If you’re running lead generation campaigns for social fundraising, you know how crucial it is to track performance accurately. But with so much data inside Meta’s Ad Manager, how do you know which ads are actually driving fundraisers?
We’ve built the Lead Ad Performance Tool to solve this very problem. Now, digital marketers—whether in-house at a charity or at an agency—can gain real-time insights into how their Meta ads are performing, not just in terms of lead generation, but in what really matters: registrations, fundraisers, and active fundraisers.
One of the biggest challenges in lead generation for fundraising is that cost per lead (CPL) can be misleading. A cheaper lead isn’t always better – what matters is how many of those leads go on to become active fundraisers. But historically, charities and agencies had to manually track this data, mapping emails from lead forms to fundraiser registrations in spreadsheets. It was time-consuming, retrospective, and didn’t allow for real-time decision-making.
That’s where our Lead Ad Performance Tool comes in. It gives you a centralized view of which ads and ad sets are driving fundraisers (not just leads!) so you can make informed optimizations while your campaign is still running.
Richard Crosland, from Bluestep Solutions, one of our partners who helped test the tool, sums it up perfectly:
"GivePanel’s Lead Ad Performance Tool is a fantastic way for digital marketers across agencies or internal teams within charities to see the effects of their ads performance – and most importantly – in real-time. The tool allows marketers to monitor very closely which ads are delivering on various key metrics, including Registrations, Fundraisers, and critically, Active Fundraisers.
The Lead Ad Performance tool – working directly alongside optimizations directly on Meta Ad Manager allows marketers to identify which ads are effectively delivering and to what level, allowing the opportunity to make the ads campaign work harder and allow you to focus on the ads that are really delivering fundraisers."
In short, the tool helps you maximize your budget by putting your spend behind ads that drive real results.
At its core, the Lead Ad Performance Tool connects your Meta lead ads with real fundraising activity inside GivePanel, giving you real-time insights into which ads are driving real impact. Here’s how:
When someone signs up through a Meta lead ad, their details are automatically passed into GivePanel through our Meta leads integration. From there, the tool matches those leads with fundraiser registrations, giving you a clear view of which ads are actually turning into fundraisers.
The ~75% attribution match rate means you get a strong directional view of campaign performance without relying on manual exports or guesswork. Unlike other tracking methods that require pixel setups or first-party data integrations, this tool works seamlessly within GivePanel (no extra tech headaches required!).
Traditional reporting methods often require exporting lead lists, manually cross-referencing data, and waiting for fundraising activity to ramp up. By the time you have insights, it’s often too late to optimize.
With this tool, data is updated continuously, meaning you can monitor performance in real-time and make informed decisions while your ads are still running. See which ad creatives, audiences, and placements are converting best - then double down on what’s working.
Most lead ad campaigns track cost per lead (CPL) as the primary metric, but as any digital marketer knows, not all leads are equal. A low CPL is great, but if those leads don’t turn into fundraisers, it doesn’t mean much.
This tool shifts the focus from cost per lead to cost per active fundraiser (CPAF), helping you optimize for actual fundraising outcomes rather than just lead volume. By knowing the real return on your ad spend, you can confidently scale campaigns that drive results, without wasting budget on leads that don’t convert.
The moment a lead signs up, the journey isn’t over - it’s just beginning. That’s why this tool doesn’t just show ad performance in isolation. It integrates with GivePanel’s Lead Email Journey and other features, providing a full-funnel view of supporter engagement.
With this integration, you can:
This full-funnel insight helps you identify the most effective combinations of ads, email content, and engagement strategies to maximize fundraiser activation.
While social fundraising challenges are a perfect fit for this tool, it’s also powerful for two-step donation flows, such as:
This flexibility makes the Lead Ad Performance Tool an essential data-driven decision-making tool for any nonprofit running Meta lead ads, regardless of the fundraising model.
For fundraising and events teams who love working in spreadsheets, we’ve got you covered. All the data from the Lead Ad Performance Tool can be exported to CSV, allowing you to take it away, analyze trends, and dive even deeper into performance metrics. Whether you want to cross-check it with other internal reports, create custom dashboards, or share insights with different teams, you have full control over your data outside of GivePanel.
By giving you real-time insights, a strong attribution match, and a focus on actual fundraising impact, this tool lets you optimize campaigns with confidence. Whether you're scaling social challenges, driving registrations, or running hybrid fundraising models, you’ll know exactly which ads are working and why.
The Lead Ad Performance Tool is built for charities and agencies running large-scale lead generation campaigns, especially those focused on social challenges, two-step donation flows, or hybrid fundraising models.
If your organization relies on Meta lead ads to recruit fundraisers or donors, this tool gives you the attribution insights you need - without requiring Meta’s Conversions API (CAPI). That makes it a great solution for charities that have hesitated to use CAPI due to data privacy concerns but still want to track ad performance effectively.
This tool is particularly valuable for:
Whether you're running thousands of leads per month or just starting with lead ad fundraising, this tool gives you unmatched visibility into ad performance, helping you make smarter, data-driven decisions in real-time.
We’re excited to see how charities and agencies use this tool to optimize their fundraising campaigns and increase conversions from leads to active fundraisers. If you’re already running lead generation campaigns and are a GivePanel customer, check out this handy help article on how to get started.
Not a part of the GivePanel community yet? Get in touch with our fundraising experts to see how the Lead Ad Performance Tool can help you drive more fundraisers, not just more leads.