Stories Marketing FAQs
General/About
What other clinics/centers are part of your clientele?
We exclusively serve pregnancy centers and para-pregnancy center ministries (adoption agencies, maternity homes, abortion recovery ministries, or single mom ministries like The Momentum Network
Would you market for another non-profit?
At this time, we are not, but we can provide referrals!
When was Stories Marketing established?
We began in 2018, working with over 150 pregnancy centers every month in the US and other English-speaking countries. Our team is comprised of individuals who have worked in pregnancy centers as well.
What makes Stories different from other marketing companies?
We are a small, family-run business that works exclusively with pregnancy centers and life-affirming ministries. All of our employees have experience working at or with pregnancy centers and abortion-minded women. We understand your mission and are here to support you however we can.
While we offer many of the same services that larger companies do, we do not use contracts. We have month-to-month service agreements, so that if something is not working for reaching abortion-determined women in your area, we can reevaluate and find what works.
Conversions
We schedule about 53% of the ABM/ABV leads that come in. 71% of those show up to their appointment. That means that 38% of our leads attend an appointment. Is that normal?
Is it possible to hit our target of 150 AB leads? What would it take? Is the pregnancy center name/brand related to a low click or conversion rate?
On one hand, yes, you will definitely need more ad spend to reach those numbers. If you kept your no-show rate the same, it would take about $8K a month in ad spend. That may seem wild, but I know of centers spending $10-15K a month in Google ads alone.
However...
A 31% no-show rate is what we're seeing in IL in similar places, but in Texas, it is a bit high. I can't say for sure it's related to your brand, but it's possible. There's always the self-selection process, and in this case, we don't know until we test. If you need data to make a decision about branding, we could run a test with a bit extra ad spend (only $1,200 or so more) to a completely different landing page with a slightly altered name and brand and see if your conversion rate and no-show rate change. If we did this for a couple of months, we would have some data to compare. Another route would be to look at something like LifeLead instead. I'd still recommend a higher ad spend but LL boasts it can lower your no-show rate and increase conversions in the door. From my understanding, there are no contracts, so you could also give it a 3-month try. It's not our system, but LAG gives Stories' clients a 10% discount. Also, it's possible it could replace an existing system or the cost of another tool you use. https://lifeleadapp.org/
Websites
In our marketing, we have recently been hit with negative news that "we are promoting abortions". We had to overcome the objections from a church earlier this week. Then, on Friday, we heard it again from another church about an hour north of the previous church.
This is a common question among centers, and as you change your brand and move towards additional marketing to reach abortion-minded women, it may only increase for a time. However, this is the perfect opportunity to share your why and help donors understand how critical pages and keywords like this are on your client website. When you do so, it creates excitement instead of concern. Feel free to edit or use the following information to respond to donors:
Content specifically researched and curated to reach women considering abortion (or even those who feel determined to have one) is a critical part of our overall mission. We only partner with pro-life marketing companies that use the most up-to-date pro-life research that helps centers like us navigate how to effectively and ethically reach
abortion-minded women online. By targeting specific keywords, questions, headlines, and phrases, we're able to pull into such search results. The latest research from the Pro-Life Marketing Ethics Council and the Vitae Foundation (a pro-life organization that has spent millions in learning how centers can save lives from abortion using marketing) proves that Google marketing is the number one way to save a life. Research also shows that women need to know that a center/clinic can answer their questions and provide professional and safe services. When we ask and answer questions on
abortion, we are giving just the facts and making sure women know what we do and don't provide (disclaimers about abortion). The goal is always for a woman to contact us, make an appointment to learn about her options, hear the truth about abortion, and choose life. Every time our site shows up in search results because of a strategic keyword.
Content, a woman has the chance to click on our site instead of an abortion clinic. If we don't, then abortion providers are the only website options she may see, and we never would have the opportunity to help her save the life of her child.
Because of supporters like you, we're able to help reach more women online and help. save the lives of preborn babies.
SEO
I’ve heard that AI Optimization may be a better investment than SEO. Do you guys offer that?
