Integrated Paid Media Strategy Elevates Donations and Engagement

CLIENT

Everytown for Gun Safety

SERVICE

Creative Services, Digital Journey & CRO, Integrated Marketing, Marketing Strategy & AI Consulting, Paid Media, Personalization

INDUSTRY

Social Good

+2.1X ROAS

-45% Cost per donation

-57% Cost per click

Background

Everytown for Gun Safety, a leading gun violence prevention organization, initially partnered with Cro Metrics for Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and a Customer Journey Analysis (CJA). Building on the trust and success of that engagement, Everytown sought to expand the partnership to include paid media management, aiming to scale digital advertising, increase actions and conversions, and optimize return on ad spend. Their prior agency had struggled to deliver consistent results, and Everytown needed a partner capable of developing scalable paid media processes, driving brand awareness, and achieving measurable performance improvements across campaigns, creative, and landing pages.

Challenge

Improve Paid Media Performance to Increase Donor Support

Everytown required a strategic partner to improve paid media performance, scale campaigns efficiently, optimize creative and landing pages, and enhance audience targeting to drive higher engagement, donations, and ROAS.

Solution

Construct a Paid Media Strategy That Combines Design with Optimization

Our team took over Meta and Google Ads management, built client-owned accounts, developed a cross-channel strategy, optimized landing pages, produced tailored creative, and implemented experiment-led testing across audiences, ad formats, and campaign flows. This approach allowed for continuous iteration, testing, and performance growth.

Methodology

Improve Campaign Efficiency with a 4 Pronged-Approach

We implemented a 4-pronged approach to Everytown’s paid media strategy, focused on creating efficiencies and rooted in donor behavior. We aimed to drive performance and donations through strategic iterative testing across paid channels and corresponding landing pages. With design, strategy, and ongoing optimization, our team effectively helped Everytown improve overall campaign efficiency.

Strategy & Management:

We built new Everytown-owned ad accounts, designed a cross-channel paid media strategy, and identified target audiences for evergreen campaigns, rapid-response campaigns, and donation matches. By structuring the campaigns around audience segments and specific actions, we created the foundation for scalable growth.

Creative Services:

We developed a dedicated creative pipeline, producing static, animated, and video ads aligned with Everytown’s brand guidelines. This included collaboration on approvals for celebrity usage (e.g., Julianne Moore) and work with external video contractors.

Landing Page Optimization:

Our team redesigned and built campaign-specific landing pages in ActionKit, improving the donor journey from ad click to conversion. Pages included donation match campaigns, streamlining access and minimizing friction for users.

Experimentation & Optimization:

Replicate & Refine: We initially replicated the previous agency’s funnel to establish benchmarks, then tested optimizations, including directing retargeting traffic straight to donation pages.
A/B Testing Creative & Copy: Tested ad formats and messaging. A “Live Poll” format with a “High Number Needed” callout increased email acquisition by +50 per 10,000 impressions. Urgency-driven CTAs and impact-focused copy were also evaluated.
Audience & Funnel Optimization: Built ActionKit-based segments, uploaded to Meta for refined targeting, and optimized prospecting vs. retargeting campaigns.
Campaign & Channel Agility: Managed evergreen and time-sensitive campaigns, adjusting budgets and creative in real-time to capitalize on performance signals.

Results

More Donations, Recurring Contributions, & Higher Engagement

We successfully transformed Everytown’s paid media program, creating a scalable, experiment-driven strategy that improved campaign efficiency, optimized creative and landing pages, and drove measurable increases in donations, recurring contributions, and audience engagement.