Nextdoor is built for the neighborhood. From local businesses and services to nonprofits and civic organizations, Nextdoor connects neighbors to each other and everything in between - including your brand. The Neighborhood Ad Center (NAC), which is currently in beta and available to a limited number of businesses, is Nextdoor’s ad campaign management platform for businesses and the only place where brands can reach potential customers locally, and at scale.
Nextdoor is the only place where your brand can share a national message that can be customized for a regional or local audience. 1 in 4 households nationwide use Nextdoor and every neighbor is verified in order to join. With no minimum advertising budget, easy audience targeting, and a conversion pixel; it is easy to create an ad in the Neighborhood Ad Center (NAC) and scale quickly to meet your performance goals.
If you’re a business interested in advertising to a hyper-local customer base and at scale, follow these best practices to give your brand a leg up. To get started, sign up for your account here.
Localized and Customizable Messaging: Nextdoor's unique selling point is its ability to share national messages tailored to local audiences. Given that one in three U.S. households use Nextdoor, it's a potent platform for reaching potential customers within specific communities. This feature is particularly beneficial for businesses looking to scale beyond generic Facebook ad campaigns, offering a more targeted approach that can resonate with local audiences.
Organic Engagement in the Community: Nextdoor encourages advertisers to use a friendly, neighborly tone, making the ads feel organic and integrated within the community feed. This approach contrasts with the often broad and less personalized nature of Facebook advertising. By including local context and referencing local landmarks, Nextdoor ads can effectively engage potential customers, enhancing the performance of your ad campaign.
Effective Conversion Tracking: Nextdoor Ads Manager (NAM for short) offers a pixel for tracking conversions, similar to Facebook’s pixel. This tool allows advertisers to measure the effectiveness of their ad campaigns and optimize their strategies for better ROI. This is especially crucial for businesses scaling their campaigns and managing significant ad spend.
Enhanced Exposure and Reach: Nextdoor allows advertisers to update the frequency cap of their ads to increase exposure. This feature is effortless for managers more used to the campaign budget optimization techniques in Facebook Ads Manager, ensuring that your ads get adequate visibility and reach a wider audience.
Strategic Ad Placement and Targeting: Nextdoor ads run in popular app sections like the newsfeed and For Sale & Free section, offering strategic placement options similar to Facebook ad formats. By testing both narrow and broad targeting, similar to utilizing Facebook Audience Insights, advertisers on Nextdoor can determine where their ad investments are most effective, ensuring optimal engagement with potential customers.
Flexible Targeting Options: Businesses can experiment with both broad and narrow targeting parameters to maximize the impact of their ads. This flexibility in targeting allows for a more nuanced approach to reaching potential customers and understanding where ad investments are most effective
When neighbors come to Nextdoor, they’re coming with a local mindset focused on their home, family, and community. Add a local angle to your messaging so it resonates with neighbors.
Example ad:
All NAC customers receive a pixel to help track the conversions from your website and determine the effectiveness of your ad campaigns. By using the pixel, you’ll be able to accurately measure conversions and gain valuable insight into how you can optimize your campaign strategy to improve your ROI.
As NAC is still in the early stages, you’ll want to keep these things in mind:
The frequency cap is the number of times a Nextdoor neighbor will be exposed to your ad during the campaign flight. When you get to the delivery option of setting up your ad group, you want to make sure you increase the frequency cap from 10 to 20 impressions per week. Updating this number will match the frequencies on other digital marketing platforms. However, if you are running an awareness or consideration campaign, you may want to increase the frequency beyond 20 to ensure more exposure and reach.
Updating this number will match the frequencies on other digital marketing platforms. However, if you are running an awareness or consideration campaign, you may want to increase the frequency beyond 20 to ensure more exposure and reach.
Here’s some more tips and reasonings to help as you think about building and managing your campaigns:
NOTE: Frequency is set at the Ad Group level and is therefore applied to all ads within the Ad Group.
NAM ads run on two of the most popular places within the Nextdoor app - the newsfeed (the home screen for neighbors) and the For Sale & Free section (where neighbors can post items they’re selling and giving away).
We recommend running your ads on both to start, then compare ad performance to determine which platform is more effective and how much to invest in each. It’s worth noting that the For Sale & Free platform has lower CPMs. Neighbors who are scrolling through For Sale & Free are already in the mindset to purchase.
For Sale & Free Placement
When it comes to determining who will see your ads, we recommend starting with broad targeting parameters to gain better insight into where and with who your ads are performing best. This means not layering in demographic or interest targeting. Alongside this broad campaign, you can create more narrow targeted ad groups. By testing both broad and narrow audiences, you can determine where your ad investment is most effective.
Customized and Localized Messaging: Nextdoor's focus on local communities mirrors Facebook's ability to target ads geographically. Both platforms allow for a national message tailored to regional or local audiences. This feature is crucial for businesses looking to connect with their specific target audience, whether on a neighborhood level (Nextdoor) or broader (Facebook).
Ad Creative and Copy: Both platforms emphasize the importance of ad creative and copy that resonates with the audience. Nextdoor suggests using a neighborly tone and local context, similar to how Facebook ads can be optimized for engagement with specific audience demographics or interests.
Conversion Tracking Tools: Nextdoor's Ad Manager (NA<) offers a conversion pixel, akin to Facebook's pixel. Both tools are essential for tracking conversions and measuring campaign effectiveness. This is a critical aspect of scaling ads as it allows advertisers to understand and optimize their ROI on both platforms.
Frequency Cap Adjustments: Adjusting the frequency cap on Nextdoor to increase exposure is similar to managing ad frequency and impressions in Facebook campaigns. This allows for better control over how often potential customers see the ads, aligning with the practices of other digital marketing platforms.
Strategic Ad Placement: Nextdoor’s strategy to run ads in popular app sections like the newsfeed and For Sale & Free section is comparable to selecting Facebook ad placements in the news feed, stories, or marketplace. Both strategies aim to place ads where they are most likely to be seen and interacted with by the target audience.
Targeting Options: Both Nextdoor and Facebook offer broad and narrow targeting options to maximize the impact of ads. This includes testing different audience segments to see where ad investment is most effective, a common strategy in scaling ads across social media platforms.
In summary, while Nextdoor and Facebook operate in different social contexts, their approaches to scaling ads share common methodologies. These include tailored messaging, strategic ad placement, conversion tracking, and flexible audience targeting, all of which are fundamental for effective ad scaling in paid media.
These are just a few of our recommended best practices to leverage Nextdoor’s Neighborhood Ad to scale your brand. If your business is interested in advertising on Nextdoor, sign up here to get started. Already have an account, sign in here.