Optimizing for Google DOES impact AI. Our SEO services include search experience optimization which is how AI gathers information about your brand. Our SEO clients get brought into AI overviews for abortion keywords because we have the right site structure and the trending terms, as well as top user experience.
To only try to manipulate AI is an ineffective strategy long-term because a holistic approach to SEO will cover all the bases - Google, AI , and other search engines. :)
Social Media - build your brand
Do you provide donor-focused social media services?
Yes. We can provide Facebook and Instagram posting with pro-life messaging to connect with your supporters and increase your awareness and network. We also provide donor-focused websites, content creation (blogs, etc), designs, and advertising to reach new donors and grow your contact list, particularly with younger donors. We can specifically target pro-life Christians in your area who will likely support you.
I’ve heard that AI Optimization may be a better investment than SEO. Do you guys offer that?
Yes! If you want to contribute to your social profiles alongside Stories Marketing, you can still post original content or updates on your profiles as desired. Posting localized, relevant, and personal content is a great way to build trust, grow followers, and give your followers an inside look. Stories only publishes content we create.
Posts that we recommend sharing to your Instagram or Facebook page:
● Staff or volunteer photos
● Photos of inside or outside the center
● Campus events, etc.
Temporary news like office closings, etc, are fine for Facebook, but for Instagram, we I recommend posting a FB/IG Story instead of posting it on your wall.
What is included in Meta (social media) advertising?
We include all platforms that fall under Meta’s umbrella– Facebook, Messenger, Instagram,and ads can even be placed on partner hookup apps like Tinder. There are no separate fees
for each of these platforms.
Snapchat and Tiktok are not included in our social media ads bundle because they are not
owned by Meta (Facebook).
Do you provide Snapchat? What about TikTok advertising?
Yes. Snapchat is separate management and ad spend ($5/day minimum). Snapchat works best in more rural areas.
We can advertise on TikTok, but there is a $25/day campaign minimum, so it doesn’t work for most budgets.
What is your take on TikTok? Is this a platform that we should be on?
While TikTok is a highly used platform by teens and young 20s, however, it's a difficult one for PRCs to use
because it's not designed for small businesses at this time. You could spend a fortune in time and still not see a single conversion from it.
Do you provide or recommend YouTube Advertising?
We do not recommend YouTube advertising for PRCs because it has a very low conversionrate. YouTube is owned by Google and works in conjunction with keyword searches and people don't search for abortion pill info or pregnancy testing on YouTube. So you can still place ads in random places, but the cost is higher. Most people then skip the ad after the first 3 seconds since it's not relevant to them. The best ads correlate with the video they are watching, like a makeup company placing an ad in front of a beauty influencer. I hope that helps!
We’ve tested many variations, along with the Vitae Foundation and several other PRC
marketing companies and they have the same findings. We no longer even offer it as a service
because it’s ROI is so low.
Are Reels included in your posting services?
We do include Reels for level 2 and branded client social media posting.
Does Stories use geotargeting/geofencing?
All our ad campaigns are geotargeted based on your area. We do not recommend traditional geofencing (display ads) because the conversion rates are far lower than SEO, Google ads, Reddit ads, and other types of geotargeted social media or app advertising.
Why Reddit ads over other geofencing platforms?
Reddit advertising allows centers to target niche audiences (pregnancy keywords) within engaged communities (subreddits), offering a unique opportunity to reach women where they actively discuss and form opinions, often having higher engagement than other platforms. 74.9% of Reddit's audience is the same age as your client demographics.
Because the Reddit community removes pro-life links and resources from organic posts/comments, ads have been a great way to reach the previously "unreachable" on this platform. It's filled with women looking for advice on what to do when faced with a pregnancy decision.
What is being tracked by Stories?
Website traffic, clicks, reach, and impressions (calls if we do click-to-call campaigns) although the only thing we actually care about are clicks and conversions (people who clicked on the ad and visited your page).
I know Meta is super sensitive. Can abortion be mentioned in ads?
