The challenge
Shelter’s paid media was already generating attention and bringing donors and campaign supporters into the site. The journeys people encountered afterwards were not always converting that interest as effectively as they could, which meant part of the value created by the media investment was being lost before it reached the point of donation.
For a fundraising organisation, that gap has a direct commercial consequence. The cost of reaching someone has already been incurred, so every improvement in the journey that follows has the potential to increase the amount of income generated from the same media budget.
Shelter needed a clearer understanding of how paid audiences were behaving once they arrived, where momentum was being lost, and which changes could improve both immediate donations and the longer-term value of those donor relationships.
Our solution
We combined behavioural research with structured funnel testing across the journeys receiving paid campaign traffic.
The work focused specifically on the experience of people arriving from fundraising campaigns: what they had just seen, what they expected to find next, where hesitation appeared and which parts of the journey created unnecessary friction.
Paid traffic arrives with a particular context already established by the campaign that generated the click. We used that context to inform the way journeys were analysed and tested, so the experience after arrival could respond more closely to the intent that had brought someone there.
Behavioural research identified where people were disengaging or slowing down. Funnel testing then gave us a structured way to test changes against those points and measure their effect on donation behaviour.
Media performance and conversion performance could therefore be considered as one connected journey, with optimisation continuing beyond the click and into the point where attention became income.
The outcome
Paid media earnings per click increased by 14%. Every click Shelter's fundraising campaigns pay for now produces more income than before.
The donation journey itself improved too. Donations rose by 14%, and the programme delivered a 726% return on investment. The quick fixes alone paid for the project many times over.
The gains extended beyond the first gift. The work also improved donor retention and lifetime value, increasing the longer-term value of the supporters Shelter's paid media brings in.
Just as importantly, Shelter now has evidence for the changes it makes. Problems the team had suspected for years were tested and proven, giving it a clearer basis for future optimisation.
"FutureGroup not only provided us with some fantastic insights into our own customers, but also enabled me to substantiate a number of UX sticking points I had always suspected were impacting conversion, but could never prove. The performance uplift from the quick fixes alone meant that the project paid for itself many times over." Eoghan Beecher, Digital Fundraising Manager, Shelter UK
The result is a fundraising operation that treats media and conversion as one journey, turning more of the attention Shelter pays for into income.
