If you understand what you are doing, Facebook and Instagram ads can be extremely profitable for your Crowdfunding launch on Kickstarter or Indiegogo.
Below are a few variables for your advertising:
- Copy: the copy is the text associated with your ad. It needs to convey your message and persuade people to click.
- Creative: the visual associated with your ad. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, there’s a lot of opportunities to show off your project.
- Audience: the “who” for your ads. Make sure you target an audience that relates most to your project.
- Offer: the reason for people to click. Understand your audience and provide a reason that is persuasive enough to get traffic to your page.
Again, these are just a few variables when it comes to running your Facebook ads for crowdfunding. This isn’t even including what platform (Facebook or Instagram) or placement (where on the platform the ad will actually be seen) and a myriad of other variables.
In this article, we’ll focus on different types of ads you can use to get the most out of your crowdfunding project.
Video clips
It’s no secret that we’re all moving towards video as a medium for consumption. From your project video, be sure to have different, shorter cuts to use as advertising for your project. Get people to watch the video to better understand your product and immerse in your brand.
My recommendation? The shorter the better. Attention spans are getting shorter and you’ll need to hook someone’s attention quickly in order to get them to continue watching. With video, you have the benefit of retargeting people with different ads depending on how much of the video that they have watched.
Explanation of what it is
This will be your bread and butter. It’s simple and something that you can already create with just the assets you have for your campaign. What you create can be extremely cut and dry because sometimes that’s all what people need – an explanation of what the thing is. If the explanation of the product resonates with them, they’ll give the ad a click.
Compare to a popular product
All new ideas are iterations of something that already exists. If your project is similar to something that’s already on the market, use that to your advantage. Studies in virality show that people are most receptive to products that site between the familiar and novel. By comparing what you’ve created to something that already exists, it will give your audience a frame of reference to approach your project. They’ll think, “wow, I already like X! Maybe I’ll also like Y!”
So check out other crowdfunding campaign Facebook ads. In fact, you can learn so much from other campaigns, including their funnel.
Quotes and testimonials
During your pre-launch, you need to be sure to get out there and talk to people about your product. It can be potential customers, journalists, influencers, bloggers, vloggers, anyone and everyone. This way, you’ll be able to better hone down your pitch for the project and also understand what works.
In these conversations, be sure to grab some testimonials from people about how excited they are about your project. People are a sucker for social proof so if you can capture other people raving about your project, others are sure to follow suit.
Even if you don’t have people to talk to you in real life (but really, you should), you can also run other types of ads and once people start excitedly commenting on your ads, you now have quotes to use.
Time limit
Time urgency is a huge driving factor for people to pre-order a product. Use this to your advantage. Let people know that they only have a short amount of time left to get your product at the best possible discount. Since humans are pack animals, we always want to go along with what others are doing. If there’s been an incredible success with your project, get out there and tell people there’s only a limited amount of time left to get in too.
Humor
People are on social media channels like Facebook and Instagram to relax. If you can take a humorous angle and catch them there, they’ll be sure to click if only to find out a little bit more about your project.
Crowdfunding-related
Once you’ve launched on a crowdfunding platform, you’ll have a lot to talk about. Maybe you’re featured as an Indiegogo Staff Pick. Or maybe you’ve been labeled as a Project We Love on Kickstarter. However you’ve been featured, make sure to use that to your advantage. People who are avid backers know and trust these badges of honor so stick them on your ad images.
If you’ve been “trending” on the platform, you can also make use of screenshots from the platform itself. Moreover, you can create info about the different milestones you reach on the crowdfunding platform. People in a crowdfunding audience love being part of a bigger group so letting them know that your project has already 500 backers will put them at ease.
Clickbait
This type of ad will appeal to someone’s curiosity. As the person is scrolling through their feed, a clickbait ad will catch their eye and urge them to click. Clickbait ads usually come in some form of question that people will have to click to your page in order to find the answer.
Bonus: Press articles
This one is a point by itself. If you do manage to get written up by a publication, be sure to grab some quotes from the article and drop them into Canva. This type of advertising is incredibly high in social proof. For example, if you’re featured on TechCrunch, send out an ad to a “TechCrunch” and “Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Crowdfunding” audience group with a quote from the journalist. The audience will already love the publication, know crowdfunding and they’ll be more likely to click through to your page to learn more.
When you’re brainstorming advertising creatives for your project, be sure to keep your audience in mind. What types of ads will they be receptive to? What types of visual cues are they most likely going to respond to?
Advertising lies at the intersection of creativity and science so be sure to make good use of both hemispheres of your brain.
If you want more examples of the most effective Facebook and Instagram advertising for crowdfunding, be sure to check out the advertising swipe file in the resources section.
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