4 Types of Ad Campaigns Every Church Should Consider

As of April 2023, Facebook had 2.037 billion daily active users. Instagram had 2.35 billion monthly active users. The Meta platforms are — even in 2023 — tools that church leaders can’t afford to ignore if we want to have relevance in reaching people in our communities. In short, your audience, regardless of age and gender, is on these platforms.

Here’s the problem: according to Hootsuite, the average engagement rate of an organic Facebook post is somewhere between 2.58% down to just 1.52%. For organizations, “pay for play” is nearly a requirement if we are going to see success in reaching our online goals. Utilizing paid ads is an important part of social media strategies that forward-thinking churches are leveraging to better serve their communities.

With that in mind, here are four Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns every church should consider.

4 Ad Campaigns Your Church Should Consider in 2024

#1: Brand Awareness Campaign

A brand awareness campaign helps, as the name implies, make people more aware of your brand. Before you say, “People in our community recognize our church,” allow me to suggest to you that a brand awareness campaign helps with more than simply recognizing you. Your “brand” represents what people think, feel, and believe about you when they see your identity marks (logo, colors, etc.) or when they interact with you. While it’s possible people in your community might recognize your logo or know something about you, it’s unlikely that they have a complete picture. They would probably not be able to distinguish you from most other churches in the area. Even if your church has a really great reputation, there is probably a greater story that you could tell.

Your brand awareness ads can help people better understand how you can meet their needs. Or, at minimum, it can keep your church top-of-mind so they know where to turn when they realize they have a need you are able to meet.

Think about how well-known brands, such as Coca-Cola, run ads to expand their story and to stay top-of-mind. Everyone knows who Coca-Cola is. But when you are thirsty, they want a Coke to pop into your mind. Even more, they want you to know things about the Coca-Cola company itself (they’re for world-harmony, etc.). A brand awareness campaign for your church should serve a similar purpose.

The great news is, brand awareness campaigns are inexpensive. You can set a pin at your church address and run a $5/day campaign to people who live within a certain radius (say, 10 or 20 miles) and make a pretty significant dent in helping keep your church top-of-mind. An added benefit is you can retarget people in future ad campaigns who have clicked through from your brand awareness campaigns to your website. More on retargeting campaigns below.

#2: Event Promotion Campaign

Community events are a great way for your church to serve your community and attract people who might not otherwise be interested. Whether it’s an Easter Egg Hunt, a Children’s Christmas Candyland, a Fall Festival, a July 4th Independence Celebration, a VBS, or something else, events are a tried-and-true way to engage with people and showcase the friendliness of your church.

If you’re going to go through the effort of doing an event, why not make sure people know about it? Consider running an event promotion ad campaign anytime your church hosts an event where the community is invited.

Once again, drop a pin on your church’s address and target people within a geographical area. Additionally, you might want to use interest or demographic targeting if the events target certain demographics. For example, for a Fall Festival, you might want to target parents of certain aged children within your geographic area to limit the showing of your ad to a more targeted audience.

Add a modest amount of money to your event budget for marketing and you are likely to see good results. To start, I’d recommend $100 per week of promotion per every 10-mile radius.

#3: Lead Generation Campaign

Business owners typically want to generate leads for their sales reps to call on using lead generation campaigns. The idea is to offer something of value called a lead generator — or lead magnet — that people will exchange for their email address or other contact information. The business then uses that information to contact a “warm” lead as someone who has demonstrated some interest in what they offer and who has a high probability of purchasing their product or service.

Churches can leverage this concept to provide value to people in their communities and to create an opportunity to follow up with them in the future.

The key here is to create a resource that feels valuable to people to use as your lead generator. A few that I’ve seen churches use successfully include…

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• Family Conversation Starters for the Drive to Sports Practice
• 25 Inexpensive Date Ideas to Improve Your Marriage
• How to Find Peace with God in Trying Times
• How to Move Forward When You Are Overcome with Anxiety

Create a form where people can give you their email address in exchange for a similar resource. Then create a follow up process (I recommend an email auto response sequence) that continues to provide value based on the topic of the lead generator they downloaded. Remember, unlike a business whose goal is to eventually sell a product, your goal isn’t to sell anything. It’s to serve your community. Resist the urge to overly promote your church. Once you’ve given enough value and people feel thoroughly served by your resources, they’ll eventually seek out information about your church.

Utilize a lead generation campaign to help make people aware of the resources you have available. You can even have Facebook or Instagram present people with a “lead form” where they can download your resource without ever leaving the social media platform.

Lead generation ads are often a bit more expensive than the previously mentioned campaigns. However, for a few hundred dollars per month per campaign, you can really make an impact serving your community. Lead generation campaigns pay big returns on investment for businesses, and they can have a big ROI for the sake of the kingdom if your church is willing to invest in them.

#4: Retargeting Campaign

If you’ve ever visited a website and looked at a product, then saw an ad for it in your social media newsfeed when you are scrolling the next day (creepy, huh?), you’ve experienced retargeting. It’s a process where businesses use a piece of code, called a Pixel, on their website to tell the advertising platform that you visited and that you are an interested potential customer so they can re-target you with an advertisement.

While you might find it annoying, it’s actually a sophisticated methodology for platforms to customize your ad experience to show you advertisements that you are more likely to want to see based on the fact that you previously showed an interest in them.

Churches can leverage this same technology. You can add a Pixel to your church’s website and retarget people who’ve previously visited. Here’s where it gets fun: you can target people based on the activity they take on your site. For example, if someone visits your staff page (a popular page for guests on most church websites), you can retarget them with a campaign that has a warm (albeit generic) message from your pastor. Or if they visit the children’s page, you can retarget them with an ad campaign for your upcoming Fall Festival event. If someone watches a sermon video, you can serve them an ad campaign with future sermon clips.

The possibilities are endless.

Additionally, you can use these custom audiences (that’s the name given to audiences built from the pixel) to create something called “lookalike audiences.” Facebook and Instagram will analyze the broad characteristics of the types of people who visit your website and will find people who have characteristics that resemble — or look like — those people. You can then create campaigns, still considered retargeting campaigns even though they likely haven’t visited your website yet, to those people.

Since retargeting is specific, these campaigns tend to be a bit more complex and costly than the other types of campaigns I’ve mentioned. However, because these people have shown an interest, they’re much more likely to “convert” or be receptive to your messaging. 

Do It Yourself vs Hire a Consultant

Most of the basic concepts with online advertising are simple enough that you can learn to do it yourself. This is certainly true for running brand awareness or event promotion campaigns. If you want to run lead generation campaigns or retargeting campaigns, you might want to hire an expert to help you get started.

Final Thoughts

The digital age presents an opportunity for churches to connect with their communities, and the four types of ad campaigns outlined here offer strategic avenues for engagement. As we navigate the ever-expanding landscape of social media, it's essential to recognize that a mere online presence is no longer enough. The key lies in deliberate and targeted strategies…strategies that are available through paid ad campaigns. While the initial investment may seem daunting, the potential returns in terms of community impact and outreach are immeasurable. 

Online advertising, if approached with intentionality and innovation, becomes a powerful tool for churches to extend influence and relevance in an increasingly digital world. In this era of connectivity, embracing these campaigns not only facilitates communication but also underscores the church's commitment to meeting people where they are and serving them with purpose.