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#DigitalEvangelism

Social Media Advertising for Churches and Ministries

4/14/2020

 

Jamie Jean Schneider Domm

Digital Strategist, Social Media + Big Data, North American Division

social advertising - person with computer and graphics
Most local churches and ministries have limited budgets. To make the most of your limited ad dollars, build your advertising on top of your organic distribution mechanism. Paid ads are most successful when they are accompanied by strong digital distribution. They enable you to reach further than you can organically and to target specific groups of people for outreach efforts.

Why spend any money when you can use the platforms for free?
Social media platforms are businesses that need to make money; therefore, they limit unpaid reach. This means less than 5–10% of your fan base (depending on the platform) will naturally receive your posts in their news feed. You can counteract this by promoting key posts to reach more of your fan base and by placing ads to expand your reach to new audiences.

To get started:
  • Determine your target audiences (who you want to reach). Refer back to the section on understanding your audience for guidance.
  • Determine your budget (how much you can spend).
  • Start with a test, and then expand based on results.

How much is appropriate to spend?

Picture
A lot of people ask me, “How much does it cost to promote an event online?” But the beauty of social media ads is that the answer depends on what you can afford. Social media works very well for small budgets and non-profits. A little can go a long way, but it’s important to spend some money. As your confidence grows, and your familiarity with reaching your target audiences grows, you can increase your budget as needed. Ultimately, your budget depends on the size of your goals and your purpose. A small, local ministry may need to spend only $300 a year, whereas a nationwide campaign would need to spend at least $3,000 to create impact within a targeted audience. For all organizations, I recommend starting with a small ad budget and a clear objective that is easy to measure. This way you can learn and maximize your results as you grow.

How can a small church or ministry fund their ad budget?

Look for monies that can be redirected. Businesses that must balance their budgets or make a profit put most of their effort behind what is working. We should be just as shrewd. Too often, we pool our best resources and people into efforts with limited potential out of a misguided attempt to be fair or to meet accepted expectations. 

This will be different for every church or ministry, but it’s time to take a critical look at our programs. Determine your church’s strengths, and put all your efforts behind them. The Strength Finder (now CliftonStrengths) program operates on this premise for individuals and teams. We all love underdog or David and Goliath stories, where individuals or organizations overcome their weaknesses and beat the odds, but for most, thriving comes when we embrace what we are naturally good at. The underdog stories are typically outliers, and we should not operate under the assumption that we, too, are the exception to the rule. First, improve the functions required for your church’s operations, and put money behind keystone ministries with the most potential in the context of your membership and community. It might seem unfair to those ministries that don’t get as much support, but like the parable of the talents, you need to invest in the areas that are working the most effectively. Good stewardship means focusing on places where you can make an impact beyond day-to-day operations.

Another option is to find individuals willing to fund social advertising as an outreach initiative or personal ministry. I personally fund and run my local church’s social media advertising and website hosting. Over time, our church leadership has learned the value and potential of using these digital technologies for a variety of purposes. 

Who should take responsibility for managing social advertising?

​Not every church is blessed with an experienced digital strategist, but this is an opportunity to allow a member with knowledge or interest in digital communications or marketing to develop their skills in a personal ministry that aligns with their abilities. If your church has staff, your communications lead can manage your ad account. This could also be a valuable skill for a younger member of your pastoral team to learn and take responsibility for. Either way, be sure to provide oversight so that expectations are clear, and the budget is respected.
​Do not place a single ad until you have a clear understanding of what you are trying to achieve and whom you are trying to reach.

Types of ads

As of 2020, Facebook still has the most sophisticated social media advertising platform for small organizations. It enables detailed targeting for small budgets on Facebook, Instagram, and third-party websites. However, many of these ad types are also relevant to other platforms. The technologies and platforms may change, but these “types” will still be relevant, regardless of the platform. Choose the types of ads that align with the key performance indicators discussed in the strong foundations section of this guide.

Here are the main types of ads that can be placed:
  • Promote your page/profile
    • Increase page “likes” and awareness within a targeted community
  • Website ads
    • Increase traffic to your website for a specific event/offer/information from members of a particular community
  • Posts targeted to members and those who follow or engage with your page
    • Improve internal communication
  • Ads targeted to your subscriber email list
    • Improve internal communication/awareness
  • Video views to targeted audiences
    • Increase impact/expand the reach of your message
  • Event response ads
    • Increase event/program awareness and attendance
  • Messenger ads
    • Help facilitate conversation or generate leads for Bible studies
  • Lead generation ads
    • Offer free materials and collect outreach lead contact information
  • Retargeted messages
    • Based on behaviors such as content engagement and website visits that enable advertisers to follow up with relevant messages

Basic targeting for social ads:
Reaching the right people without breaking the bank

Refer back to the section on understanding your audience, and use this framework to determine who your audience is and how you are going to target them through social advertising. Targeting allows you to maximize your ad dollars by ensuring you reach the right people instead of wasting money on those less likely to respond.

