How Platypus helped Mental Health Foundation generate over 12,000 leads for their 80 Miles in May challenge

We have worked with Mental Health Foundation (MHF) since 2018.
Our experience with MHF means we know how to target the most responsive audiences
We delivered over 12,000 leads at less than a fifth of the anticipated cost per lead.

The challenge

Mental Health Foundation wanted to create a new challenge that would get more people to be active as part of fundraising.

Their 12,000 Steps Challenge in 2021 was very successful. They wanted to do the same again, this time taking things a step further.

They created the 80,000 Miles in May challenge in 2022 and wanted us to help find people who’d be up for taking part.

What we did

Our experience of working with MHF meant we knew where to find potential fundraisers for their new challenge.

We also knew how to talk to potential fundraisers in a way that would appeal to their desire to help others.

We knew that Facebook was the best platform for reaching these people.

We created the campaign by:

Creating detailed audience targeting – we identified groups of people who would be up for the challenge on Facebook.

Testing a series of engaging ads –we tested different combinations of images and text to find the best way of appealing to the audiences.

Including a free incentive – MHF offered a free water bottle as part of the signup process. We tested different ways of talking about this to promote the campaign.

What we achieved

Over 12,900 leads – we smashed the target of 2,600.

A cost per lead – We were able to bring the cost per lead down to less than 20% of expectations.

“It was great working with Platypus again on our third Facebook Challenge. We have worked with Platypus for a number of years and feel like the team really understand our goals and what is important to us when we run campaigns. We had so many learnings from our first and second Facebook challenge campaigns so working with Platypus again on our most recent one was great, as we got to implement these learnings first hand which had a positive impact on our results. The team are so knowledgeable and helpful and we now have so many audience insights which we can take forward into our future campaigns too. Overall it’s been great working with the Platypus team and growing together.”

Zoe Longergan, Events & Community Manager, Mental Health Foundation

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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.

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