A nonprofit’s guide to Tracking Digital Ads

  • 5 Lesson Live Course
  • Hands-on practice translating ad metrics to more effective campaigns.
  • Build skills that you can immediately apply to your work.
  • Learn to install ad tracking on your org’s website
  • Live course sessions with on-demand recordings.
  • Training is designed for nonprofits, not e-commerce.

Your Instructor

Emily Patterson
Founder — Bee Measure, an agency that helps clients use data to create more effective web content.
Experienced in helping organizations of all sizes stragecially use Google Analytics.

The hands-on ad measurement training your team needs.

$349

This 5-session course will give you practical, hands-on experience you need to effectively measure your digital ad campaigns. This isn’t another boring software training filled with technical-speak and corporate examples. This course is just for nonprofit, government and political campaign staff. That means you’ll get hands-on experience with scenarios relevant to your work.

Digital platforms like Google and Meta have made advertising affordable and accessible – even to small nonprofits with limited staff and budget. But just because it’s easy to run ads, doesn’t mean measuring results is simple. Determining whether a campaign is reaching the right audience, driving donations, or generating new emails – and at what cost – is tough. It requires setup work, an understanding of the data, and staying up with constantly changing tech and privacy developments. 

This class focuses on a mix of technical understanding and hands-on practice. The course gives you the technical background to understand what buzzy terms like “remarketing” and “cookie consent” mean – and to set them up for your organization. You’ll learn to select meaningful KPIs and translate those metrics into concrete improvements in your ad and landing page design. 

This class also specifically explores the unique needs of non-profit marketers who create and manage digital advertising campaigns. We tackle topics such as measuring campaigns with no monetary conversion, weighing audience privacy concerns, and tracking ads when you have limited staff and budgets.

We’ll cover:

  • How to efficiently track your ads. Too much data makes understanding basic ad performance into a time-consuming analysis project. This class will help you streamline it.
  • Stop just reporting numbers. We cover how to translate ad metrics into more effective ad campaigns.
  • Stay current in a changing field. We cover the latest changes to ad tracking – and what nonprofits can do to stay relevant.
  • Understand the tech behind ad tracking. We cover how pixels and cookies work.
  • Practice setting up ad tracking with Google Tag Manager. 
  • How to efficiently track your ads. Too much data makes understanding basic ad performance into a time-consuming analysis project. This class will help you streamline it.
  • Stop just reporting numbers. We cover how to translate ad metrics into more effective ad campaigns.
  • Stay current in a changing field. We cover the latest changes to ad tracking – and what nonprofits can do to stay relevant.
  • Understand the tech behind ad tracking. We cover how pixels and cookies work.
  • Practice setting up ad tracking with Google Tag Manager. 

Sessions will be at 3 ET / noon PT on Tuesday and Thursday.

  • Tuesday, May 28
  • Thursday, May 30
  • Tuesday, June 4th
  • Thursday, June 6th
  • Tuesday, June 11th

Sessions

Class 1: The basics of ad tracking

  • Understanding the alphabet soup of ad metrics
  • Picking the right metrics to measure your ads
  • Practice using ad metrics to make decisions about your ads design, landing page and more.

Class 2: Cookies and remarketing

  • How do cookies work? 
  • What’s the difference between first party and 3rd party cookies
  • What is remarketing and how can nonprofits use it?
  • What to consider when setting up a remarketing campaign

Class 3: Cross-channel tracking:

  • How do you measure ads when you are running many channels (i.e. paid search, paid social, email) at once?
  • How to use campaign tagging to track different ad channels
  • Intro to different measurement models: first click vs. last click
  • Explore Google Analytics’ new cross channel reports

Class 4: Use Google Tag Manager to track website conversions 

  • What is Google Tag Manager? How does it work
  • Use GTM to track ad conversions on your website 
  • Overview of more advanced tracking and resources

Class 5: Future of ad tracking

  • How online privacy requirements are changing
  • What nonprofits need to know about cookie consent laws
  • How nonprofits are responding to changes

Already getting started with GA4

This course will support you in getting into the advanced GA4 strategy with deeper insights into strategic items like new reports and GTM.

New to GA4

This course covers the essentials as well. You’ll get your foundation set and introduce you to more complex topics.

Planning to outsource your GA4 setup but want to understand

You will get the strategic insights to make better decisions with your external partners. This will help you understand the insights and reports you should be getting out of GA4 and your reports.

Your Instructor for A nonprofit’s guide to tracking digital ads

Emily Patterson

Emily Patterson runs Bee Measure, an agency that helps clients use data to create more effective web content, social media outreach and digital marketing. Drawing on her experience at Public Broadcasting Service and Better Business Bureau, Emily started Bee Measure in 2016 specifically to help nonprofits and government agencies. Emily is a PMI-certified Project Management Professional. She graduated from Ohio University with a Bachelor’s in journalism and the University of Virginia with a graduate certificate in digital marketing. Emily lives in Charlottesville, Va. with her husband where she enjoys camping, skiing and sampling the area’s many breweries.

Frequently Asked Question

Yes, all sessions will be recorded and available on-demand after the sessions. But for the most engaged experience, we recommend you set your calendar for this course.

This course is going to cover the complete GA4 essentials. From making sure you understand the basics to deeper strategy and reporting. A basic knowledge of online analytics like prior Google Analytics will help but all are welcome.

Sessions will be live and interactive via Zoom meetings. All sessions will then be hosted on this website with resources for you to acces later.

We offer full and partial for all of our courses and events. Please use this form: https://centerfordigitalstrategy.com/scholarship/

A nonprofit’s guide to tracking digital ads

Let’s take the next step and get you enrolled in this 5 session course.