Meta’s new restrictions on pixel and conversion API event data are shaking things up for non-profits – especially those focused on health, politics, race, sexuality, and personal hardship.

Understandably, there’s a lot of concern for the impact this might have: higher costs per conversion, fewer sign-ups and donations, and ultimately, less real-world change.

So, how do you stay ahead and continue to drive impact? Last week, we hosted a hands-on webinar to tackle these challenges, hear your concerns, and share practical advice – both within and beyond Meta. If you missed the webinar, you can catch up on the recording on our YouTube channel, or read on below for all the main points and answers to your questions captured in the session.

What’s changing within Meta?

Meta has started restricting pixel & conversions API event data for some websites. This ultimately means that charities may not be able to optimise ads towards the types of people that are opting-in or donating.

For step-by-step advice about how to check if you’ve been affected, and workarounds you can test in the short term, check out our blog post: Big changes to how Meta tracks paid ads by charities are here: what you need to know and do.

New tactics for a new era

But what does the future hold for Meta campaigns? It’s hard to say exactly – and we know how unpredictable updates can be – but our webinar set out some considerations we think organisations could test if you see costs start to rise:

• Audiences – whilst we typically find that broad audiences are more cost-efficient when recruiting supporters, it’s definitely worth testing more targeted audience groups. Meta will now have less info about who is converting, so it will be harder for it to learn who to target. Try narrower lookalike audiences, retargeting from video views or post engagement.

• Retargeting – use what data you do have to target supporters more likely to convert. Think about engagement-based audiences (e.g. those who have engaged with your page), or lookalikes.

• Lead generation forms – Lead gen forms could become more cost-effective, and there could be ways to make them work with post sign-up conversion (e.g. by directing traffic immediately to a URL with further action). However, lead gen forms don’t offer a seamless daisy chain of additional actions for users to take, so it’s important to assess the impact on the post-action journey.

Adapting beyond Meta

We know that Meta will still be a key touchpoint for many organisations in recruiting supporters, but these changes to tracking means mobilising supporters outside of Meta is going to become more important. This inspired our two key tips from the webinar session:

Tip 1: Make first-party data a priority

As costs are likely to rise within Meta, your own first-party data will become increasingly valuable.

How to grow your supporter list:

• Create low-barrier sign-up points to attract users who align with your mission. Handraisers are a great way for supporters to show their solidarity with your cause.
• Promote sign-ups across owned, earned, and paid media channels. Consider organic pages which receive a high volume of traffic – could you add a ‘sign up’ button? Have you explored paid search? How about an influencer strategy?
• Use everyday moments as opportunities to engage and encourage opt-ins. Tying in timely and relevant content gives potential supporters a reason to follow and subscribe to your content.

Tip 2: Focus on converting more supporters, not just recruiting more

Since acquiring new supporters is set to become more expensive, increasing conversion rates further down the funnel is the next best move.

NOTE: Conversion = any action (financial or non-financial). We know action drives action, so whether it’s a donation or a petition signature, the priority is simply getting supporters more involved in your mission.

Ideas for how to boost conversions through content:

• Send weekly emails with a single CTA = regular conversion opportunities.
• Tap into real-time events to create urgency and relevancy to your supporters’ interests.
• Ask for donations often – donate prompts, average gift amounts, value exchange products can all help keep the actions varied.

For more tips and the full list – watch the recording here.

Strengthening UX to drive more action:

• Sign-up forms – are they clear and easy to understand? Does the user know where to add their details and what they are signing up for?
• Post-signup experiences – are users guided on a seamless journey following signup, where they are invited to take further action? Our Blueprint platform helps keep users within the same landing page through a daisy chain mechanic.
• Donation processes and platforms – when someone clicks to donate, what does this process look like? Are there behavioural nudges that can prompt someone to give more or sign up to a monthly donation?

Q&A

It was great to have so many questions within the webinar session and through our survey. We’ve done our best to capture and answer them below:

How do we know that these changes are rolled out to all political/social issues advertisers? Is there an official statement from them?

Meta has set out how it will be categorising ‘data sources’ (your website) here.

It’s worth noting that Meta has said that the categories which may have restrictions applied include, but are not limited to: health; politics; race; religion; sexuality; gender identity; nationality; trade unions; and personal hardship.

This means much of the charity sector is likely to be impacted.

Do we know why these Meta changes are being brought in?

It’s again worth referring to Meta’s own explanation, but in essence Meta has said these changes are designed to eliminate the sharing of sensitive user data.

