If your Christmas activity includes paid social - and time, money or headspace are all in short supply - this one's for you.

Christmas on social is noisy. Big charities are out there with glossy TV spots. Retail giants are pumping out tear-jerkers and jingles. And you find yourself staring at a modest Meta ads budget, wondering how to cut through.

But, trust us, you don’t need a blockbuster budget to run a campaign that works. You do need focus, a warm audience, and a strong “why now?”.

Here are three lessons Callum McGranaghan shared in our last Social Snapshots webinar that’ll help you get more from whatever you can spend this Christmas.

Three lessons to get your paid social campaign working hard this Christmas

🎯 1. Pick one job for your ads to do

This is where so many charity campaigns slip up - trying to do all the things in one go.

“We want to raise money, grow the email list, promote our festive event and tell everyone about our impact since 2006… all in one ad.”

And suddenly your ad is a Christmas dinner of mixed messages: too much going on, and no one’s quite sure what to do next.

So - pick one clear job.

For example:

Raise donations for your Christmas appeal
Drive sign-ups for a festive event
Reconnect with lapsed donors through a specific ask

Once you’ve chosen the job, everything else gets easier - your copy, your creative, your landing page, even how you report back.

💡 If you only do one thing before spending a penny on ads this year... Set a clear goal: “We want 60 online donations at an average of £25 by 31 December.” Now you’ve got a target. Now you can build something focused.

Your Christmas campaign has one job - one clear, focused ask your audience can act on.

🔥 2. Warm audiences first. Cold audiences later (maybe).

If you're working with a small budget, start with the people who already know and like you.

Going straight to cold audiences is like standing in the middle of Oxford Street with a collection bucket - chaotic, unpredictable, and you’ll probably just annoy someone.

Your warm audience is your secret weapon. Think:

Website visitors who’ve checked out your appeal pages
People engaging with your content on social
Your email list and past donors

Start here. Spend your budget where it already has momentum.

A simple approach:

Run your first ads to warm audiences only
Track what’s working: what’s resonating, what’s converting
Then, and only then, consider expanding to colder audiences if the performance holds

👉 Start warm, learn what works, then decide if cold is worth it.

Keep your audience targeting - and your festive jumpers - warm this Christmas.

💚 3. Be crystal clear on why their gift matters now

Even the most generous people are swamped in December. Your ad is competing with school plays, inbox chaos, and about 27 other charities doing a big Christmas push.

You need to answer three questions, fast:

Who am I helping?
What difference will my gift make?
Why should I give now, not later?

Forget clever wordplay. You’re aiming for clarity.

At Social for Good, we often talk about a simple “value equation” for your ad:

Make the impact of giving clear - what good will it do?
Keep the ask manageable - a donation that feels doable
Remove friction - make it quick and easy to ac

Try lines like:

Your £25 today will fund a warm meal and support for one family this Christmas.
Give by 20th December to help us reach 150 families before Christmas Day.
This Christmas, you can help one young person feel safe, supported and not alone.

You can build this into your creative too:

Add a gentle deadline overlay: “Ends 24th Dec” or “Final days”
Use copy like: “Still time to make someone’s Christmas.”
And reduce the ask: “It only takes 60 seconds to donate.”

🎯 If someone saw your ad for three seconds, would they know what you’re asking and why they should do it now?

If not? Simplify.

Take inspiration from charities putting the value equation to work.

Clear impact, doable donation, low friction - all wrapped up in a way that makes people care *and* act.

🚀 Want to go bigger in 2026?

If you focus your objective, prioritise your warmest supporters, and make giving feel easy and urgent, you’ll already be ahead of the game.

But Christmas is just one moment.

The charities that make the biggest gains aren’t just running a few festive ads. They’re building smart, joined-up approaches to strategy, content, community and paid all year round.

That’s what we teach in The Social for Good Accelerator - our 8-week programme for charity social media managers and comms leads.

Small budget, big impact: Christmas fundraising that works