Commentary

View-through Conversions And Why They Could Matter To Your Non-profit

“View-through conversions.” Ring a bell? If not, they’re a tricky little metric used in the display and social media advertising world to cite an event where a person saw (but didn’t click on) your ad and later converted through a different channel. (Here’s how Google explains the metric.)

As you can imagine, it’s rather hard to pin down the value of these – and whether you’re tracking that exact metric or not, that’s potentially very good news for your non-profit.

Wait, what? Fuzzy math is good for marketers? Yes, because there’s a very specific, very altruistic test to help sort it all out: the PSA, as laid out by my colleague, Judy Morimoto.

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As Judy explains:

Here’s how it works: The advertiser pays for display campaigns for selected non-profit organizations to determine the lift in performance between users who were exposed to your ads and those who were not. The advertiser gets data, the non-profit gets free advertising, and everyone wins!

So how do you get your nonprofit in on that action? A few tips:

1. Set up an SEO-friendly PSA link on your website. Any advertiser looking up terms like “PSA nonprofits” to find a target for his/her benevolence might just stumble on your website and decide to help.

2. Make sure that link has assets – updated logos, fonts, and messaging – you’d like the world to see. 

3. Talk to marketers. Presumably you go to conferences, seminars, etc., looking for better ways to advance your cause. For-profit types dealing with display, social media, and one of the big 2014 buzzwords, attribution, will know all about view-through conversions. “Ever thought of doing a PSA?” might border on the smarmy, but hey. It’s for a good cause. (Just leave out the wink.)

Remember, too, that it’s a good idea to post on your company’s social media channels every so often that you’re more than willing to help advertisers work out their VTC issues. Attribution technology is ramping up as cross-channel marketing gets bigger, so it won’t be a fuzzy metric for long. I’d recommend you get the PSA drumbeat going as soon as you can.

Good luck! 

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