No, we use alternate language or imagery, though, to circumvent this, so you don't have to do the political ad process for client ads. We’ve also had success using creative visuals and videos to allude to abortion inquiries.
Will my reports show me what the cost per click or conversion is?
For social ads, we are primarily just tracking clicks and website traffic. If you have a landing page with a form, you can also see a conversion based on whether they came to your site from social media and responded to that particular form. This is a true conversion.
Can you explain a little how ads work on FB/IG? People don't search on FB or IG, so how does an ad target our audience?
Social media advertising works very differently from Google ads. We target women in your area who could be at risk for an unexpected pregnancy and use Meta’s own algorithms to show it to people who are most likely to need to see it. For example, when people download any of those apps on their phones, they give Meta permission to use their data for ad purposes. So if a woman uses Messenger (a common app for texting) to talk to a friend or the baby's father
about being late, needing the abortion pill, etc, then that's an obvious one to send an ad to. It’s also used as a “safety net” to catch those who have bypassed Google or search engines. If she's already made an appointment or ordered the abortion pill, we can still serve ads to her phone from your center.
Under your branded postings, it mentions Facebook as well as Instagram postings. What is the reason you are including social media for Clients? From the research we have heard, the demographics using Facebook are more donor-centric rather than the age group that would be a client.
Great question! For several reasons, FB is still needed for client demographics as well.
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Facebook is still primarily used by women in their 30s. Although your demographics
are also in the 18-29 range and our focus is Instagram, we still need to share client
info for FB so that we do not miss those who use that platform as well, or instead of IG or others.
In the last 2 years, there has also been a shift in the age of women who have abortions.
Now, it's women in their 30s who make up the majority of abortion seekers.
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Young people often use social media as a search engine (even though that's not the
primary purpose). If she's looking for you and only finds a donor page, you could
miss an ABM woman.
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Centers with donor-only Facebook pages will come up in search (under your website)
When a woman is searching for your brand name.
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Ads. If you run ads and someone clicks to view your page, we want to make sure a
client-focused FB or IG page shows up. The right content can increase conversions.
We agree that IG is not a “need” for donors, though, although if you have separate
profiles, you can create one with a different name. Typically, in donor demographics, if they
are on IG, chances are they are on FB too and more often.
May I see a few examples of your ads and posts?
Sure! Basic, Branded with Focus-Method, and Donor Branded
From Women’s Choice Center in IA
*What would our role be, if any, in managing social media accounts?
*How would adding this service help us reach more women and gain more followers on our social media
accounts?
*Is there a package for Donor Social Media Posting? We have tiny followers on our donor pages,
either. And I assume we wouldn't want to post donor-related posts on our client social media pages. Do
centers typically have client and donor-facing social media separately?
*You once mentioned to me that there is a difference between organic and targeted marketing strategies.
Would Level 2 Social Media Posting be an organic or targeted model?
Great questions!
You must approve the content we send about 2 weeks before the new month. (If
We don't hear back, but we still schedule the posts because many of our clients
don't respond after the first few months.) If there is anything you disapprove of/don't want us
to schedule, we will remove the post. (Level 2 doesn't have personalized edits/customizations.)
Centers are responsible for responding to clients or scheduling requests if they
comment or PM you. We recommend not engaging through Meta and pointing
people to your appointment page. You can even set up automatic responses. Centers can still post
closings, updates, unique photos, or anything else because we don't take ownership of a
profile, but we post the content we create, designed to reach women in your client
demographics.
Client-focused posting is a branding approach. By creating posts that resonate with your
target audience, we can help build a following of people who need to know about your
services, and high school to college-age women will know your brand. It's the same
method Planned Parenthood has used for a long time now, to be the experts and go-to
resource, so when facing an unexpected pregnancy, whose name do they know?
But I want to be clear. Posts often do not lead back to trackable conversions (where we can
prove the client started on IG; however, research tells us that it is an important place to say
What are you for, and how do you build trust with potential clients?
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77% of people who follow a local business on IG will use or refer to their services.
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Over 50% of Gen Zers say they visit an IG page instead of or before their website.
