Though there are some proven nonprofit marketing channels that many organizations leverage, it’s how your nonprofit leverages these channels that makes your strategy successful. Your nonprofit should take an approach tailored to your target audience’s preferences, but how can you tell if your efforts are working?
That’s why standardizing and monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) for your marketing campaigns is critical. These metrics measure whether your efforts are paying off in certain areas, such as your content’s visibility and call-to-action (CTA) conversion potential. In this guide, we’ll review how to set, assess, and act on KPIs. We’ll cover these steps:
- Understand Common Marketing KPIs
- Select KPIs that Reflect Your Objectives
- Implement Tools for Tracking KPIs
- Regularly Review Your Strategy
Remember that, since all nonprofits have different goals, your marketing performance metrics should complement your unique goals. As we explore how marketing KPIs work, consider how your nonprofit currently gauges your marketing performance and which metrics would make the most sense for your organization.
Step 1: Understand Common Marketing KPIs
Grasping common nonprofit KPIs and how to calculate them allows you to choose the most relevant and accurate ones for your needs. This graphic provided by Fifty & Fifty highlights some metrics you’ll likely come across during your research:
Alt Text: Four common nonprofit marketing KPIs, as described below.
- Conversion rate, which is the percentage of marketing recipients who complete a desired action (such as following a fundraising CTA to your donation page). You can calculate this by dividing the number of people who completed the action by the total number of people who received the message.
- Click-through rate, which is the percentage of people who click on a link. To calculate this, divide the number of clicks by the number of impressions (or the number of times a piece of marketing content is displayed to users).
- Cost per acquisition, which is the total cost of obtaining a new supporter through marketing efforts. You can calculate this by dividing the total marketing expenses per channel by the number of supporters acquired.
- Audience growth per channel, which is the change in followers, subscribers, or opt-ins via different channels. Calculate this by subtracting the initial audience size from the current audience size and dividing it by the initial audience size.
There are numerous other KPIs that you might encounter, but these are standard metrics that most nonprofits track. It’s up to you to determine which ones are most relevant and useful to your nonprofit.
Step 2: Select KPIs that Reflect Your Objectives
When choosing your KPIs, focus on metrics that contribute to your nonprofit’s goals and vision for the future. This empowers your team to allocate resources efficiently and only leverage the most profitable marketing channels. Here are some questions you can answer to determine which KPIs to prioritize:
- What are our core objectives? For instance, you might be focusing on boosting donations, volunteer sign-ups, awareness for your cause, or membership.
- Which channels have worked well in the past? If you have existing marketing channels in place, reflect on their effectiveness in driving your mission forward.
- What does success look like for our organization? Your success should be based on your core objectives. Attracting a specific number of donors, for example, might be a success benchmark for a nonprofit looking to boost donor acquisition.
- Which metrics make sense to track based on our audience? Determine which metrics correspond with your audience’s preferences and goals. Let’s say your nonprofit is looking to engage a younger audience—tracking social media traffic is a great benchmark to start with.
- What tools do we have to measure KPIs? We’ll discuss this more in the next section, but you should assess your tech stack to find out which metrics you’re equipped to track.
To answer these questions thoroughly and accurately, ensure that you involve staff across teams, even those not directly involved with marketing. This ensures your decisions are well-informed by a variety of expertise and experience.
Step 3: Implement Tools for Tracking KPIs
Tracking KPIs correctly helps you glean useful insights from your data. By leveraging software solutions built for nonprofit marketing, it’s easier than ever to evaluate your marketing campaign performance. Look for software solutions with these features:
- A comprehensive dashboard that provides an in-depth view of how your marketing content is performing
- Integration with your marketing platforms, such as social media, email, and Google Ads, so your data is automatically synced and recorded
- Customizable reports that allow you to highlight and visually represent specific information
- A user-friendly, yet powerful interface that both beginners and seasoned professionals can leverage
- Automated alerts and notifications that allow you to quickly adjust to notable changes in campaign performance
Ensure that your chosen solution supports your most important KPIs (or has the option to configure the KPIs you want to track). Also, remember to take advantage of free demos or nonprofit discounts to facilitate your decision-making.
Step 4: Regularly Review Your Strategy
As your nonprofit changes over time, your priorities and marketing approaches will likely follow suit. Periodically ensure that your KPIs are still the best fit for your needs by answering questions like:
- How have our nonprofit’s goals changed since the last time we evaluated KPIs?
- Are there any emerging tools or trends in the marketing space that we can capitalize on?
- Do we have any new promising ideas for marketing campaigns?
- How effective are our current KPIs?
- Are we due for a branding refresh?
Continually assessing your nonprofit’s goals allows you to keep up with internal and external shifts relevant to your mission and strategy. Set a standard cadence that makes sense given your resources and marketing goals (we recommend a frequency between once a month and once a year).
Whether you’re trying to market your upcoming fundraisers or mobilize the community to join your grassroots campaign, your marketing strategy can make or break your success in achieving your mission. By following these tips, you can use data to hone your approach and adapt your strategies seamlessly.