The longer I spend working in digital (over 20 years now – yikes!), the more I’m reminded that data and measurement are foundational to everything we do. You can have the most creative, inspiring campaign concepts, but unless you’re able to measure and evaluate how they perform, they can easily flop and waste your resources.
Measurement is so important that I’d always recommend starting with analytics and data when you’re building digital skills in your organization, whether it’s training a new team or upskilling yourself.
So now that we've covered why measurement matters, we need to choose from the types of tracking available and set them up to work across all of our supporter touch points. Here are my list of recommendations and some top tips on how to use them.
Google Analytics is the industry standard for tracking digital data, and it’s free to use. It should be installed on any websites and apps owned by your organization, and you can integrate it with many third party services to track results there too, such as Eventbrite.
A few top tips for using Analytics:
Psst! Google is in the process of retiring its ‘Universal Analytics’ and is requiring users to switch to Google Analytics 4. If you haven’t already looked at this, do so soon; you’ll need to install GA4 and set up conversion tracking on it ASAP in order to start gathering data on the new system.
To make the most of the powerful targeting in Facebook Ads, you will need to set up the Facebook Pixel on your website, and create custom conversions on this pixel.
Facebook describe the Facebook pixel as "A piece of code for your website that lets you measure, optimize and build audiences for your advertising campaigns." This small piece of code allows you to
Facebook has it's own range of helpful tutorials for getting this set up and you can learn more about using the Facebook pixel in one of their Meta Blueprint courses. Don't forget to also check that your nonprofit has Facebook's Giving Tools turned on so you can really make the most of this platform.
This is another Google service that is invaluable when it comes to tracking and measuring your results. To use this, all you have to do is add a snippet of code to the campaign links that you share on your various digital channels and platforms. You can track different campaigns, channels and content by customizing the UTM codes, and this then gives you highly useful information, such as:
And much, much more!
It’s also crucial for comparing results from different reporting systems – Facebook will often report very differently from Google Analytics. By using UTM tracking on the links on your Facebook Ads, you can carefully compare the data from the two systems and identify any issues.
If you’re not already using UTM, start by reading available guides and getting your head around how it works. It’s not a complex system, but it’s very, very easy to get it wrong. If you’re already using it, it’s worth doing a quick review of your current UTM codes and making sure they follow best practice. Then once you’re confident, you can create a template to generate and record your own UTM tags and use tools such as Google's UTM generator.
Watch out for part two where we'll discuss what KPIs your nonprofit should be paying attention to, coming soon to the GivePanel blog.
In the meantime, find out how GivePanel can help manage your Facebook fundraising by booking your 30 minute demo with one of the in-house Facebook fundraising experts.