%
Increase in all clicks on Meta and LinkedIn
%
Increase in overall click-through rates
%
Decrease in cost per click on Meta
The brief
Beat, the UK’s leading charity dedicated to supporting those affected by eating disorders, sought to enhance their outreach and fundraising efforts. They enlisted our expertise in paid social media to:
- Increase event sign-ups, especially with professional workshops
- Reach new audiences, including anyone affected by an eating disorder
- Boost fundraising efforts during Eating Disorder Awareness Week
- Raise awareness of Beat’s Challenge events
The challenge
With Beat delivering a wide variety of services to areas with differing funding levels across the UK, ensuring budget was distributed in the most effective way possible was a priority.
Targeting individuals impacted by eating disorders and their caregivers posed a unique challenge, requiring a different approach beyond interest-based targeting methods, and beyond only one marketing platform.
Our approach
We diversified Beat’s advertising approach, running ad campaigns not only through Meta (Facebook and Instagram), but also LinkedIn and Spotify, depending on audiences and objectives.
To effectively engage people affected by eating disorders and their families and friends, we adopted a broad targeting strategy on Meta, prioritising geographical locations and reaching a wide audience. Given the substantial number of those affected in the UK (1.25 million people), this approach made sense.
We tested and learnt using a variety of assets, copy, and audiences, optimising as we went. We typically find that people-focused imagery performs best, but in this instance, simple imagery and messaging, like that below, was a winner too.
To generate awareness of their support and training programmes for those supporting someone with an eating disorder and for those with Binge Eating Disorder, we ran Spotify ads targeting specific geographic areas where Beat had received funding to support those with this disorder. For the audio advert, we developed the script alongside the Beat MarComms team, which included regional accents to appeal to people locally.
We took a different approach to promote Beat’s specialised professional workshops like those about early intervention, diabetes and ARFID (Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder). This was more tailored, targeting health professionals including NHS employees with ads on LinkedIn.
Since running their paid social, this has become their top source of owned media traffic to their main website, as well as source of sign-ups for their workshops. Not only this, we smashed The Big Jump sign-up target for 2023. Hurrah!
Meta ad targeting those living with an eating disorder
LinkedIn ad targeting healthcare workers about an ARFID workshop
Spotify ad targeting those living with an eating disorder in York
At Beat, partnering with Social Firefly has transformed our paid activities. Their deep understanding of our objectives and continuous optimisation of campaigns has been invaluable. They are a vital part of our Marketing and Communications team, enhancing our efforts to reach our key audiences.
Kate Franklin, Head of Marketing and Communications at Beat
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