6 Online Advertising Trends Applied to Fundraising

Getting a donor’s attention can feel like you’re one fan in a stadium of 50,000 aiming to get the right fielder to toss you a foul ball. In a sea of people you’re waving your arms, trying to make eye contact, and yelling “over here!” As you send out e-mail blasts, you may feel like you’re doing the same thing: How can I stand out to get something tangible from this experience? You’re sitting between two big guys in the Inbox that are offering great deals on cars or a daily tip on how to invest in the stock market, there’s the piece of spam that is stinking up the bottom of the list, and the first e-mail your recipient sees is a chain letter from his mother. Is there anything you can do to stand out in the crowd?According to Infolink’s Q1 figures and a sample of 1 trillion impressions from its 100K publisher network, they determined which US state, day of the week, hour of the day, and website characteristics performed best in terms of click through rates (CTR). Farmers study weather patterns to know the best time to plant and harvest crops; it makes sense that there are certain times when people are most susceptible to reading e-mails and responding to fundraising efforts.Here are some stats to consider to see if these findings apply to your donors:

1. State of Mind - The Southern parts of the United States, including Mississippi (reigning at the top with +17%), South Carolina, Alabama and Louisiana have the highest CTRs. The lowest ones included California (which bottomed out at -24%), Iowa, Georgia and Washington.
2. Ditch Hump Day - Wednesdays have the lowest CTR as they dip down to -1.86%. Fridays peak at 3.23%.
3. Got the Time? – The most CTR’s each day occur between 11:00 am – 2:00 pm where people interact with ads 14% more than the rest of the day.
4. ‘Tis the Season – Now there’s no surprise here: November is by far the hottest month of the year for internet interaction. From donations to volunteerism, the busiest month for nonprofits also gets them the most traffic online as the holiday spirit is as contagious as the flu.
5. Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder – Within 2-3 seconds, your website visitor has already decided if they are going to check you out or move on. “Out of the top 200 highest earning websites Infolinks reviewed, 167 have a white background. Of those 167, 83.5% have a white background and a grey border and 14.5% are entirely white. Only 2% of the websites are entirely black including background and border color,” explains the study. Moreover, the easier the font is to read, the more likely your viewers will read your content (no big surprise there.)

Now these guidelines may not hold true for every nonprofit and marketing piece, but it is a good jumping off point and it does bring up some valid questions for your nonprofit to ask:

Are you creating a variance to determine when your donors are most susceptible to the campaign materials that you mail, e-mail, share via social media, or when you make your calls?

You’ve spent countless hours, effort, and dollars to contact your donors… make the most of it!