How WWF achieved a 3x return on ad spend with Crowdfunder
by Rebecca Hughes | Jun 23, 2026 | Learn, News & Press, Stories, Uncategorised
Meta description: WWF’s Gorilla Experience prize draw delivered consistent donations through paid Meta ads, tracked with Crowdfunder’s Meta Pixel integration. Here’s how charities can do the same.
Let the Meta Pixel work harder for you on Crowdfunder
When WWF launched the Gorilla Experience prize draw on Crowdfunder, the timing was right. A Netflix documentary about gorillas was generating genuine cultural buzz, the kind of organic spike most campaigns can only dream of. The team assumed it would be the engine that drove the main spike of performance.
It wasn’t.
How WWF ran the Gorilla Experience prize draw on Crowdfunder
The Gorilla Experience ran as a charity prize draw on Crowdfunder, with WWF putting paid Meta ad spend behind it. Their ads ran steadily throughout, and so did the donations. The campaign performed just as consistently before the documentary landed as after. No celebrity push necessary. No news hook required.
Just a well-run prize draw, with Facebook and Instagram ads quietly doing their job. And thanks to Crowdfunder’s Meta Pixel integration, WWF could prove it.
Their campaign generated donations at roughly three times their ad spend, with a cost per acquisition that WWF described as the best they’re seeing across any of their campaigns right now.
“The results were up there with the best we’re seeing across any of our campaigns. We wish we’d started sooner and run it longer.”
Max Morgans, Senior Product Manager, WWF-UK
How the Meta Pixel tracks donations from paid Facebook and Instagram ads
Before Crowdfunder’s Meta Pixel integration, charities running paid social for their campaigns were working without full visibility. They could see clicks — but not whether those clicks became donations, or how much those donors gave. Without that data, it was hard to know if the spend was working, and harder still to justify continuing.
The Pixel changed that. Connected to the Gorilla Experience project page, it passed donation data back to Meta in real time. WWF’s team could see their return on ad spend as the campaign ran, optimise as they went, and follow up with people who’d visited the page but not yet donated. Critically, it allows Meta to use its machine learning to optimise the campaign to engage users who are more likely to convert.
The result was a campaign that built steadily and consistently — not one that spiked once and faded. WWF have more campaigns planned.
What this means for charities running paid social
This is not to say that a celebrity or a big brand pushing your prize to their audience isn’t still a wonderful thing, and some of the biggest prize draws on Crowdfunder have been built on exactly that. But success doesn’t depend on it.
Charity prize draws on Crowdfunder don’t need to hinge on a big name or a cultural moment to perform. A well-structured prize draw with smart paid social and the right tracking behind it can generate consistent, meaningful returns without any of that.
The real win? Both at once. Authentic social sharing reaching the audiences who already care, with optimised paid activity building steadily underneath it. One gives you the spike, the other gives you the floor.
That’s a real shift. And it’s now backed by data from one of the UK’s most recognised charities.
How to add the Meta Pixel to your Crowdfunder project
If you’re planning to put ad spend behind your project and want to track every donation it drives, getting started is straightforward.
You’ll need your Meta Pixel ID, a 15 or 16-digit number found in your Meta Events Manager account. Then just get in touch with us directly. We’ll review your request, add the Pixel to your project page, and confirm via email once it’s live.
Contact us: [email protected]
New to the Meta Pixel? Read our guide to how it works and what it unlocks for your campaign