Behind the Scenes: Exploring Kickstarter’s Advanced Creator Dashboard

Kickstarter is one of the most popular crowdfunding platforms out there, and it’s widely used by creators to launch projects in various fields. If you’re a Kickstarter creator, you already know how important it is to track your project’s progress to make informed decisions. 

Recently, Kickstarter introduced a new and improved dashboard that offers more comprehensive insights into your campaign’s performance. In this blog, we’ll discuss some of the key features of this beta creator dashboard and how these insights can help you make better decisions for your campaign.

TL;DR

• Creators now have the ability to export all of the data as a PDF or CSV
• You can also export sections of data
• For now, this dashboard will not be available once the campaign ends

Dashboard Sections Explained

The new Kickstarter advanced analytics dashboard offers several sections that provide detailed insights into your campaign’s performance. Let’s discuss each section in more detail.

Daily Pledge Data

 

The daily pledge data section is similar to the data offered in the current dashboard, but it shows daily data separately rather than an accumulation day over day. This feature allows you to track your campaign’s progress on a daily basis and identify any spikes or dips in your pledges. 

 

Below is an example of the beta dashboard vs. the standard Kickstarter dashboard.

 

Beta Dashboard

Current Dashboard 

Why this matters: Daily data will help creators make informed decisions when it comes to the overall campaign momentum and potential for success. 

For our paid media team, daily data will allow us to adjust, pivot or increase the ad spend based on performance, and advise our clients on any page changes if needed. Tracking daily funding amounts will help creators understand the progress of their campaign and identify areas for improvements.

Hourly Pledge Data

In addition to daily pledge data, creators can now see hourly pledge data day-to-day. This feature provides more granular insights into your campaign’s performance, allowing you to identify which hours of the day have the most impact on your campaign’s pledges.

Why this matters: Our clients’ Kickstarter campaigns range anywhere from 35 to 40 days. If you think about, that’s not a lot of time. Tracking hourly pledges can help creators identify any spikes in funding during certain hours of the day or week, which can impact their marketing and promotion strategies. 

 

For example, if a campaign consistently sees a surge in funding during the lunch hour or on weekends, the creators may want to focus their social media or email marketing efforts during those times to maximize their reach.

 

Channels and Referrers

 

This section provides information about the sources of your pledges. Kickstarter tracks the referrers for each pledge, which is where the backer came from on the internet before coming to your project page. This section gives you a higher-level understanding of the referrers to your project, as Kickstarter groups them into different types and classes. 

 

However, it’s essential to note that Kickstarter gives credit to only the first source they know about, and the data you see in other tools like Facebook Ads Manager or Google Analytics may look different from what you see here.

 

Why this matters: Think of all the times you clicked on an ad or opened a promotional email, left the page, then searched for it again later on. From an agency perspective, this helps prove the loss of tracking. 

 

Let’s dive deeper into the types of channels and referrers Kickstarter groups backers into. 

 

Backings by Channel

 

This section shows the number of backers from each channel broken down by device. You can see the percentage of traffic coming in via desktop versus mobile. This information is valuable in understanding how users are interacting with your campaign across different devices.

Why this matters: Knowing where backers are coming from will help you better optimize your marketing straetgy and your campaign page. On average, we’ve found that these percentages differ when considering a product’s price point, but 20% of Kickstarter backers usually come from mobile and 80% of backers visit via desktop. This is important when considering your marketing channels and optimizing campaign graphics (ex. Are your graphics’ fonts too small to read on mobile devices?).

 

Backings by Channel & Tier

 

This portion of the dashboard shows the number of backers from each channel broken down by price range:

• < $2.00
• >= $2.00 and < $5.00
• >= $5.00 and < $25.00
• >= $25.00 and < $100.00
• >= $100.00 and < $500.00
• >= $500.00 and < $5,000.00
• >= $5,000.00

Why this matters: Are most people pulling the trigger and backing on desktop or mobile? Or are they browsing and backing at a lower amount to “see what happens.” This data is invaluable when it comes to seeing how much people are paying towards your product, and the devices they’re making these purchasing decisions from. 

 

Referrers

 

The referrers section provides the same information that the current dashboard offers, but it’s laid out in a different way. You can see the total number of pledges and the percentage of total pledges that came from each referrer.

Why this matters: This information allows creators to see what channels are the most profitable (or highest converting) when it comes to actual pledges made. This is great for tracking purposes, as well as paid media opportunities driving traffic to the campaign. 

 

Daily Pledged by Custom Ref Tag

This table breaks down each referrer tag by day. A referrer tag is what Kickstarter tags each backer in the dashboard. i.e. “Direct”, “google.com”, custom referrer links, etc.

Backers by Kickstarter History

 

Understanding the different types of backers that support your campaign is essential in creating an effective marketing strategy. 

 

Backers by Engagement Level

 

This section provides a clear breakdown of the types of backers that support your campaign, including power backers, core backers, casual backers, passive backers, and first-time backers.

