WWF’s mobile ad campaign slashes donor recruitment costs

Precision App network targeting, simple messaging and a great brand are key to WWF’s success

I've created this campaign summary since it shows just how effective a mobile ad campaign can be when it's well targeted and delivers a strong, simple message. It's based on a more in-depth case study of a WWF Sweden campaign available from Google.

The fact that WWF already had a well-respected brand in Sweden at the time of the campaign didn’t hurt either - existing high brand recognition was undoubtedly a factor in making this loyal donor recruitment campaign a huge success.

WWF’s campaign results are truly impressive, showing +25% increase in mobile conversion compared with WWF’s total conversions across all platforms.

The campaign results were good enough to convince WWF to abandon other advertising channels and increase mobile investment by 400%, focusing exclusively on the AdMob network.

Smartphone ads give WWF’s head of marketing first to channel advantage

WWF’s head of marketing, Mariann Eriksson, recognised the explosion in Swedish smartphone ownership offered her a great opportunity to take WWF’s long running display ad strategy in a new direction. The mobile channel allowed her to side-step crowds of desktop competitors and connect directly and personally with her target audience;

“We needed to be ahead of our competitors. A lot of people in Sweden already used smartphones and the usage would explode during the year. We needed to test this channel to be able to adapt our fundraising model to it.”

WWF’s digital mission to recruit monthly donors at lowest possible cost per order

Stefan Fagerström, at WWF’s agency 2XL, explains WWF’s fundraising strategy;

“Online, the model we have for fundraising is based on recency planning, a strategy where the focus is to have as high reach as possible at low daily or weekly frequency……………. We need to reach people when they are in the ‘buying mode’. So we want to be present everywhere, every day. That is the strategy we’ve used online, so the question was can we do this on the mobile channel as well?”

Tight targeting and a simple message

WWF tested a number of mobile networks. Simple banner ads encouraged users to adopt a polar bear or tiger; clicking on the ad took users to a WWF mobile site landing page where they could sign up to make a monthly donation towards the animal of their choice.

As the campaign progressed, it became clear the AdMob network offered the lowest cost per order and an impressive number of orders.

“The key learning was that the Swedish local pages were overpriced, not effective and not suited for fundraising,” explains Stefan. “The experience we got from AdMob was super high reach, good pricing and good conversions.”

In Sweden, the AdMob network reaches millions of unique devices through thousands of premium in-app placements. WWF’s campaign ads ran on targeted handpicked premium app placements, including Wordfeud and Angry Birds.

Campaign optimisation focused on media buying and creative

As the 4 month campaign progressed, 2XL continued to prioritise high reach with low daily frequency, rather than niche marketing. A key success factor was WWF could buy on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis through AdMob and the CPC was low;

“The reach is massive,” Stefan says, “and the price model AdMob is using is really good for us because it allows us to do exactly what we want to do which is to pay per click or per action.”

2XL focused on developing its media buying strategies and optimising ad creatives and landing pages. As most conversions occurred at certain hours, investment targeted these prime time slots.

At the end of the campaign, mobile conversions had risen representing almost 25% of WWF’s total conversions across all platforms. WWF’s next step was to triple its mobile investment for 2012. AdMob outperformed all other networks with lowest cost-per-click and highest conversions and will continue to perform a key role in WWF's digital ad strategy;

“We will use it on a regular basis for fundraising,” explains Stefan, “but we will also use it in our communication campaigns like Earth Hour. We know that it is very cost-effective to use AdMob for reach and also for gaining traffic to our webpages. Plus we know the cost for that reach and the traffic is great.”