If your charity doesn’t fall under the categories currently being restricted, is there any knock-on effect if you have a shared target audience? Or should everything continue to work as normal (for now)?

As far as we know, if your data sources (your website) have yet to be categorised there shouldn’t be any knock on impacts, and everything should continue to work in the same way as before. You should still be able to send data from your site back to Meta, so it can learn what types of users are most likely to convert.

However there has been limited information about how the roll out is happening, so it’s good to start thinking about your strategy for if and when the restrictions do get applied to your organisation.

What’s the best way to combat “Meta fatigue” (ie ads converting at the start of campaign and then slowing down)? 

If you’re seeing results slow down or costs increase, the most important first step is to gather the data to understand exactly which part of the journey is driving this. For example, is Facebook charging you more to deliver the ads (your CPM), are fewer who see them clicking the ads, or are fewer people converting once they’ve clicked?

It’s always good to refresh ad creative regularly, both to avoid ad fatigue and to continually test what works for you. How often you need to do this will depend on your rate of spend and audience size, as that will affect how many people see your ads, and how often.

A great tip is to iterate on what’s already working – for example overlaying graphics on high performing images to freshen up creative without needing to start from scratch.

If our pixel is impacted, does that mean the whole website is affected? So if I wanted to optimise for a “thank you” page – does it need to be 3rd party?

The data source categorisation happens at domain level – so it’s possible you could see your main site impacted but subdomains unaffected (at least for now). But as the restrictions are rolled out more broadly, it’s likely your subdomains will be impacted too.

From what we know so far, optimising towards traffic to thank you pages seem to work effectively (even when the thank you page is part of your main site), because these upper funnel events are not being restricted.

Are there any clearer definitions for what “personal hardship” entails in the event classifications? For example, would climate campaigning fall under here due to its human effects?

We haven’t come across any clearer definitions, and Meta’s explanation states that categorisations include, but are not limited to, these areas, making it extremely hard to know for certain that you will avoid these restrictions.

As a result it’s definitely worth having a plan for what you’ll do if the restrictions do impact you.

Do you know why there seems to be a general increase in cost per conversation, even for those not impacted by the new restrictions yet?

There are lots of factors that affect conversion cost at any one time – from the amount of people bidding for ad space, to seasonal variation in people donating or taking action. Marketing data shows that Facebook CPMs are rising year on year, so advertising on the platform is steadily becoming more expensive for everyone.

We’d always recommend keeping a careful eye on results and being in a position to scale up spend when results are good!

Have you heard of anyone having success with hyper targeted advertising on other platforms, other than Meta, for example Nextdoor?

We love testing new platforms, and diversifying the source of your leads and actions is undoubtedly a brilliant aim. While we haven’t tested ads on Nextdoor ourselves, we agree it could be a really interesting platform for certain campaigns or actions.

We are looking to go after a higher first ask. How can we target/acquire leads that are more likely to give more at conversion (whilst balancing increase in CPL)?

This is a great question and really highlights the importance of measuring long term supporter value, not just the initial acquisition or conversion cost. For example a higher cost per lead would be completely acceptable if you know the quality of the leads mean they’re much more likely to go on to become active, long term champions of your cause.

It’s definitely worth testing your audience targeting – for example are you testing broader audiences against lookalikes of your existing mailing list, or audiences based on specific interests. But it’s essential you have the tracking set up so that you can see how these different audiences convert in the longer term – supporters recruited from a broad pool may be cheaper to recruit in the short term, but you may find their engagement dropping off more quickly than more refined audience groups.

How can the new updates affect lookalike targeting on Meta?

The main impact is likely to be on any lookalike audiences you wish to create based on webpage conversion (where Meta is reliant on data from your pixel or conversions API).

As long as you have the necessary permissions, creating lookalike audiences based on your existing supporter data (such as donors or action takers) should still be possible and shouldn’t be impacted by the new restrictions.

Looking Ahead

The landscape of paid social will continue to evolve, and it’s likely we’ll see many more curveballs come our way. Our recommendation? Test, test and test again – both within and beyond Meta’s ecosystem.

The important thing is that we’re all in it together, figuring out the way. We’ll keep sharing our learnings with the sector, so make sure you’re on our mailing list (sign up is at the bottom of this page), or follow us on LinkedIn to hear more about our insights and strategic recommendations.

And if you’d like to chat with us about any of the content discussed in our webinar, please get in touch at hello@forwardaction.uk.