Hi all, apologies as I'm a bit behind schedule in answering the last round of questions. We ended up taking a few extra days to get the details of the program right, and launched this ads experiment on Wednesday, July 12th. I posted an update today to our meta page for this experiment https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising/Updates/FBAdsExperiment, but we don't have any conclusions, yet, due to our late launch.
Here are the questions I saw:
*James Heilman: Interesting experiment. Can you provide versions of the fundraiser notifications so people can provide feedback?*
Sure. Our first ad group uses the same image of Jimmy Wales, with two different sets of copy. You can see screenshots of the two ads on our meta page https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising/Updates/FBAdsExperiment. If anyone has suggestions for content that you think might motivate new donors, let me know. It's particularly difficult to come up with representative images. Jimmy appeared in our banners for a while, so we decided to start there.
*Chris Keating: Out of interest are you planning to use Facebook's custom audiences tool to include (or possibly exclude) people who are already WMF donors?* This was a big discussion topic before we launched this pilot project. We are not currently suppressing or targeting ads to our donor list, but we will revisit this option and it's pros and cons if we decide to keep testing ads.
*Also from Chris: (And, more of a movement strategy question than one aimed at the actual fundraising team - if this works, will WMF decide it's the only movement body that is allowed to fundraising on Facebook, in the same way's it approaches the on-wiki banners? :) )*
Yeah, I can’t answer that :)
Hope everyone has good weekends, sam
On Fri, Jun 30, 2017 at 4:49 PM, Samuel Patton spatton@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi all, I've received a bunch of great questions both on and off list. I'm really happy to see how interested people are in this pilot. It is a new experiment for us, too, and I hope the learnings will be beneficial to all.
I just wanted to send a quick note of acknowledgment because it's getting late in my timezone and I haven't had a chance to get answers to all questions. I'll be back in touch next week with more info.
thank you, sam
On Fri, Jun 30, 2017 at 6:46 AM, Chris Keating <chriskeatingwiki@gmail.com
wrote:
Thanks Sam! Very interesting to see the WMF dip its toe into the water of off-Wikipedia fundraising for small gifts for the first time. :)
Out of interest are you planning to use Facebook's custom audiences tool to include (or possibly exclude) people who are already WMF donors?
(And, more of a movement strategy question than one aimed at the actual fundraising team - if this works, will WMF decide it's the only movement body that is allowed to fundraising on Facebook, in the same way's it approaches the on-wiki banners? :) )
Regards,
Chris
On Thu, Jun 29, 2017 at 6:58 PM, Samuel Patton spatton@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi everyone,
I'm writing to let you know about a project we're trying on the Foundation's fundraising team. Thanks to all the help and advice we've received from our colleagues in Communications, Legal, and Community Engagement.
*I've posted this announcement as an update on Fundraising's Meta Page https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising/Updates, and would be
happy
to answer questions and keep the discussion up there.*
Over the next three weeks, the Advancement team will be conducting a
small
fundraising pilot on Facebook and Instagram. This will involve sponsored posts, served in English to people in the United States, that will
direct
users to donate to the Foundation using our own donation processing
pages.
Fundraising is always interested in exploring new ways to reach people
who
find value in Wikipedia and are interested in supporting the
Foundation’s
mission. Advertising across social networks is a proven and popular way
for
nonprofits to find new supporters and build organizational awareness,
and
we’re excited to dip our toes into this.
Like the many tests we run for Fundraising, this pilot will involve experiments testing different imagery, copy, and calls to action. We
hope
to answer the question: how well does our on-Wikipedia.org messaging perform when presented on another site? It will also examine how our appeals perform across demographic and interest groups.
*Where will the ads appear?*
This pilot will use “sponsored posts,” which is what Facebook calls
content
that appears in the news feed of Facebook users.
They will also appear on Instagram as “sponsored stories” that appear within the flow of photo and video posts users scroll on that network. (Instagram is a Facebook property.)
They will not appear as banners, pop-ups, or display ads that appear alongside the news feed. This is a test in what is called “native” advertising, meaning it uses the same content display area that users expect from Facebook and Instagram.
*How will you target your ads?*
In addition to the broad parameters of language (English) and country (U.S.), we have identified a few target audiences that might respond particularly well to our appeals: educators, philanthropists, and
frequent
consumers of news. We will build these audiences based off self reported information about educational achievement, news readership, and philanthropic interest. I've included details on each audience below. In addition to these, we have discussed the value of comparing
effectiveness
across other characteristics - age, gender, etc.
A large part of the value in running this experiment is to *learn*
whether
there are any demographic differences in how people respond to our messaging. If this experiment does give us compelling info about who is more likely to donate, that is exciting! And we'll talk as a group about what to do with that knowledge.
*Can users opt out?*
Of course. Users can hide individual ads if they are not of interest to them. This is also something we can measure to better understand how to
not
annoy or impose on social media users in future fundraising drives.
*Who is working on this?*
Fundraising is partnering with the social media folks in Communications
to
run this test. The promotion and measurement of ads is being managed by
a
small company called Middle Seat.
*Will you keep us in the loop?*
Absolutely. By July 15 we intend to share an overview of our testing so far.
Stay tuned for more updates!
sam
*Possible target audiences:*
*STUDENTS & EDUCATORS* *How likely to donate are current students and educators?* Age: 18 - 65+ Target: Current students above high school level and educators based on self-reported “job title” Reach: 1,000,000+
*PHILANTHROPISTS* *How likely to donate are Facebook users interested in both philanthropy and donating to charitable causes?* Age: 18 - 65+ Target: Facebook users with self-reported interests in philanthropy and donating to charity Reach: ~460,000
*NEWS READERS* *How likely to donate are Facebook users whose behavior suggests they’re daily news consumers?* Age: 18 - 65+ Target: Facebook users with interests and behavior that suggests daily
news
consumption Reach: ~1,000,000 _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
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