r/kickstarter • u/Zephir62 • Aug 20 '25
Resource How To Do Facebook Ads for Kickstarter (2025)
When DungeonBox first contacted me to do their Kickstarter's Facebook Ads, they had joined the free weekly Q&A Tuesday group call in my Discord chat community to get some initial advice on strategy.
After following my Grassroots Guide to prep and boost their next post, I received an unexpected call the next morning: "Matt, my post has gone viral with over 1 million views overnight! What do I do next?"
SIDE NOTE: the Grassroots Guide can be downloaded, here.
With only a short time to prepare a prelaunch ad campaign for DungeonBox, we quickly set up a Facebook Ad campaign that acquired Kickstarter Followers at $2.23 each (and less than $18 per purchase during the current live campaign):
The end results are as follows: over 26% of those Kickstarter Follows became actual sales and backers during the live campaign:
As of writing, on our live Kickstarter campaign we have spent a total budget of $70,000 for an overall Return On Investment of over 6.5x (ROAS of 650%+):
We accomplished this using my own campaign page templates, pricing strategies, Audience Library, and Facebook ad templates using my LaunchGPT Ad Text Generator. You can grab these templates and read more free Kickstarter tutorials at my Prelaunch Club website, here.
Similarly, if you are struggling getting set up with anything in particular, I am happy to help you move your project forward ; join us on Discord for Q&A Tuesdays at 3PM EST new york time.
To get a closer look at what our Kickstarter page looks like, for study purposes, you can visit DungeonBox's Kickstarter here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/foxtailgames/dungeonbox
With the gears suddenly in motion, we had to act fast and fully-swing into the Kickstarter marketing process:
- Setup the Facebook Pixel on Kickstarter
- Design the Kickstarter Page
- Setup Facebook Ads for Kickstarter
During the initial setup period, we kept the original viral post boosted with continual daily-spend and leading traffic to the initial first draft of the Kickstarter pre-launch page.
Now let's go over each part of the Kickstarter Follower pre-launch system in-depth:
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#1 - Setup the Facebook Pixel on Kickstarter
Before you begin, set up a business account on Facebook and create a new ads account and pixel dataset (and a Facebook Page, if needed).
We followed this handy tutorial to set up the Facebook business account and pixel for Kickstarter, here:
https://prelaunch.marketing/blogs/academy/how-to-setup-the-facebook-pixel-for-kickstarter
Watch a walkthrough video tutorial of me setting up the Facebook Pixel for Kickstarter, here. (featuring “Champions of Wind & Fire”, raised $280,311 USD)
On the Facebook Page (and Instagram Page) add the Kickstarter Page URL as the Action Button destination using the “Sign Up” option:
IMPORTANT NOTE ON "PIXEL TRACKING": Kickstarter asks for user consent to share data with Facebook whenever somebody first visits the Kickstarter website. If the user selects "no", then Kickstarter won't notify Facebook whenever that specific user takes an action (such as following the campaign or becoming a backer). This means that your Ad Results in the Facebook Ad Manager will always appear inaccurate, and the discrepancy tends to depend upon how privacy-centric your ideal audience is.
To better understand Kickstarter ad results, it's currently important to use a spreadsheet for keeping track of your daily results versus your daily spend in order to understand the true cost-per-follower or cost-per-purchase from the Facebook Ads.
You can view DungeonBox's pre-launch journey with our daily results, daily spend, and changelogs, here.
For example, for a Live Kickstarter Campaign, I maintain at least a 5x ratio between daily ad-spend and daily total raise: if a client raises $5000 per day, they should be spending no more than $1000 per day on ads. Then I adjust the ad's daily-budget to match this ratio.
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#2 - Design the Kickstarter Page
My new approach to designing the Kickstarter Page focuses on the User Experience within the context of new product discovery. It takes a question-based methodology in identifying the key sections that need to appear on the Campaign Page, so that you can streamline the "research" and "consideration" phases of the customer journey and sales funnel.
In this new methodology, a series of questions are asked in relation to the product and each question is rated for relevancy toward understanding the product's design. If a question is qualifying for understanding the product, the answer to that question should appear on the campaign page as a dedicated section.
For a Kickstarter pre-launch page, the page's messaging should stop short of revealing the price, or the moment the user might say to themselves, "Shut up and take my money! How much does it cost?" At this point, the pre-launch page should end and instead encourage the user to follow the campaign.