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Gen Z is the most (online) researched generation to date. Gen Zers, on average, visit three places to verify a business, particularly a safe healthcare provider.
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Google Business to check out reviews
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Instagram to see what you stand for, and your voice (if they can trust you)
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Are you pro-woman/for them, private, safe, and professional? - Your IG profile should answer these questions at first glance, including providing information on abortion, so you are more likely to have an
An abortion-minded woman contacts you.
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Your website to contact you if/when these things check out
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For social, there won't ever be a high number of likes on posts for a pregnancy center account unless they are from your donor community. It's strictly a brand awareness approach and a way we can make sure that if an abortion-minded woman checks out your profile, there is content that right away captures her attention, that you are for her and can help her. But she most likely won't engage with you due to the subject matter and public nature of the profile.
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Yes! I'm attaching options for monthly creating/scheduling and DIY bundles.
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Posting is an organic marketing method with a long-game strategy to build awareness.
Social media ads are targeted placements on specific platforms, and we can put ads in front
of people who do not follow your accounts. You can use this to grow your profiles or to
build brand awareness about your free services.
Also, I want to note that I recommend applying Instagram growth strategies 1-2 a year to give
your profiles a boost and gather new followers as they move to Bettendorf or get older. I'm
attaching a "how to" on that as well as some free Story size posts. Do not do this with
your current content. You will not be able to attract the demographic you desire.
Google - highest ROI
Is monitoring negative feedback or fake reviews something Stories does?
We monitor and respond to negative reviews in a way that can increase your Google ranking
and we also fight fake reviews with Google. We love helping you keep your reputation intact.
If you are being hit hard by multiple fake review campaigns, contact us!
Can you help us get more reviews?
Yes! We don’t offer a paid service, but we can share how you can run a successful review campaign AND continue to get reviews that will boost your SEO and help build trust online.
How do Google ads work?
Google Ads, or search engine marketing, is a pay-per-click (PPC) marketing style. We target a
specific keyword on Google and make bids on the keyword, competing with others also targeting the keyword. The bids you make are “maximum bids.”
to pay for an ad. We bid primarily on abortion-related words in your area, or the maximum you're willing to pay for an ad. We bid primarily on abortion-related words in your area.
What’s your average CPC/CPL?
Our average is $40 CPL for abortion-related campaigns. Conversion rates vary greatly based on location, ad spend, and search volume. Our lowest rates are $5 a conversion (contact form or
call) but that is in high-traffic areas with a large budget.
What if our area’s search volume is too low for Google ads, but we know we’re missing
women searching for abortion?
Google group campaigns may be an option (explanation of how they work)
Kansas is forming an alliance of pregnancy centers. Grants. Can you advise me on this?
The state coalition could apply for the Google grant if they are an approved 501(c)(3) organization, and then use it to run a state-wide campaign if they have a landing page with either a hotline or directory. However, the grant has a lot of restrictions, and I can share why some avoid it.
1) Applying for the grant - you have to state that you do not discriminate in hiring based on sexual orientation
orientation (among other things), and some centers feel fine signing that because they say
That's not the main reason they wouldn't hire someone like that, but some do not because they think it's unethical.
2) The grant caps bidding on abortion keywords at $2 a keyword. It can also add some
restrictions to pregnancy-related words now as well. If the goal is to use the grant to save lives,
it can reach some of these women, particularly in rural areas without much competition in Google ads, but it's not nearly as effective as paid ads.
Other
Where is your price list?
We do custom proposals because we do not believe that one size fits all when it comes to serving you the best that we can. Each center has its own unique location and its own budget, and we work with centers to help fulfill their needs within their budgets.
Can I refer you?
We love referrals! We work exclusively with life-affirming organizations. If you have a person or company in mind that you would like to refer to Stories, please ask first before sharing our contact information. Oftentimes, we are unable to help organizations that fall outside of our target audience. Am I still able to make any edits on our website as needed, or do I need to go through you for very simple edits, such as uploading a sponsor's logo on our event page?