Most platforms allow you to target by:
  • Location (e.g., country, state, city, address, or place)
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Language
  • Interest: Choose multiple to reach people interested in a specific topic or who are part of a particular group
  • Connection: Fans of your page and their friends (or email list)
  • Behavior: People who have interacted with specific content on your website

Optimize the effectiveness of your ads by:
  • Limiting text in images and using high quality images
  • Providing context but keeping text brief
  • Targeting your ads to stretch your advertising dollars
  • Including a clear call-to-action
  • Being honest—no bait-and-switch marketing
  • Including closed captions on videos
  • Promoting content or programs that align with the felt needs of your target audience
  • Familiarizing yourself with ad terminology and monitoring your campaigns closely
  • Using trackable links in ads that direct traffic to your website to monitor performance in Google Analytics
  • Setting up Google Analytics on your ministry’s website so you can monitor and understand how visitors interact with your website and where they come from

Always follow the basic principles for writing a strong social media post, discussed previously in this guide.

Make ads personal

The right message is one that resonates with a felt need. When it comes to messaging and programming, make sure you are addressing a pain point or felt need within your target audience. Strive to understand those in your community, and tailor your outreach efforts and messaging accordingly. Remember, show empathy first, validate their experiences, be genuine, and offer practical advice/solutions/resources.
Never assume you know what your audience is interested in. Do the research, and create content and opportunities that meet people where they are in their spiritual journey. You can have the best targeting and the most well-crafted posts, but if the “product” is tone deaf to the real needs of the community you’re trying to reach, your ads will fail.

When crafting your message, follow this formula:
Empathy + Caring + Authentic + Practical Advice/Resources/Solutions

Example message: Marriage is hard; we're here to help. Join us for a free marriage program where you'll learn practical tips for improving your marriage. Click here to register in advance for your free book.

Beware of vanity metrics

​When placing ads, make sure you’re strategizing for impact. Many of us can get caught up in vanity metrics such as how many followers we have. Remember, it’s not about how many people are following you online. The real question is, are people growing closer to Jesus because of your digital strategy? Perhaps your video received only 200 views, but if 200 people showed up for a Bible study, most of us would be ecstatic. Every view, comment, share, download, etc. represents a real person who has been influenced by your content and messages. 
click here for more on digital evangelism & discipleship
David C
7/24/2020 07:44:49 am

God let us know that we needed to have a website to reach people using handing out cards, so we started one in 2017. We do not submit it to search engines as we ask the Holy Spirit daily to lead us to people that He has waiting for us, people that He wants us to connect with.

This Outreach is all based on people handing out personal cards that we produce for anyone who wants to do this. Every morning, we ask the God to abide with us and for us to abide in him. We ask God to baptize us with His Holy Spirit, and for Him to cover us with His Righeousness.

Then when we go out...
> We hand out personal cards to people we meet in stores, restaurants, gas stations, etc. We just say, "We are building a website. It is rated E for everyone. Most people find something they like" as we hand the card to them. Only had 2 refusals.
> We designed a label that we put on the back of some of our cards.
This is for people that the Holy Spirit nudges us to continue conversation with. It gives them a way to contact us
> We have handed out about 300 cars in the last 2 1/2 years. Immediately after giving out a card, we pray that the Holy Spirit will take control of who gets the card and who checks out the website.
> We leave a lot of cards on shelves, ground by a car door, on sinks, etc.
> We are 2 Seed Sowers...
> The Holy Spirit has led thousands of to our website that only costs us $35/mo.

Just two of His servants

Mario
8/5/2020 11:37:54 pm

For digital evangelism

Kurt link
3/2/2021 11:58:25 pm

Thanks for sharing.
Wow! amazing content.

Iris Smith link
10/13/2022 09:38:54 pm

Thank you for saying that you want to strengthen the functions necessary for your church's operations and invest money toward cornerstone ministries that have the most promise in your membership and neighborhood. Christian is the owner of my business, but the company could use some assistance. I'll look for a Christian Community Advertising service and recommend it to my boss.

things to do link
8/29/2023 05:27:50 am

This is what I need to find. Thank you so much!


Comments are closed.

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