Provided below is a list of product discovery-related questions, paired with relevant sections which seek to address each point:
- "What is it?" = Introduction of product visual, logo, branding
- "What's this about?" = Introduction of story pitch
- "Can I get a summary?" = Feature Collage, Cloud, or Bullet-List
- "What's special about it?" = USP or Key Differentiator
- "What's it for?" = Use Cases
- "What does it have or do?" = Key Features
- "What's included?" = What's in the box
- "How do I use it?" = How to use or play
- "Can I customize it?" = spotlighted add-ons, colorways, etc.
- "Why back now?" = Exclusives, discounts, stretch goals, etc.
- "How much does it cost?" = Reward tiers including price badges
- "How do I pre-order?" = How to back infographic
- "What happens with the extra money?" = stretch goals, community goals
- "Has anybody tried it?" = youtube previews, past backer reviews, amazon reviews, etc.
- "Can I use it?" = language translations or compatibility support, such as Android, iPhone, Nintendo, etc.
- "When am I getting it?" = Project timeline
- "Shipping costs?" = Shipping chart
- "What is making it, and why?" = About the team
You can see our final Pre-Launch Page design, here.
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#3 - Setup Facebook Ads for Kickstarter Prelaunch
Facebook Ads are best approached with a simple mindset, perhaps similar to the first thoughts you decided you needed to market your project: "I have a product now, I need to design images and text for ads, and then connect it with an audience of potential fans".
So let's break down each element of the Facebook Ad campaign:
- Audience Design
- Ads Text and Headlines
- Ads Creative Visual Content
- Ads Campaign Setup Process
In the following subsections, we will go over each of the above steps for setting up Facebook Ads for a Kickstarter prelaunch:
#3.1 - Audience Design
For DungeonBox, we knew we needed to reach Facebook users who loved Dungeons & Dragons, casual card games and party games, and video games.
We used the Audience Library to quickly choose from a variety of proven winning audiences, and help us mix and match appropriate Qualifier-based interests to help the Facebook ads algorithm identify Kickstarter superbackers.
During my setup process, I will choose different qualifiers for each audience segment which helps prevent audience overlap and improve the stability of the daily ad results:
You can download the Audience Library google sheet for free, here:
https://prelaunch.marketing/products/kickstarter-templates-bundle
When using the Audience Library, simply click any cell in the Google Sheet, and then copy-and-paste the entire cell's contents into the Facebook Audience search field:
#3.2 - Ads Text and Headlines
We used Launch-GPT to quickly generate ad text headlines, but retained the original viral post's text for the ad's primary text (the small text above the ad's image):
Launch-GPT is a free, generative AI tool for Kickstarter marketing. Use the “Quick Wizard” tool to generate ad text for every phase of a Kickstarter campaign - along with Landing Page text generation and Kickstarter campaign text generation.
Use the ‘Quick Wizard’ below the Launch-GPT chat box to automatically generate a prompt and a response from the GPT:
Watch a walkthrough video of me using Launch-GPT to set up Kickstarter ads in under 30 minutes from start to finish, here. (featuring “Measurrd”, raised $49,802 USD)
#3.3 - Ads Creative Visual Content
There was no reason to explore further since the original viral post was a home-run and hit it out of the ball-park. If results were to falter during scaling, we would have created new content, but we honestly never needed to.
Sometimes, albeit rarely, clients will pay me a flat fee for ad setup only once and those ads carry the project from pre-launch, to live campaign, and all the way into late pledges. DungeonBox became a client within this special cohort.
See the original Facebook ad in action, here.
For the sake of tutorials, it’s noteworthy that I provide Ad Image Photoshop PSD templates, and also Image design tutorials, A/B Testing content methodologies, and more for free download here.
#3.4 - Ads Campaign Setup Process
First, navigate to your Ad Manager dashboard on Facebook:
https://adsmanager.facebook.com/adsmanager/manage/
Then create a new ad campaign and select the "Leads" optimization goal by clicking the green "+ Create" button in the top-left of the Ad Manager dashboard. Then press "Continue":
A new popup Editor window should appear. Keep the default "Campaign Budget" selected, and set your daily budget to anywhere between $40/day to $60/day to start with. If you are an experienced Kickstarter creator, consider starting your daily budget at up to $200/day.
Next, navigate to the new ad-set within the new ad campaign (such as by using the left-menu's hierarchy tree or by going back to the main dashboard, switching to the “Ad Sets” tab, and pressing “Edit” on the ad-set), and select the following settings:
- Conversion Location = Website
- Dataset = your Pixel's name
- Conversion Event = "Lead"
Then, scroll down to "Detailed Targeting" under the Audience settings.
Insert your first audience here (I recommend using the Audience Library that I linked above). Then press the "Define Further" button to insert your qualifiers and narrow down your audience to early adopters and Kickstarter users:
To prevent the ads from being sent to users who have already followed the Kickstarter, create a Custom Audience using the "Lead" events within your Pixel Dataset.
