How Platypus Helped Dementia UK get more results from Meta Ads

Dementia UK is the specialist dementia nursing charity. Its nurses, known as Admiral Nurses, provide free, expert advice, support and understanding to help families care for their loved one.
We have been working with Dementia UK since 2019.
Dementia UK hired us on a retainer basis to run a suite of paid social media campaigns and saw a huge improvement in performance.

The challenge

Dementia UK was looking to create a series of one-off Meta Ads campaigns, supported by always-on campaigns throughout the year.

Throughout 2019-2020, Platypus ran many different one-off campaigns across various departments at Dementia UK.

We covered everything from individual giving, in-memory and legacy acquisition, to challenges, events, community fundraising and service promotion.
We launched Facebook and Instagram ads for Dementia UK’s annual Time for a Cuppa campaign, successfully recruiting new community fundraisers and refining the approach year-on-year.
We also ran a campaign to bring their support to people who need it by promoting their services.
We ran always-on value exchange activity that has consistently generated incredible results since our pilot in 2021.

We had a great working relationship with the team at Dementia UK. The campaigns supported lots of different teams, the results were good and everyone enjoyed working together.

Each of our campaigns had slightly different objectives and were aimed at similar audiences. So there was an opportunity to share learnings between the campaigns and teams, and optimise the activity.

We also knew we could bring all the audience and performance data together to improve results across the board.

What we did

We changed how we were working together, moving from campaign-to-campaign to a year of activity through a retainer arrangement.

Campaign planning, optimisation and reporting started happening all the time, instead of in bursts.

This long-term approach meant:

a more connected approach to campaigns where we can work with them on their long-term fundraising goals, rather than just on a one-off campaign
a much more streamlined, efficient approach to creating campaigns
Dementia UK got better results for their budgets throughout the year
their team could work more collaboratively with our Meta Ads team, and could mine their expertise more often
our continual testing and learning meant a better understanding of how their target audience responds to content
the ability to be more responsive, divert budget where it’s needed, and shift campaign focus altogether

What we achieved

Since we have been working in partnership with Dementia UK, we’ve seen campaign performance grow year on year.

In the first year of the retainer partnership, the Time for a Cuppa Campaign saw a 87% decrease in the cost per acquisition.
We’ve piloted numerous campaigns which have eventually rolled out into seasonal bursts or always-on activity.
We’ve successfully tested new channels for Dementia UK, like Spotify for a brand campaign.
We were able to significantly reduce Dementia UK’s spend on campaign planning and development (and so increase ad spend) by drawing on our prior knowledge and campaign history.

Our great working relationship continues to develop through even more successful digital campaigns.

“Platypus were amazing to work with on this campaign. Dementia UK really wants to reach many more people affected by dementia than we currently do, and the Meta Ads team have really helped us with this. They’re the best agency I’ve ever worked with!”

Kylie Petitt, digital engagement lead at Dementia UK

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Find out how we can help your cause

If you would like to learn more about how we can help your cause or you have a general query, please get in touch using the contact form below and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

“I've worked with the Platypus team multiple times. They're the agency we always go back to because of their broad range of skills, consistently great team, good sense and pragmatism and the fact that hey are always a joy to work with."

Lynn RobertsAssistant Director - Digital & Innovation, Action for Children

"We have worked with Platypus on a number of big projects; from understanding what Parkinson’s UK needs from a Digital Fundraising team to developing Data Studio dashboards that our teams can work with on a daily basis. It is great to work with an agency who ‘get us’ and can help us with such a wide variety of digital projects in such a knowledgeable way."

Emily SturdyDigital Supporter Engagement Lead, Parkinson's UK

“In a sometimes confusing and murky digital world, the guys at Platypus are a breath of fresh air. They know their stuff, they tell us it straight and really care about the work we do together. There’s a true sense of partnership between the Sightsavers and Platypus teams, which makes working together more productive and more enjoyable.”

Ella PierceHead of Digital Fundraising, Sightsavers

"Platypus are an awesome agency to work with - their expertise of PPC is fantastic and they have transformed our Google Grants account. Huge thanks to the amazing Nikki for being such a patient and knowledgeable trainer."

Imogen ProctorDigital Marketing Executive, Teenage Cancer Trust

So fab to hear that Platypus are as good as I thought they were. Feedback from the team was that they were a "dream to work with" on our Christmas campaign, "Understand and totally got us." Thanks guys, you've helped a lot of children with cancer with your genius.

Kate LeeCEO, Clic Sargent