How Amnesty used TikTok to grow lead generation for regular giving
This article was initially published on Fundraising & Philanthropy Magazine.
Amnesty International Australia’s most successful regular giving acquisition channel – its ValEx Allyship Guide campaign run on Meta – was in decline. Reach, leads, response rate and revenue were down year-on-year, but costs were up, following the trend many charities are experiencing because of Meta’s rising advertising costs.
The solution? Test new, non-Meta channels, with the plan to diversify digital acquisition for the future. These new channels — like TikTok and Google’s various advertising products — present vast opportunities to tap into new audiences and test new messaging.
Working with their digital fundraising agency ntegrity, they deployed a test campaign in December 2023 for their ‘How to be an LGBTQIA+ Ally Guide’ in the form of an inclusivity quiz on TikTok, Programmatic Advertising and Google Demand Gen.
And…did it work? In short, yes – the test campaign smashed it and exceeded all forecasted results! Reaching 5,700,000+ million Australians, achieving 26,000 clicks, and a cost per lead of $9.59 (61% decrease on cost) and conversion rate to regular donors of 6.96%. A powerful result for new digital channels.
Now let’s get into the nitty gritty: here are some key insights that drove its success…
1. Use new emerging channels to reach new audiences
It’s no longer enough to target one to two large audiences on the one channel using the same message. Instead we planned to do precisely the opposite; find smaller niche audience segments and deliver targeted messaging and propositions to them, across a range of relevant channels.
For Amnesty, we identified both NextGen and traditional audiences — from LGBTQIA+ allies to affluent activist retirees — and used first party data (i.e. email lists, donor lists), lookalike audiences of these and interest/contextual targeting to find them.
Of course, Meta was out of the question, so instead the campaign focused on emerging and experimental channels that Amnesty’s target audiences were on — like TikTok, Google Demand Gen and Programmatic placements. Whilst it’s true that these channels have lower certainty and it’s more difficult to forecast as effectively on them, they do offer a big win that Amnesty needed — access to new audiences and new messaging opportunities.
2. Boost campaign success by leveraging Christmas
What’s better than paid reach? Organic reach.
Insights from Amnesty campaigns showed that their best performing past campaigns were those that leveraged cause-driven moments or events. The first Allyship Guide was an Anti-Racism Guide launched during Black Lives Matter – a time when Australians were more aware of racism and were moved to action.
For this campaign, we identified Christmas as the perfect time to launch because it’s a traditional time of coming together where people’s values, inclusivity and generous spirit are often shown most clearly.
3. Make the creative align to the algorithm
You can’t use the same video or static asset across channels. It might seem like a good idea as it saves some work upfront, but it simply won’t perform. Channels like TikTok optimise animation and video content. While Programmatic & Demand Gen placements on news sites need to be contextually relevant.
So we repurposed the inclusivity quiz and guide for different channels. For TikTok, we produced low-fi videos filmed on an iphone that followed a popular TikTok trend of the ‘street interview’. In the videos, we asked people on the street how they address a group to prove that inclusivity is not only easy, but a natural part of everyday interactions, to slot into TikTok’s feed style. For Programmatic Display and Google Demand Gen we led with the ‘Inclusive Language Quiz’ with a preview of one question in the quiz.
Ad asset for Programmatic
4. A test, test, test strategy
A digital-first campaign allows you to test just about anything you can think of, then adapt the campaign as you go. We tested digital channels, moving budget around TikTok, Programmatic and Demand Gen. As well as creative: authentic video vs. quiz questions; static vs. dynamic etc.
So, what have we learnt? In short, that experimentation on emerging channels can have a huge impact on a charity’s fundraising income in the short-term. But it’s especially important for any charity looking to grow and diversify over the long-term.