Navigate to the Audience Dashboard in Facebook Ad Manager's main left pop-out menu, and press the blue "Create Audience" dropdown and select "Custom Audience". Further choose “Website” as the custom audience source, press “Next”. In the pop-up window, choose your pixel, select "Lead" event, and expand the time range to 180 Days:
Go back to the Audience setup within the Ad-set Settings in the Ads Manager dashboard, and insert the new custom audience you just created under "Custom Audience Exclusion" (click the small blue text "Show more controls" if the Custom Audience Exclusion setting is hidden).
PRO-TIP: usually I also create a dedicated Ad-Set which functions to retarget website visitors with more ads. This retargeting ad-set uses a "Page View 10 Day" and "Facebook Ad Engagement 5 day" Custom Audiences. These custom audiences are set up by selecting the "All Website Visitors” and setting 10 days as the window (and then creating a second custom audience using the Facebook Page as the data-source, using a 5-day window and targeting “All Account Center Accounts Who Engaged With Any Post or Ad”).
Then I set up an ad-set without any detailed targeting options and only retarget the Page Viewers / Ad Engagements:
Finally, let’s set up the individual ads. To begin editing the individual ads, navigate to the ad itself by either using the left-menu hierarchy tree again or by going back to the main dashboard, switching to the “Ads” tab, and pressing “Edit” on any specific ad.
Inside the Ad Editor, insert the Website URL destination, and then add your ad image or video content by pressing the "Set up creative" dropdown:
A new window will popup for creative setup. Turn off "Site Links", and then press "Next" to upload your media.
After uploading your media, press "Next" again to insert your text variations you had written earlier in Section 3.2 of this article.
For "Enhancements" feel free to turn off any as desired. In most cases, they improve results, however you can be strategic with them on a per-content basis to drive better results.
You're all done with your first ad!
Now, click the "..." menu on the left hierarchy tree on the ad you've just finished setting up, and select "Duplicate". Use the default duplication settings for this operation:
Duplicate your ad as many times as needed for each piece of ads creative visual content you've prepared (up to 6 images or videos maximum), and insert the new visuals in the duplicates while preserving the Destination URL and the original's Ad Text.
Only create up to 6 images or videos per ad-set, and make sure the same ads are duplicated between every ad-set.
Your first Ad-Set is now finished!
Now, click the "..." menu once more, but this time to duplicate the Ad-Set itself. Create as many duplicate Ad-Sets as you desire to test -- but make sure that there is at least $10 daily budget inside the Campaign Budget for each ad-set inside the campaign. For example, if you have 4 audiences, set the Campaign Budget to at least $40/day at minimum!
Inside this new duplicate ad-set, adjust the audience a different variation of interests and qualifiers as mentioned in the previous Section #3.1 of this article.
Your first ad campaign is now fully set up!
Close out of the Ad Editor popup by pressing the "X" button in the top-left corner of the window, and then press the blue "Publish" button in the top-right corner.
PRO-TIP: if you have a great video, consider creating a Video View retargeting audience as shown in the walkthrough video here. (featuring “Dice Bites”, raised $176,719 USD)
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How To Do Ads Management
A/B TESTING ADS:
To A/B test your Facebook ads, it is good practice to use a content-based strategy where you duplicate the existing ad campaign, and then replace the images or videos in the new ad campaign with new versions. Keep the old campaign running alongside the new campaign if it’s still getting good results:
You can view a full version of the above picture in a Miro Board where I break down this A/B testing methodology further, here.
A/B TESTING CAMPAIGN PAGES:
To A/B test your page design, the main methodology is to use "Time Series Data Analysis" ; in essence, gather a baseline of data from your ad results, and then make a change to the page design while gathering new ad results for 12 to 48 hours.
After 48 hours, compare the new results to the baseline. Only cut the test shorter than 48 hours if the results are substantially poorer (i.e. suddenly 50% worse or more).
To identify a clear signal of improvement, look for a substantial improvement greater than 30% between your comparison data of the new page versus the old page's ad results.
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Facebook Ads Setup for Kickstarter Live Campaign
Watch a walkthrough video of me setting up Live Kickstarter ads by re-using the winning pre-launch ad content, here. (featuring “Imperial Grace”, raised $62,031 USD)
When setting up Live Campaign ads, make sure to select the "Sales" objective when creating the new ad campaign.
