Paid social media ads case study: Farms For City Children

Farms For City Children is a charity enabling children from disadvantaged communities to experience the adventure of working together on farms in the heart of the British countryside. With mud on their boots, this charity is a real grassroots foundation. Their immersive experiences aim to instill a deeper connection to nature and the world around us. Not only this, they aim to foster a sense of responsibility and provide valuable life skills.

Children are immersed in a totally new world, far away from their everyday life. They are usually inner city, about as far away from a farm as you can get! They are introduced by Farms For City Children to a world full of birdsong, clear starry skies, fresh air, real food and plenty of squelching mud. A world where you can see, hear, smell, touch, and taste the possibility. It’s a profound experience that will stay with them for life.

Being Devon-based, KW Marketing is well-versed with muddy boots. We thrive amongst open fields and grey skies. That’s why, when we were asked by our charity partners Farms For City Children to help them out with their brand awareness, we jumped at the chance! Read on for how we helped our favourite charity out there…

The challenge

Farms For City Children came to KW Marketing with a conundrum. As relatively small fish within the charity world, they are constantly in need of some new funders and revenue to continue with the hard work that they do. We knew firsthand from the charity that limited budgets meant that they had to make sure that every penny of their digital marketing counted.

So the challenge was: how to get good quality leads and sign-ups to their database with their limited budget? Recognizing the potential of social media as a tool for connection, Farms for City Children embarked on a journey to expand its reach and grow its database through paid social media ads.

As with any new client, the KW Marketing team ensured a thorough analysis of their current digital marketing channels. They looked for places of improvement as well as how we could the charity with some quick wins. As this charity was so close to our hearts, we wanted to make sure that we were helping them in any other aspect of their digital marketing as well.

KW Marketing worked alongside the team at Farms For City Children to nail down exactly the areas for improvement as well as how we could grow their database.

The solution

KW Marketing set up and ran paid social ads for Farms For City Children in a month-long campaign. One of the first steps that KW Marketing undertook was to craft compelling content that resonated with its target audience. We wanted potential visitors to feel compelled to engage and learn more – as well as sign up to the newsletter! With this in mind, we crafted the campaign with the hook to sign up to the newsletter and be in with your chance to win a Farms For City Children mug & tea towel, with illustrations by Quentin Black.

With a limited budget, KW Marketing ran two ads to track the responses. One ad led to a landing page on Farms For City Children’s own website and the other was a Facebook form. With precision targeting, paid social media ads allowed Farms For City Children to reach the right people at the right time. KW Marketing utilised the sophisticated targeting options so the charity was able to target and reach individuals who were most likely to be interested in their cause.

But effective paid social media ads aren’t just about broadcasting a message. They’re about inviting the audience to take action. KW Marketing helped Farms For City Children to incorporate clear and compelling calls to action in their ads, encouraging their viewers to sign up for newsletters.

Shortly after going live, it was clear to see that the Facebook form was producing huge results very quickly. KW Marketing decided to only use this ad set which encouraged sign-ups through the form and boosted the budget for this particular paid social media ad.

After the ad set was finished after a month, we exported the data and imported it into their MailChimp account.

The impact

Within one month of utilising paid social media ads, the Farms For City Children database grew by 91 NEW contacts.

The campaign reached over 14,000 target customers. This lead to higher brand awareness and engagement with the charity. The ad itself received a high level of engagement – 259 reactions and 9 saves. What a win!

We absolutely loved working with the team at Farms For City Children. Here’s to the future!

“Working with Kate, Mela and the team has been a joy. Their generosity and their expertise and time made a big difference to my personal development as well as the charity I work for. Thank you KW Marketing!”

Lisa Long, Corporate Fundraising Manager, Farms For City Children

Want to build your brand awareness and grow your database today? Book a call today to chat about how paid social media ads can help. Check out how we can help you here!