How to Find the Right Audience for Your Crowdfunding Campaign Using Facebook Ads

Sometimes the best ideas fail to launch simply because a crowdfunding campaign was unable to hit its funding goal. If you’re planning a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign to obtain financial backing for your big idea, you’ll want to take advantage of your pre-launch phase to attract your best possible audience. Facebook Ads are a great tool for identifying your target audience, testing your best messages, and finding out who is most likely to help you reach your goal.

Build a Great Landing Page

Before you can begin to identify your best messaging and ideal target audience, you’ll need to ensure that your pre-launch ads take users to a landing page that captures their attention. A solid landing page rewards users by being easy to navigate, showcasing your product and offering incentives for them to sign up for more information. Some simple tips:

  • Select your visuals with care. The first image of your product creates a lasting impression, so choose one that clearly demonstrates the benefits or attributes of your great idea.
  • Create convincing copy. Here’s your chance to clearly explain your product to potential backers so they better understand it and your mission.
  • Show off a little. Your landing page must also inspire confidence in these potential Kickstarter or Indiegogo backers, not just in the product but also in you. Your content should reflect your passion for your work, your confidence in your own future and your willingness to share your bright future with your campaign’s backers.

Test Your Crowdfunding Messaging

During the prelaunch phase of your Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign, you’ll need to determine how to best present your messages. While some images or slogans may resonate well with one audience, they may irritate or annoy another audience. Fortunately, Facebook Ads allows you to “split test” your ads to determine which ones drive the most responses and which fall flat.

To gain the deepest insights, Facebook recommends beginning with testing one specific factor at a time. Testing a single variable over several test cycles will give you the best information about how that metric performs. The platform simplifies the process by autofilling your ad selections for subsequent tests and lets you change just a single variable. Be sure to test messaging, type of ad, images and more, so that you have the clearest picture of what advertising works before you ever launch your campaign.

Identify Your Crowdfunding Audience

While you’re testing your messaging, you’ll need to simultaneously focus on determining your target audience. Facebook is unique because its capacity to target specific audiences is second to none. Compared to other advertising platforms, the Facebook algorithms that define targets based on interests, locations and preferences are much more accurate and can ensure that your ads get in front of the audience you want. This precision accomplishes two of your goals: testing a variety of audiences and keeping your costs down.

During the pre-launch phase of your project, use Facebook Ads to put your product in front of multiple highly-targeted, specific audiences, then use the data you gather from these campaigns to determine which audience responds best to your project – in other words, which audience is mostly likely to back your crowdfunding campaign. Putting some of your advertising budget toward testing audiences before your campaign launches means that you can make wiser decisions with your ad budget after your campaign launches, when time is critical.

Most crowdfunding seekers are product designers or developers, not marketing or advertising professionals. If you’re considering starting a Kickstarter campaign and you want more insights about attracting the best audience for your campaign, tune into our podcast and be sure to subscribe to our newsletter.

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