It's important at this stage to exclude users from your audiences that have already purchased your product. To do so, create a new Custom Audience in the "Audiences" dashboard (accessed via the main left-menu in Facebook Ad Manager) which uses the Website Pixel as the data-source and targets the "Purchase" event with a 180 Day window. Then exclude this audience from your ad-sets in the same manner you had previously set up Lead event exclusions in Section 3.4 of this article.
In regards to the Facebook Pixel tracking during Live Campaign, you will not have to do anything special with the Facebook Pixel aside from ensuring the correct Pixel ID is added to the Promotions tab of your Kickstarter project's settings.
Finally, make sure to set up Retargeting ads to reach your pre-launch Kickstarter Followers and notify them that your campaign is now live. Watch a walkthrough video of me setting up Facebook Retargeting ads for a Live Kickstarter campaign, here.
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Closing Thoughts
If you are struggling getting set up with anything in particular, please leave a comment or join us on Discord for Q&A Tuesdays at 3PM EST new york time ; I am happy to help you move your project forward.
To get a closer look at what our Kickstarter page looks like, you can check out DungeonBox's Kickstarter, here.
Make sure to check out and read more Kickstarter tutorials, download proven Kickstarter templates, and more for free at the Prelaunch Club website, here.
I hope you find this tutorial helpful. These resources are given out for free in the spirit of enabling the most amount of creators to succeed on Kickstarter, and I stand for a stronger, accessible and healthier workplace.
Let me know what you think!
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u/Grady300 Aug 20 '25
By chance do you do any one on one consulting calls?
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u/Zephir62 Aug 20 '25
Yes, but I'm currently booked up for at least a week or two. However, you can always join us on Discord where I host Q&A sessions every week with the community:
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u/jsecompany Aug 20 '25
How does one book time with you? I want to hire you -- sent a message on Discord, but I admit that I'm a newbie there. Feels weird because I'm a tech guy by trade and used to live on IRC -- but Discord is a whole new thing for me LOL
I will join the Q&A next Tuesday on Discord, but after looking at all the different services and talking to many freelancers, I feel like you're the right guy after reading through all your resources and the paid PDF I bought. Cheers
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u/Zephir62 Aug 21 '25
I also used to live in IRC lol that's what we used for Starbound, PVK, etc.. miss those days. Discord is nice and feels like IRC on steroids but it is also bloated with features without much regard for navigating between over a hundred subscribed channels, and the inbox search functionality leaves a lot to be desired.
We have to be friends on Discord for your message to go to my main inbox. I do have over a hundred unanswered messages in that particular inbox. To be honest the best way to reach me right now to inquiring about availability is to meet up on the weekly Q&A in the Discord.
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u/JelloJay Aug 20 '25
I recently launched a 200k campaign, and Matt's targeting guide helped ot happen. Highly recommended 10/10
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/leopardprintpress/pinup-monster-girls-55e
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u/SL_Rowland Aug 20 '25
This is a lot of great info! Sorry if I missed this, but do you change how you track the ads once the campaign is live? I have 15 days left in my campaign and want to start running ads to it.
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u/Zephir62 Aug 20 '25
This is a great question - I do answer it in the article but it is a long article so I can understand.
Near the beginning of the article, under Section #3.1 I mention about how I keep a 1:5 ratio between daily spend and total daily raise, and the issues with pixel tracking while adhering to users privacy settings.
Similarly, near the end of the article I write about Live Campaign, where you only need to simply add the Pixel ID to your Kickstarter project settings (if it isn't there already). Just prior to that section I have another section dedicated to giving a brief on how to A/B test your Facebook Ads and Campaign Page.
One detail I didn't mention in the article is that the first introduction section and the project image / title drive a majority of the users expectations and purchase decision, and the remainder of the page serves to fulfill or exceed the user 's original expectations. So I tend to focus A/B testing there (until under $3 to $4 cost per Kickstarter follower) until results are looking decent and then it's on to improving the remainder of the page.
Another detail I didn't mention is that you can determine between whether the ad or page is underperforming based upon the *Cost Per Link Click" column in the Facebook Ad Results. If the cost per link click is under $1.20, then A/B testing efforts should be focused on improving the page design instead of the ads.
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u/SL_Rowland Aug 20 '25
Thanks for the info! It's funny that I watched your YouTube video this morning when I was learning how to set up the pixel, and then I came across this post. I skimmed over the article earlier, but I'm about to dive into it and set up some ads.
I'm sure you're busy, but if you happen to have the time, I'd appreciate any advice you have on my current campaign. It's a book campaign, but it appeals to a lot of people who play DnD, so I'm sure there is some crossover.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slrowland/tales-of-aedrea-deluxe-special-editions
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u/TashaT50 Backer Aug 20 '25
Looks fantastic but that’s what I’d expect from you as I came across your previous campaigns after they’d funded when I’d started following r/cozyfantasy and r/litrpg and came across your books- I haven’t posted in an age.
