’s no choice! Budget spending is necessarily done at the ad set level. As on Meta, you can choose between a global or daily budget.
Meta: Beware of the spending limit if your ad account is brand new!
On Meta, if you have a daily budget of over €50 for all your campaigns, you should be aware that Meta will impose a daily spending limit. And if your advertising account is brand new (= you’ve never spent on it before), this limit may prevent you from spending the amount you want. To check your daily spending limit, go to your business manager (https://business.facebook.com/), then click on :
- Business settings,
- Billing and payments,
- Select the corresponding advertising account,
- You can see the sum opposite the phrase “Daily spending limit (set by Meta):”
This cap increases over time, depending on how much you’ve spent on the account, and how regular your payments are. So, if you’re planning to spend a lot of money to launch your campaign, make sure your marketing plan includes advertising beforehand, so that the cap increases gradually.
I don’t have a precise timeframe to give you (and I couldn’t find the information on the Internet), and neither does Meta, but I think it’s reasonable to assume that at least a month’s worth of advertising can help raise the cap enough to spend a few thousand euros a day.
3. Glossary of technical terms used in this article
In this article, all words followed by a star are listed and defined in this glossary. As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, these terms are widely used, and it’s complicated to talk about advertising using more accessible, but less precise terms. If you want to delve into the world of advertising, you’ll need to be familiar with them.
🟣 Advertising algorithm: Computer program used by advertising platforms to determine which ads to display to a particular user. The algorithm takes into account many factors such as the user’s interests, online behavior, geographic location and demographics to display relevant, targeted ads. The algorithm’s goal is to maximize the chances that the user will click on the ad and perform a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
🟣 Conversion: This is when a person performs a specific action. In the pre-campaign period, this might be clicking on your project’s “follow” button. Or subscribing to your mailing list. During the campaign, it could be backing your project. Once someone performs the action defined in your strategy, it’s called a conversion.
🟣 CTA (Call to Action): When communicating (e.g. via a publication on social networks, a newsletter, on your website, etc.), it’s advisable to use a CTA which, as its name suggests, invites the reader to take an action. This could be subscribing to a mailing list, following a Kickstarter project, sharing a publication, going to read a blog post, adding a video game to your wishlist… Your marketing and advertising strategies will help you define the most relevant CTAs to achieve your goals. In the context of a crowdfunding campaign, CTAs are generally :
- Subscribe to the publisher’s / studio’s mailing list (in the pre-campaign period)
- Follow the Kickstarter / Gamefound / other platform page (in pre-campaign period)
- Visit the project page to back the project (during the campaign)
- Make a purchase (during the campaign)
To avoid losing your audience, it’s recommended to have just one CTA per communication action.
🟣 Landing page: A web page designed specifically to welcome visitors who arrive on a website by clicking on a link from an external source, such as an advertisement, e-mail or search engine result. The landing page is generally optimized to encourage visitors to perform a specific action, such as signing up for a newsletter, purchasing a product or filling in a contact form.
🟣 Retargeting / remarketing: This technique enables you to target a person who has already visited your website (or taken an action on one of your social network publications). This makes it possible to display ads to this target group who is interested in your project, but who has not yet made a purchase on your campaign, for example.
🟣 ROAS (Return on Ads Spends): This is the return on investment for advertising. To calculate your ROAS on a particular advertising campaign, here’s the formula: (amount of pledges obtained thanks to advertising) / (amount spent on advertising).
It generally varies between 1 and 6 for the games-related crowdfunding campaigns.
🟣 Open rate / click rate: In this article, we use these terms to talk about the analysis data from your mailings. If you use a newsletter management tool (such as Mailerlite, Brevo, Mailchimp, Substack…), each time you send an e-mail, you have access to statistics that tell you how many people opened your e-mail and how many clicked on a link in your e-mail. This data (especially click rate) is invaluable in determining whether your audience is engaged.
Unsurprisingly… I haven’t been able to give you all the information yet. So there will be (at least) a Part 3! In the meantime, as always, if you have any questions, need clarification or have spotted information you don’t agree with, feel free to contact me!
⏭️ In the next part(s), I’ll be taking you on a proper dive into audience selection and construction, giving you examples of advertising strategies for games related crowdfunding campaigns, and talking about data analysis.
🌳 If you’d like me to accompany you on your journey into advertising land, at The Crowdfunding Agency, we can advise you, train you and even handle your ads on social networks (to do this, you can fill in our form).
And in the meantime, you can contact me in the comments, or by e-mail if you have any questions! See you soon for part 3!
💌 caroline@crowdfunding-agency.com
