TIM:

 

Our WHY for this meeting is:

• To inform you of the changes on the Digital Evangelism Landscape.

• To POTENTIALLY pivot some of our FUTURE NARRATIVE from SALVATIONS, to SEEDS.
  
  =  Our Mission stays the same: "We CREATE  Opportunities  for Young people to find Jesus."

I have a question for you guys:

What’s more important to you — How many seeds we sow each day?
or…
How many professions of faith we see each day?

There’s no right or wrong answer, it’s something I’ve been wondering about as we’re now into our 5th year doing digital evangelism. 

 

For myself, I have always gauged the effectiveness of our outreach on how many professions of faith we’ve seen.

 

You guys know I am 100% about evangelism… seeing young people come to know and follow Jesus. It compels me to give everything I have to the work of MissionX.

 

As a great reminder - this digital evangelism thing has been a grand experiment, a wild-frontier - AND we’ve ALL been pleasantly surprised with the results! 

 

As you know, I set a goal of seeing 2 million professions of faith by the end of quarter 1 2025.  I gotta be honest with you…

Setting these lofty goals feels right because I always wanna reach MORE people -
But these huge goals can add a lot of unnecessary self-imposed pressure when there are SO many uncontrollable variables that can determine outcome.


There are a number of reasons why -  I’ll let Keith explain why, because he is on the front lines with the ad metrics. He’s a bit like our Elon Musk when it comes to numbers …

He’s the DOGE here at MissionX when it comes to our outreach to keep costs down - and efficiency up

Here is our update of “Seeds and Salvations”

​

KEITH:

        Substantial Investment in Seed Ads

• Over the past five years, significant funds were invested into seed ads. It’s now close to 1 million dollars. (META should send us a gold plaque)
• Monthly expenditure sometimes reached as high as $30,000. When we had it, we invested it!

• As the impact grew, more investment was made to reach more people.

• The support from our donors was crucial in fueling this growth. Thank you!
  
  Cost Efficiency of Seed Ads

• The hard cost to reach one person in the 10/40 window with a seed ad is approximately 0.00033 cents.

• This cost is a fraction of a penny. Amazingly affordable!
  
  Scale of Seed Distribution

• Billions of Jesus seeds were sown from 2023 into 2024.

• The scale of distribution was massive.
  
  Response to Efforts

• The response to the investment in seed ads was extraordinary.

• The campaign showed an incredible return on investment.
  
  Return on Investment

• Each Profession of Faith (POF) cost approximately 75 cents.

• The cost per POF varied, but overall results were consistently positive.

 

 

Growth and Support

      

Update on Advertising Strategy and Costs

 

• Starting in early 2025, we observed an increase in the cost per Profession of Faith (POF). This shift prompted us to reassess our advertising strategy.

 

• Given the rising cost per POF, we made a strategic decision to scale back our investment in ads until we learned why.  Typically in other years, we would invest most of the funds we had to get off to a fast start

 

• That said, it’s important to note that we continued to allocate approximately $500 per day to aSafePlaceOnline ads. 

 

• This remains a substantial investment, allowing us to reach a significant number of people (over 1.2 million each day) and maintain meaningful impact despite the adjustments.

You may, like ourselves wonder why did the cost per POF increase?

Our research:

More Ministries

As digital evangelism grows, we're no longer the sole players in the field. Other organizations are now offering similar programs, increasing competition in our social media feeds. While this has led to a slight decline in ad click rates, we still reach 1.2 million people daily.

 

However, our established history and strong online presence—particularly our 500,000 Facebook followers—continue to be significant advantages. This large community helps amplify our reach without additional cost, positioning us uniquely in the market.

​

Demographic Targeting

Recently, we noticed an increase in men responding to our ads, despite exclusively targeting women. Research revealed that men in countries like India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan often select "female" as their gender on Facebook, complicating our targeting efforts.

 

To address this, we refined our ads by focusing on interests like cosmetics and fashion to better reach women. While this adjustment has reduced male responses, it has increased the cost per Profession of Faith (POF). Despite these challenges, people continue to discover aSafePlaceOnline through various channels beyond ads.

The Culture We Reach

In the regions we target, most people access social media exclusively through Android phones, with limited use of computers or websites. Since website visits are key to tracking Professions of Faith (POFs), this insight has prompted us to develop new ways for individuals engaging with our ads to receive help, learn about Jesus, and accept Him.

​

As a refresher, our “funnel” or user path strategy was the following:

1- Person sees our ad on their social media newsfeed.

2- Person clicks the “learn more” button on the ad and is taken to a special landing page on our aSafePlaceOnline website.

3- Person reads the information about Jesus on the landing page, says the prayer of salvation, and then clicks a button letting us know they just accepted Jesus.

4- After they click the button, they can opt into our 30 Day Nexts Step Guide discipleship program, delivered through email.

The button click is how we count a profession of faith. It works well for those who complete the entire funnel path. However, we know some people either cannot access the internet or choose not to go through all steps. We are still reaching them with the message, but we have no idea if it has taken root and a POF. 

 

Our New Strategy:

1- User sees our ad on their social media feed. This is a new type of ad, instead of displaying a single picture of a woman in distress with a short statement, we present a video that displays slides. (like a powerpoint presentation with music)

Slides 1-3:  Address the issue they are having (loneliness, relationship, financial, depression, etc)

Slides 4-5: Presents that Jesus can help them not only get through the problem, but is the answer to ALL problems, including sin.

Slides 6-9: Leads them in a short prayer of salvation.

Slide 10: Encourages them to use WhatsApp (they ALL use WhatsApp over there)  to let us know they prayed the prayer. We then respond in their WhatsApp automatically right away encouraging them to enroll to our Next Steps Guide delivered to their What’sApp.

 

By keeping them in Facebook or Instagram and using WhatsApp to communicate, our hope is to see POF’s and engagement in followup increase! And a much LOWER cost per POF. (Can I get an amen?)

 

We are excited about this new method to reach more people and see the Lord’s Kingdom continue to increase!

 

And this is just aSafePlaceOnline! Right Tim???

​

Yes when it comes to spreading out our assets and out reach - its not just aSafePlaceOnline anymore!

It’s also StandUpDude (staff. Weekly PodCast and evangelism ads on FaceBook and Instagram), Change My Life ads on Tik-Tok, and hopefully, tons of people learning about 24/7 discipleship support at Life Support in the very near future.

All this - needs seeds. 
 

We all know - all fruit starts from a seed, and even though I love FRUIT (to see salvations) they all come through the sowing of seed!
 

Tim’s Hopeful Takeaway:

Peace of mind knowing:

1. Board is aware of the landscape changes in the Digital Evangelism  world.

2. With this information, you would share your honest heart / opinion on the future focus of Seed Sowing vs. Fruit as our driving emphasis of success.

My experienced and most profitable takeaway was:
 

1. Seeds vs. Fruit is not an “either/or” — it’s a “both/and.”  

2. That our future narrative should include both Seeds Sown language, with the Fruit Shown language.  (Not JUST Fruit Shown)

UPCOMING:
04/01/2025 - NewsLetter - Coming out Tuesday 
06/02/2025 - Board Meeting -  LifeSupport