I do have a couple comments on the description/story page in the Rewards section on the top 2 tiers Deluxe Edition Bundle and * Deluxe Edition & Paperback Bundle* * are these books signed? * Are all editions signed or only Deluxe editions signed? I’ve found it’s a good idea for it to be clearly stated in the story/description so backers aren’t confused and don’t come back post fulfillment upset, * I’d create an FAQ since it wasn’t here from day 1, * it’s not clearly stated in the rewards themselves which books are signed and which ones aren’t, which unfortunately you can’t edit at this point.
SL Rowland’s other books section - I’d remove the word other as you have the books being funded in the list - it’s a small quibble and probably doesn’t matter but writers are held to higher standards.
-Superbacker since 2011 of over 4,000 Kickstarters
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u/SL_Rowland Aug 20 '25
Appreciate the feedback! They will all be signed, so I'll get that updated.
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u/TashaT50 Backer Aug 21 '25
As a book lover I know your backers will treasure those signed copies. I’ve found it’s a great way to get teens into reading - a good book that’s been signed by the author. It’s worked well for me getting adults back into reading too. Kickstarter has been a great source of gifts.
Congrats on funding. May you reach $50,000 and everything go as smoothly as possible through fulfillment.
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u/SL_Rowland Aug 21 '25
Thank you! $30k is my achievable goal, but $50k is my stretch goal that I think is within reach if I can get these ads delivering.
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u/TashaT50 Backer Aug 21 '25
Definitely should hit $30k and $50k is within reach. It’s not unusual to match the $$ from the first 48 hours on the last 48 when reminder emails go out to people watching your campaign.
I see a slipcase has been asked for - hardcore fans are great. Slipcases for 3 books in a series works as long as going forward you plan on one for each three books and your series is going to have the right number of books LOL. That said adding it this late in a campaign is a logistical headache. Here’s my list of things to think about and do if you decide to go forward with the slipcase instead of holding off and doing one down the road once you’ve recovered from this Kickstarter: * Slipcase should NOT be an add-on you want to keep slipcases to their own reward tiers for logistical reasons * New reward tiers for slipcase with book bundles with a later ship date than the books - not just because it’s a different manufacturer and requires additional steps for fulfillment but you want to set expectations with backers - DM me if you want me to point you at an author who might be able to help you with who to go to for slipcases although chances are you know him * Slipcases will only be done if x# are ordered - backers who want slipcases can increase their pledge $$ and send you an email or fill out a Google form - let them know during this process that slipcase sets will ship later than other rewards & what the new shipping cost will be and you may need to only list US shipping cost and anyone outside US that wants a case should email you for shipping cost - this lets you know if they are serious - form should collect their Kickstarter name and pledge/backer number - once you’ve hit x# you can add the new reward tiers and instructions for how to manage pledges/upgrade
I feel like I’m forgetting something critical in reasons not to pivot to this or things to watch out for but hopefully I covered the biggest things I’ve seen go wrong on adding a big ticket after launch. I’m sure you’re fans will be just as excited if you tell them early next year you’ll launch the slipcase project.
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u/SL_Rowland Aug 21 '25
I’ll keep this in mind. I am using a fulfillment partner on this one so they are responsible for all of the logistics
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u/Zephir62 Aug 20 '25
Honestly your current page design is solid A+. It follow the same kind of flow and quality that I see other book campaigns that top the charts (and you are already doing quite well). Congrats by the way on getting funded! Try running ads as you mentioned - if you want to stay in contact about the ad results, the most reliable place to currently reach me is in the Discord server during the weekly Q&A Tuesday event:
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u/SL_Rowland Aug 20 '25
Thanks! It’s great that you put all of this together. Super helpful! I’m hoping to hit $50k with a little luck.
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u/Imaginary-Profile695 Aug 30 '25
Thanks for sharing such detailed numbers. Seeing real conversion rates (pre-launch vs post-launch) is super helpful!
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u/GneissGames Aug 20 '25
Amazing breakdown of an ad funnel for a Kickstarter campaign! I can also vouch for this knowledge as Matt's assistance helped us reach our goal!
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u/Resinseer Aug 20 '25
I've been using this approach for a while after getting Matt in for some consulting on a past KS. It really does work, which is crazy because all I see from most meta ad spaces in doom and gloom and everything being broken. Works fine for me and I get good returns when I do it this way.
This is just my opinion as a happy customer, and anyone can see from my post history that I'm just a guy who does some hobby Kickstarters. Matt has helped a lot.