Getting blood donors through the door can be a challenge, but when you know what tactics to start with, it can be a breeze. As an expert in the blood donor recruitment space, we’ve seen specific ad themes across multiple blood bank clients that tug at the heartstrings of donors and get them to make that final step of scheduling an appointment and coming to donate at your blood center. We’re going to highlight the top 3 ad themes to drive blood donors into your donor center.
1. Promotions
When you really think about it, promotions being the top-performing ad type to bring in donors isn’t a shock. “What’s in it for me?” is often a phrase coined when you ask someone to do you a favor, even when it comes to saving lives! Although we all want blood donors to donate altruistically, that's just not how blood donations go anymore. At the end of the day, if your blood bank spends just $5 to $10 to bring in a donor to save a life, your investment is well worth it.
During a 6-month data pulling period, advertisements that contained a promotion had an average of a 1.68% Click-Through-Rate (CTR). Along with this high CTR, these ads also accounted for 7% of total clicks for those 6 months. Promotions aren’t continually running like the other ad themes, which is why it's essential to advertise for the whole duration of the promotion to increase exposure and blood donation for your blood center. We’ve found the best practice is to launch a few days prior to the promotion start date to build up awareness and really catch the attention of potential donors.
Below are some examples of this ad theme that we love from blood centers around the country!
Tip: Don’t forget to include both story and in-feed ad sizes!
2. Blood donation statistics
Statistics are a quick way to grab your audiences’ attention. They can help to add that extra “wow” factor, as well as portray the importance of donating blood.
11% of total clicks for a 6-month period came from statistical-based advertisements. They also performed well with a CTR of 1.24%, compared to the average 1.12% CTR, meaning the audience was interacting with the ad at a positive rate. Statistic-based ads are the type of ads you can keep running for longer periods of time, however, if you plan to keep a statistic in a campaign, we'd recommend adjusting the creative after a month or two to keep campaign content fresh.
Shown below are examples of statistic-based ad styles from blood centers. When choosing the statistic, it’s important to think on the audience's side, a few questions to ask are:
What would you think if you read this fact?
Would this fact make you want to donate?
Would this fact stick with you and enhance the importance of donating?
3. Donor images
Images with a blood donor are the third style that has high engagement trends. With an overall CTR of 0.88% in this 6-month period, they were responsible for 24% of total clicks!
Social proof is something that companies in a wide range of industries use to help influence their target to perform the task they want. Seeing someone donate blood can put your targets in the mindset of “if they can do it, I can do it.” This is the time to really showcase the friendliness of your staff and blood center! We’ve seen success with single donor images, as well as ads containing a whole collage of donors. Show your audience why they should choose your blood center.
Below are examples of donor-themed ads from different blood centers. There are many ways to style them, but make sure to include that CTA so the audience knows the reason for your ad.
Getting donors through the door can be a struggle at times, but when you give that little push in the right direction, you can have donors flooding the doors in no time! Need help increasing your donor base? We are experts in increasing blood donations through digital channels.