Yes! You can add or make any edits you need to, especially if it's faster for you to do so than to explain. However, we're happy to make edit requests and changes that you
send our way, too. We'll also make all the weekly theme updates for WP sites.
In my discovery meeting, I mentioned that we use HIPAA-compliant forms. Still, I'm wondering if I'm expected to use that or if Stories Marketing will offer that on the website, since we are getting the management services.
You can use your own! If you do, I'll lower your monthly cost by $25/m. Let us know your form information, and we can add it and switch out your existing appointment request form.
NEW
1. Can you tell me what research you do during the branding process to feel confident we're making the right decisions about color, look and feel, logo, etc.?
We do competitor research to help avoid brand confusion with names, looks, logo imagery, etc. When it
comes to the choice of colors, while there are palettes we avoid because they cause a negative response with your clientele, there is a lot of diversity to choose from, and ultimately, this is up to the choice of the centers we work with.
We use the latest brand research from Vitae and Save the Storks, who have spent time and money researching best brand practices for pregnancy centers.
2. Related question: During the rebranding process, do you play a part in getting stakeholder (leadership, key donors, clients) buy-in for the brand we're developing?
While we share about the vision behind the concept, it’s up to our centers to educate and
market the new brand. We can give ideas on how to communicate it and roll it out, but we are
not engaged in other aspects.
3. Do you all support donor marketing and communication efforts as well?
I inquired of you regarding our client-facing brand, but whatever we do for the client will also need to translate to our donor comms somehow, so we may need website and creative services support for that key audience as well. So, just curious if you have expertise just in
client-facing or donor engagement.
We provide donor marketing services as one-time or monthly options, including:
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Social media
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Blogs/open-source content creation (could be used for direct appeals, email marketing, etc)
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Website hosting and management
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Landing page creation (events, etc, as a one-time service)
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Video creation or branding from our video library (one time)
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Graphic design (per project)
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Fundraising bundle (one time, includes videos, strategies, and designs)
4. Can you send me a few examples of client-facing and/or donor-facing websites that
Stories have been created, as well as examples of brand guides that were completed as part of the branding process? Is the creation of a comprehensive brand guide included in the branding estimate? I will need that deliverable, so if you need to clarify or add that to the proposal, please do. I appreciate any examples you can provide for the web and brand that you have completed before.
Yes, we create the brand guide and send files of eps, png, and .ai files along with logo variations and font files.
You can download that PDF from here.
Client
https://www.firststepwomenscenter.org/
Donor
https://www.partnersofherhealth.org/
https://www.friendsofhope.com/
https://www.friendsoffirststep.com/
5. How long do you estimate this process may take for full branding and website
development?
We have a waitlist right now, so it will be July at the earliest until we start the rebranding process, or June for website development.
6. Can you provide costs for writing and design services for one-off creative projects, like prospecting postcards, landing pages, newsletters, etc.?
Or, would we get costs for that
project by project. (This is not a huge rush, but maybe in the next couple of weeks. We
may need ongoing, consistent creative services support in the near future, so I'm
exploring my options for hiring staff vs. outsourcing for X hours a week, or writing and/or
design.)
Download PDF from here.
This is our most requested item, but if there is anything on this list that you’d like a quote for, please let us know.
7. When the website is done, are we full owners of the site -- we continue to own the domain, content, ability to make updates and host the site, etc., correct?
Yes, you own your site, but with restrictions. We have had content copied and resold in the past, and that is not allowed. Please see our terms and conditions.
Also, if we do not manage the website, we need to know at the beginning of the build. Our mgt clients receive HIPAA-compliant forms; however, if you manage your site, we cannot add them and will build in other generic forms.
WEBSITE TERMS OF USE
Stories Marketing creates relevant, responsive, mobile-friendly websites built for conversions. Website content created and provided by Stories Marketing cannot be duplicated or resold by another company, third-party agency, or contractor. However, the website and any content added to the site can be used by you in any capacity, and your website is yours to keep.
Stories Marketing does not manage or incur the cost for third-party plugins, upgrades, paid subscriptions, or other third-party programs or features.