Enhance Your Kickstarter Success with the Help of Performance Marketing Strategies

Performance marketing has been a critical component of some of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter, but it hasn’t always been accessible for all creators. With so many projects competing for backers' attention, it's important for creators to use effective marketing strategies to share their stories with potential backers.

In this blog post, we'll explore what performance marketing is, why it can be effective for crowdfunding campaigns, and how you can determine if it's right for you.

What do we mean when we say “performance marketing?”

Performance marketing encompasses a range of strategies and tactics that utilize online channels to reach and engage with potential backers. When working in concert with a compelling campaign, performance marketing can significantly increase brand awareness, drive traffic, and ultimately convert visitors into backers and lifelong customers.

With the right execution, performance marketing helps creators better reach and engage their current audience and find brand-new backers to support their campaign. Additionally, Kickstarter has recently launched new features to aid effective performance marketing strategies — most notably implementing the Meta Pixel to support remarketing efforts across Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta marketing channels.

Effective performance marketing increases the impact of your project's story across all phases of a campaign. New backers are inspired to jump on board, and people on the fence are reminded to pledge.

Why is performance marketing so effective for crowdfunding campaigns?

There are several reasons why performance marketing can play a major role in a successful crowdfunding campaign.

Reach a wider audience

With performance marketing, creators can reach a global audience of potential backers. Social media platforms, search engines, and email marketing allow you to target specific demographics and interests, making it easier to tell your story to people who are likely to be interested in your project. It often takes the use of many touchpoints to get a backer to pledge, and performance marketing helps meet potential backers where they are online.

Build buzz

Performance marketing allows you to build anticipation and excitement for your campaign before it launches. By creating a pre-launch strategy, you can generate interest, collect email addresses, and build a community of supporters who will be ready to back your project when it goes live.

Track your progress

Performance marketing provides valuable data and analytics that allow you to track your progress and make data-driven decisions. By monitoring ad engagement rates, onsite conversion rates, and other key metrics, you can adjust your strategy and learn what resonates most significantly with your audience. (By the way, be sure to check out our new advanced dashboard, designed to help creators better understand the performance of their live campaigns.)

It’s worth noting that performance marketing isn’t a silver bullet, and it’s most effective for campaigns that have found traction with a community already. Performance marketing is unlikely to turn around a campaign that hasn’t quite found an audience, but it can offer a tremendous boost for campaigns with an excited and passionate audience.

How do I know if performance marketing is right for my campaign?

Performance marketing can be an effective strategy for most Kickstarter campaigns, but it's important to assess your specific goals and resources before investing in a performance marketing strategy.

Here are a few questions to consider:

What is your budget and cost structure?

Performance marketing can be cost-effective, but it still requires resources. Though it is easy to turn off if performance isn’t where it needs to be, consider how much you're willing to invest in a performance marketing campaign and what you hope to achieve with that investment.

Who is your target audience?

If your campaign is in a product category with broad appeal, performance marketing is very likely to be an effective way to reach potential backers who may not require quite as much context to jump aboard. If your audience is more niche, you may need to explore other marketing strategies before investing in significant advertising. Additionally, if you have an established community already, performance marketing can be a huge accelerant to reaching potential backers who are already excited about your creative work.

Do you have the resources to execute a performance marketing strategy?

Creators can benefit from our deep expertise in performance marketing, but success requires effort, time, and resources.

In conclusion, performance marketing is a powerful tool for Kickstarter campaigns that we’re excited to make more accessible to creators across our platform. While it's not a one-size-fits-all solution, most Kickstarter campaigns can benefit from a well-executed performance marketing strategy.

By assessing your goals, target audience, and available resources, you can determine whether performance marketing is the right strategy for your campaign and start reaping the benefits of these powerful marketing channels.