There is SO much data available to us these days. For a data nerd like myself it’s amazing. But for those who are new to marketing or fundraising, it can be a little overwhelming.
When it comes to data and information about your donation pages, you can track pretty much anything on there – but remember, not everything that can be tracked needs to be.
Bounce rates, time on site, button clicks are all metrics you can look at, but if you don’t know what to do with this information, then it’s not much use to you.
Spend your time wisely by setting up and tracking the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that matter most. These are the KPIs will help you can make informed decisions about your donation pages, not leave you guessing for more.
The six donation page KPIs we have suggested below are cruicial to understanding your donation page’s success.
These KPIs should be easy to track using data you already have and are the vital signs that help you measure performance.
6 Donation Page KPIs You Should Be Tracking
1. Pageviews
One of the first things you want to track is PageViews.
Has anyone visited your page?
This donation page KPI is essential. If that number is zero, it may raise some red flags – potentially the page isn’t working properly. If the pageviews are low, maybe people can’t find the page.
Tracking PageViews also helps you see trends in your overall campaign – for example, perhaps you can track a spike in PageViews to an email, event or mail pack.
This KPI can be tracked by using google analytics.
Once you are in your google analytics account, you can navigate to Behaviour > Site Content > All Pages.
Here you will see a list of pages on your website and the subsequent number of page views for each page. You may need to search for the specific donation page you are looking for if it isn’t one of the top-visited pages.
Tip: To increase your pageviews, make sure you link directly to your donation page through all marketing channels.
Use CauseVox donation pages to create your own branded donation page, with a unique URL, and link to it through a donate button in your navigation – make sure it doesn’t get buried on your website.
2. Conversion Rate
Conversion rate is the percentage of users who “converted” on your donation page – aka the percentage of your page visitors who made a donation.
This donation page KPI tells you how your page is performing overall.
If your conversion rate is zero, it means there could be technical issues with people making a donation. I would investigate this immediately.
If the conversion rate is low, it may mean that your donation page isn’t compelling enough, or it could mean there’s something difficult about your donation page that is preventing people from completing a donation.
Conversion rate can be calculated in two ways – manually and via google analytics.
You can calculate this yourself by taking the number of donations through your donation page and dividing it by the number of users – I usually do this with the exact number of donations received to get a true conversion rate, just in case there are any refunds or issues with google analytics.
If you’re using google analytics, you can get an overall conversion rate of your website, as well as a conversion rate for your donation page. This is only possible if you have e-commerce tracking for google analytics set up on your website and donation pages.
The easiest way to do this is to navigate to Site Content > Behaviour > Landing Pages to see the conversion rate of each individual landing page.
This report isn’t perfect, because the true “landing page” might be your homepage, not your donation page – however, it gives you a good indication of conversion rate overall.
Tip: To increase conversion rate, ensure that your donation pages look professional and that the content on them is compelling. There should be clear calls to action using buttons and text, and they should send the user directly down the pathway towards making a donation.
See how the The Irish Immigration Center used CauseVox donation pages to setup a beautiful, branded donation pages that inspired confidence and were easy to use – two things that improve conversion rate.
3. Number Of Donors
This one is pretty self-explanatory – it’s the number of donors who have “converted” or donated to your campaign page.
If you increase your conversion rate you are likely in turn to increase the number of donors – so these two KPIs are linked.
I would track this KPI in two ways – by new and existing donors. That way you can determine whether you have acquired new donors as well as retained your existing donors.
Ensuring that your donation page appeals to new donors, without alienating existing donors, is important for growth so keep track of how many of each donate to your page.
4. Cost Per Donation
Cost per donation is calculated on the spend of your campaign divided by the number of people who donated to your donation page.
This is an important one to track, so that you can determine whether or not you gained a return on investment for any advertisement you can may have used for your campaign.
This donation page KPI is usually calculated manually. You may like to calculate it on a per channel basis – for example how many donations did you get via facebook divided by how much you spent on that channel.
Or you can calculate it at a macro level – total spend divided by total donations.
Tip: Utilise Email and Facebook groups to connect with and ask for donations – as these are low cost channels they will help drive a better cost per donation overall.
5. Average Donation Amount
Average donation amount is the average value of one donation – it is manually calculated by dividing the revenue by number of donors.
If you had a large number of donors who only give a very small amount, your bottom line is going to be the same if you had a small number of donors who each give a large gift.
The truth is you can increase every donation by even just $1 each, that’s a lot more revenue at the end of your campaign.
Use impact driven donation tiers so that your user has a benchmark for how much to give.
IIIC saw their average donation amount jump $100 more when using CauseVox donation pages as opposed to a paypal button, which has no suggested levels of giving.
Tip: have a “stretch” donation amount on your donation page. It is a much higher value, but it helps anchor people and can help nudge them towards giving a higher gift.
6. Total Revenue
Revenue is likely to be your most important KPI – and the one you report back on to the organization. This KPI is obviously important because it is how much revenue you have raised – it’s the marker of success.
This donation page KPI should be all revenue generated through your donation page.
All of the KPIs listed above will help lead to more revenue – for example, if you increase the number of donations or the average gift, they will help drive more revenue.
Sharing the total amount raised on your website builds community and “social proof” – if people see that others have donated, it builds trust and helps to convince them that they should donate too.
Tip: Use CauseVox donation pages to track your revenue against your target, which helps you keep on top of how the campaign is performing.
You can also add in your offline revenue so that you can track everything in the same place and your donors can keep up to date with your progress.
Get More Insights Into Your Donation Page KPI With CauseVox
You can track all these donation page KPIs (and more!) by using CauseVox donation pages. It’s super simple to set up a donation page and designed to increase your donations by 2x.
