Digital Acquisition: Understanding Audiences and How to Use Them

Donor acquisition is hard. Digital advertising can be confusing. And let’s face it, the year-over-year narrative of fewer donors bringing in more dollars is worrisome. 

Acquisition can seem daunting, but remember that many people want to support causes that make the world a better, safer, healthier, and more inclusive place. Luckily for you, your nonprofit already has what it needs — stories to tell, and a mission to guide your work, and a team with the passion to move your community forward.

There are so many organizations, causes, corporations, and people vying for attention — or share of mind. Knowing who to target and what journey to take your target audience on is imperative to running a successful digital acquisition program. 

Your audience isn’t everyone. 

Your audience is made up of people who care about your cause, are inspired by your mission, and are passionate about your work and impact — and of course, have the means to give. 

Notice that “the means to give” is not the first attribute listed. It’s an important attribute, but when it becomes the most important attribute, it can make asks feel transactional and can lead to identifying the wrong audience to target with your message.   

People don’t support causes they don’t know about. They don’t join movements they’ve never heard of or attend events they were never invited to. 

Understanding Acquisition Audience Terminology

To put this into practice, nonprofits rely on digital audience targeting — the tools and data that help platforms identify and reach the right people. Understanding a few key terms will make the rest of this much clearer.

First-party data. This is the data that you have in your existing platforms. It is the data that you collect about your donors, volunteers, subscribers, program participants, and other supporters.

Third-party data. This is the data that you can lease or buy from an outside party. Co-op audiences, donor lists, etc. are examples of this data.

Lookalike. Lookalikes are a tool in most digital ad platforms. When you upload data to these platforms, they identify other people with the same attributes and behaviors.

Demographic targeting. These are attributes that ensure you target the right people. This includes things like age, gender, household income, marital status, and other personal characteristics.

Geographic targeting. This enables you to target the right location. You can usually use ZIP codes or a radius around a specific area. This is often discussed as “geofencing” or “geotargeting.”

Interest/affinity groups. This allows targeting based on specific interest or affinity. So, if you know your donors typically travel or own boats, you could use that information to define an audience of like-minded people.

Behavioral targeting. This is based on behaviors or actions that people take. It focuses on what they do or see as opposed to who or where they are. Remarketing is a basic example: Someone comes to your website and doesn’t convert, so you show them ads for the next several days to remind them of your mission.

Contextual targeting. This places ads on content that is similar to yours. This approach makes the assumption that people consuming that content will also be interested in your content.

Acquisition Requires Investment

To grow, you need to invest. This is true personally and professionally. It’s true for causes and corporations too. Growth doesn’t just happen. It happens because the right conditions are created to enable it. The right investments are made to unlock it.  

There is an immense amount of data available online, and algorithms that work in fractions of a second, making digital media an incredibly effective and efficient way to drive growth. Why wouldn’t you want to use as much data as possible to find people passionate about your work? Of course, you want to expand the knowledge about your mission and connect with those who care about your cause. And we all know that budgets are what they are, so you need to do it efficiently. 

Hello, paid digital media. 

The Foundation of Digital Acquisition 

So, where do you start with digital acquisition? 

You likely already have a file of supporters — donors, volunteers, and communities of people who publicly support your work. This is your starting point.

Look at your supporter file and make some decisions about who your best supporters are — the ones who stick with you and come back time and again to support you. These supporters are the ones who share your work with their networks, champion your approach, and engage with you across channels.

Once you have this list, use it across ad platforms by uploading it and having the platforms create lookalike audiences. 

Additionally, you can lease third-party data through co-ops or rented lists. A lot of organizations already use these datasets for direct mail acquisition and other purposes. While this is not the go-to, if you don’t have a large supporter list or are trying to expand to new areas, it can be a great option. 

Targeting Layers

Once the foundation has been established, add layers of targeting on top. Typically, the first layer is demographic and geographic. 

This allows you to tell the algorithms more about who you want to target. By just creating lookalike audiences, you are not really telling the platforms who you want to target or where you want to target. Instead, you are allowing them to identify attributes of people who already support you and asking them to find more people that share those attributes. 

Think of geographic and demographic targeting in this case as guardrails.  

Geographic targeting may be easy and just require proximity to an address or a series of ZIP codes. For others, defining geography requires a little more thought, but answering these questions allows you to narrow down your footprint in meaningful ways. 

• Where will your message connect with people the most? 
• Do you use imagery that populations in certain parts of the country or the world will relate to? 
• Are there populations of supporters that you already have that you can expand, or areas that are similar to those where your supporters already are that you could lean into? 
• Where do your current supporters spend their time? 

Demographic targeting often starts with age and household income. Looking at your supporters. Providing more details about the demographics of your target audience will help ensure you are not spending budget on audiences that are not converting. 

• Do you want to focus your efforts on growing younger donors because they are often more technologically savvy? 
• Are you looking to grow volunteers and therefore want a younger and an older audience — those who are retired or in college and have the time to spend with you? 

Targeting Behaviors

There are lots of reasons to move beyond just targeting people to targeting behaviors. The two are not mutually exclusive (although they can be), but often, it is just another layer. 

Maybe you target a lifestage like parenthood or grief, where it makes sense to look at behaviors to identify who you should share your mission with, as opposed to trying to define a geographic or demographic audience. Or, maybe you layer contextual targeting onto your audiences to help expand your mission and enter larger discussions.

This type of targeting allows you to connect with people at a deeper level because you’re showing them that you fit into their lives and passions.

When it comes to targeting behaviors, there are a few approaches. 

Contextual targeting ensures your ads are placed around content that you believe your audiences are consuming. So if you run a display ad, it would appear on sites that are related to your cause. 

Behavioral targeting, on the other hand, looks for specific behaviors. This focuses on click or view behavior as the main signal that this audience is interested in your cause and content. 

Putting It All Together

Digital targeting is robust, so when you’re starting a digital acquisition effort, spend time upfront clearly defining your goals in a smart way. 

Just because you can do a lot doesn’t mean you should do a lot. 

A common mistake in digital media is just throwing things at the wall and expecting something to work right away. This doesn’t represent reality. People take time to convert. They do their research. They don’t act linearly. So, when you start with digital acquisition, give yourself time and grace. Test, and let your investments have a chance to pay out over time. 

There is not one way to do anything; digital acquisition is no different.

The key to successful digital acquisition programs is understanding what each audience type does well and where its limitations lie. It is in understanding who your organization is really targeting and ensuring that is where you are investing. 

Digital acquisition doesn't require a massive budget or complex technology. It requires clear thinking about who you're trying to reach and an honest assessment of what tools you have available. The audiences are there. The question is which ones will help you find your next supporters.

The preceding content was provided by a contributor unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of NonProfit PRO.