 

• Power backers — These are the most engaged backers, usually backing multiple times a month. They are passionate about Kickstarter campaigns and are more likely to support campaigns that align with their interests. 
• Core backers — These backers back every month or two, making them valuable long-term supporters of your project. 
• Casual backers — Support campaigns every few months and may be more selective about the campaigns they back.
• Passive backers — They’ve pledged before but not in the last year. They may need some encouragement to get involved with your campaign again.
• First-time backers — This group is new to Kickstarter and may require more information and reassurance before pledging to your campaign.

 

Why it matters: Knowing the breakdown of your backers by type can help you tailor your marketing efforts to reach the right audience. For example, power backers may respond well to exclusive early-bird deals, while casual backers may need more information about your campaign before pledging. 

 

The Backers by Kickstarter History section can be helpful in identifying which groups of backers are most likely to pledge to your campaign and how often they are pledging.

 

Backers by Engagement Level

 

The backers by engagement level section provides a pie chart of backers to your campaign broken out by their Kickstarter history. You can see how many of your backers are power backers, core backers, casual backers, passive backers, and first-time backers.

Backings by Backer Type

Kickstarter’s Backings by Backer Type feature provides valuable insights into the demographics of your supporters, allowing you to tailor your marketing efforts to reach the right audience. The bar graph by day of backers to your campaign is broken out by their Kickstarter history, showing you the number of new and repeat backers that you have acquired each day.

Why it matters:  This information is particularly useful in determining when to expand your advertising beyond the Kickstarter community and target Facebook users who are not familiar with the platform.

First Time Kickstarter Backer Referrers

 

The First Time Kickstarter Backer Referrers feature allows you to see where your first-time backers are coming from. This information can help you fine-tune your marketing strategy by identifying which referral sources are the most effective at driving new backers to your campaign. By analyzing the data, you can determine whether your marketing efforts are reaching the right audience and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Why it matters: By analyzing this data, you can determine whether your marketing efforts are reaching the right audience and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Returning Backers for Repeat Creators

 

If you’re a repeat Kickstarter creator, the Returning Backers for Repeat Creators feature is a must-have. 

 

This feature allows you to see how many backers from your previous campaigns have backed your current campaign, along with their return rate and referral breakdown. You can even break down the data by each past campaign to see which campaigns are most effective at retaining backers. 

 

Why it matters: This information can help you identify your most loyal supporters (returning backers) and create a strategy to keep them engaged and invested in your project. 

 

New to You Backers

 

The New to You Backers feature shows the number of backers for your project who are new to you as a creator, along with their referral breakdown. This information is particularly useful for repeat creators, as it can help you understand how new backers are finding your project. 

 

Why it matters: By analyzing the data, you can determine which referral sources are most effective at attracting new supporters and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.

 

Backer Locations

 

Knowing where your backers are located can help you tailor your marketing efforts to reach a wider audience. The Backer Locations feature shows the breakdown of backers by country and reward tier, allowing you to identify which countries have the most interest in your project. While this section is similar to the current data Kickstarter offers, it’s broken down in a more visually detailed way.

Why this matters: By analyzing this data, you can determine which regions to focus your marketing efforts on and adjust your reward tiers to better cater to your audience.

 

Backings by Country and Reward

This sections shows the breakdown of backers by country and reward tier.

Watchers

 

Watcher Stats show the breakdown of people who have clicked the “remind me” button on your campaign page, along with how many have backed the campaign and how many have not. Kickstarter also sends out a 48-hour reminder email to anyone “watching” your campaign before it ends to remind them that the campaign is ending soon.

Why this matters: The Watchers feature provides valuable insights into the people who are interested in your project but have not yet backed it. These watchers may have signed up for launch alerts during the “preview or pre-launch” mode, or clicked the “remind me” button on your project page while it’s live. 

 

Watchers by Day and Daily Pledged by Watchers

 

The Watchers by Day feature shows how many people are clicking “remind me” per day, allowing you to track the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. The Daily Pledged by Watchers feature shows how much is pledged by campaign followers per day, giving you an idea of how much money you can expect to raise from your watchers. 

Daily Pledged by Watchers

This Daily Pledge by Watchers shows how much is actually pledged by campaign followers per day.

Why it matters: By analyzing this data, you can determine which marketing strategies are most effective at converting watchers into backers and adjust your strategy accordingly. This can be very helpful as another way to know if paid media, newsletters, email blasts, etc. are working.

 

A promising beta dashboard

 

Having access to these additional data points can provide valuable insights for creators to make informed decisions during their Kickstarter campaign. With a better understanding of their audience, creators can adjust their marketing strategies and messaging to optimize their campaign’s performance. By leveraging this data, creators can increase their chances of reaching their funding goals and bringing their creative ideas to life!

 

Reference: https://updates.kickstarter.com/creator-dashboard/