How TBN Reached More People With Faith-Based Content

Overcoming Restrictions to Reach More People with Faith

Facing significant platform restrictions on faith-based advertising, TBN partnered with Trilogy Analytics to implement their 10x Audience Graph solution. This strategic move enabled TBN to bypass conventional targeting limitations, resulting in a 43% increase in qualified leads while maintaining cost efficiency. This case shows how faith-based organizations can still thrive by using smarter audience strategies, like the 10x Audience Graph, to cut through today's digital restrictions.

Faith-based organizations increasingly face significant hurdles when advertising through major digital platforms. Recent policy changes by Meta (Facebook, Instagram) and Google have severely limited targeting capabilities, particularly for organizations like TBN, whose mission is to deliver faith-focused content to specific Christian and family-oriented audiences.

"Policy restrictions around political, faith, healthcare, ticket sales, and certain product categories are now extremely rigid. Personalization through standard platform targeting methods has essentially disappeared—unless you leverage a more advanced Customer Data Platform (CDP)." - Malia Hariz, Paid Media expert

The Challenge: Sharing Faith in a Restricted Digital World

The changes included:

• Removal of critical religious targeting categories (e.g., Christianity, Bible studies, faith)
• Tightened ad copy restrictions, limiting spiritual or faith-based language
• Reduced reach and visibility for content flagged as sensitive due to conservative or religious values
• Significant limitations on retargeting and audience-building around religious engagement

These restrictions posed a serious challenge for TBN, directly impacting the effectiveness of our outreach and leading to a significant drop in performance for companies relying on in-platform targeting and audiences.

A New Approach to Reaching Faith-Driven Audiences

We partnered with Trilogy Analytics to implement their proprietary CDP solution: the 10x Audience Graph. Unlike standard Customer Data Platforms that primarily organize first-party data, the 10x Audience Graph integrates proprietary third-party data sources specifically focused on faith-based interests and behaviors. This advanced approach allows for deeper audience intelligence beyond basic demographics, enabling identification of spiritual interests and faith-based behaviors that typical CDPs cannot access.

This powerful tool enabled us to build highly precise and personalized audience segments by:

• Leveraging alternative data signals rooted in faith and family values
• Creating lookalike audiences based on behaviors such as Christian music preferences, event attendance, and purchasing patterns
• Reaching new users who were more likely to engage meaningfully with TBN's content and mission

The solution went beyond what the platforms offered natively, creating precise, high-converting audiences that matched TBN's unique goals and target demographics. Reaching the right people with greater accuracy and higher response rates.

Real Results, Genuine Connections

The shift proved transformative. We successfully:

• Grew the volume of qualified new leads by 43%, from 18,876 in 2023 to 27,089 in 2024
• Improved content engagement by delivering personalized ads and messaging that spoke directly to viewer interests
• Maintained a lower cost per conversion while sustaining high lead volume, ensuring better stewardship of resources and more impactful audience growth
• Successfully reached specific viewer segments for targeted shows, significantly enhancing content engagement

"The 10x Audience Graph has enhanced our ability to connect with our audience in meaningful ways across today's complex advertising channels. We're now starting to reach the right people with the right message at the right time." - Emanuel Eddyson, Senior VP of Digital Platforms at TBN

What We Learned Through the Process

Extensive A/B testing and optimization across messaging, creative visuals, and landing page design yielded valuable insights into audience preferences and behaviors:

• Ad copy tailored to specific behavior patterns, purchase data, interests, and digital habits consistently outperformed generic messaging
• Visual content that authentically reflected the emotional and cultural values of our audience segments increased engagement significantly
• Carefully tested landing pages with optimized layout, language, and CTA placement improved conversion rates, leading to sustained audience growth

How the Strategy Came to Life

The implementation of the 10x Audience Graph was remarkably efficient and insightful, with Trilogy Analytics' precision-focused approach streamlining what could have been a complex process. The implementation involved close collaboration between TBN's marketing team and Trilogy Analytics' data specialists, following a structured methodology:

1. Initial audience assessment and data integration
2. Development of custom audience segments based on faith and family values
3. Platform setup and campaign structure alignment
4. Ongoing optimization and performance analysis

What's Ahead for TBN's Outreach

Building on this success, TBN is now exploring additional applications of the 10x Audience Graph, including:

• Enhanced donor acquisition strategies
• Expanded international audience targeting
• Cross-platform implementation to diversify reach beyond Meta and Google

Encouragement for Ministries Facing Similar Hurdles

Digital restrictions don't have to mean losing touch with your core audience. Our experience shows that by innovating beyond traditional targeting and investing in advanced tools like the 10x Audience Graph, faith-based organizations can continue thriving and building meaningful, personalized relationships with their communities.

At TBN, we've seen firsthand that when traditional doors close, creative solutions open new opportunities for deeper connections and greater impact. Want to keep reaching your audience, even when platforms restrict how you connect? Let Trilogy Analytics show you how the 10x Audience Graph can make that possible. Let's connect today!