Doing Good.

The THD Data Nerds Take an Attribution Novice for a Trip Down the Yellow Brick Road

I’ve been working in the field of nonprofit fundraising for north of a decade now, so I’ve been around the block a few times. Even still, I keep getting hung up on something, something that everyone’s talking about. It’s a perennial thorn in my side, year after year. And that thorn is called attribution.

Don’t get me wrong, I get the concept. It’s about accurately assigning, or attributing, the value of a specific marketing touchpoint in a series of touchpoints that leads to a user taking an action, or converting. How to use it, how to put attribution into action — that’s my stumbling block.

What if I told you that you may be looking at your web analytics all wrong? What if what you see when you log in to Google Analytics was a big, fat data lie? What if Tom Brady had stayed with the Patriots? I can help you with exactly two of those questions. It all comes down to attribution and a dirty little habit called “last click.” Come closer and hear my (tongue-in-cheek) cautionary tale ... 

First, let’s get some background. So, what is attribution and why do you need to understand it? 

Hi! I'm Chris Hubbard. In my role as Vice President of Data Strategy at THD, I'm responsible for ensuring that our clients’ data is fully utilized to drive revenue.

Our point of view on data at THD is that it’s not enough to just collect lots of donor and giving data. That data needs to be accessible and presented in a way that facilitates insight discovery and action.                    

Social media can be a powerful platform for communicating and connecting with your donors. With COVID-19 stay at home and social distancing measures, it’s no surprise that social media usage is up. With this, comes a unique opportunity for nonprofits like yours to utilize social platforms to connect and communicate with your respective donors.  

We’ve been busy in our home laboratories during these past few months. After lots of testing (and retesting), we now have a new way to spot your program and audience trends — and do it faster than ever.

In part 1 of our Nonprofit Paid Search series, we talked about how marketing through a pandemic can feel risky, but the real risk comes in avoiding it altogether. We also gave some tips on how to set your organization up for success in paid search. In this installment, we explore additional options for improving paid and organic search performance for your organization. Without further ado, let’s jump right in!

It’s an unusual time — there’s no doubt about it. But there’s still plenty you can do today to ensure that you get the most out of your paid search campaigns now and in the future. Especially during the pandemic, here are some helpful strategies for campaign success:

What Nonprofits Need to Know in Order to Keep the Lights On

The digital landscape has been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and online advertising is no exception. In the nonprofit sector, we’ve seen responses from organizations range from addressing the coronavirus head on, to shutting down online advertising altogether. The ways in which organizations choose to respond during this extraordinary time is critical to how they will come through it and to how quickly they will recover if they've been negatively impacted. Let’s take a closer look at the current online advertising landscape and what it means for nonprofits. 

During These Strange Times, Our Email Programs Have Shown Resilience

It goes without saying that the coronavirus outbreak caused an upheaval in how nonprofits are approaching their fundraising programs. Given the new norm of social distancing, many organizations will need to rely more on digital marketing to compensate for losses they may be seeing in other channels. 

As the country tries to slow the spread of COVID-19 and non-essential businesses are required to modify how they operate, many in our industry are concerned about how this will affect our ability to continue helping our clients to fulfill their missions. In direct mail fundraising, the USPS is the most instrumental tool we have to reach our donors and deliver our message. And it is crucial not only to direct response fundraising, but critical to the infrastructure of the entire country. Authorized and recognized by the United States Constitution, the USPS was of course deemed an essential institution and will remain open and fully operational throughout the remainder of the COVID-19 outbreak.