Frequently Asked Questions

BackerKit Services
- What is BackerKit's full suite of services and how much do they cost?

BackerKit Marketing
BackerKit Launch
BackerKit Pledge Manager
Shipping
Pledge Manager Pricing
First-time creators
Resources

Still have questions? Contact us!

BackerKit Services

What is BackerKit's full suite of services and how much do they cost?

We offer four services: BackerKit Launch, BackerKit Marketing, BackerKit Pledge Manager and Crowdfunding by BackerKit.

BackerKit Launch

Whether you are a first-timer or have run multiple campaigns, BackerKit Launch will help you harness the power of your community to get funded early.

Create a landing page, collect email addresses, send targeted emails before and during the campaign, and make sure all your fans and previous backers are pledging to your latest campaign.

Learn more here on how other creators have used Launch for success.

Pricing: Signing up for a Launch account and creating a landing page is free, you can get started here. If you want to use Launch to send out emails to your member community and track performance, these tools can be activated with a $99 fee.

BackerKit Marketing

You can use BackerKit Performance Marketing to Drive pledges to your live campaign with advertising designed for crowdfunding.

Read if our service is a good fit for your project and click here to find out more about the details on what our marketing team is looking for in an application here.

Pricing: If your campaign qualifies for paid ads with BackerKit, we charge 15% of pledges directly attributed to our efforts, plus the amount we spent on ads during the campaign for repayment.

BackerKit Pledge Manager

With BackerKit Pledge Manager, you can set up surveys which will gather reward selections, shipping address and payment information from backers while also giving you the opportunity to raise additional funds through add-ons sales.

You can also build a Pre-order store to continue accepting Late Pledges even after your campaign has ended.

Pricing: If this sounds like a good fit, please learn about the cost of our Pledge Manager tool here and sign up and connect your campaign here.

Crowdfunding by BackerKit

We don’t just launch projects, we see them through to the end (and back again). We provide everything you need to crush your campaign—tools, resources, even a whole crowdfunding platform. Plus a community of fellow creators who can’t wait to meet you. Learn more about Crowdfunding by BackerKit here. We'd love for you to launch your next project with us!

BackerKit Marketing

I haven’t launched my campaign yet, can BackerKit Marketing promote it before launch?

We know lead generation before you launch your campaign is a big need for many creators. We recommend signing up for BackerKit Launch, where you can create a landing page to collect emails, test the strength of your email list, and send your previous backers and email list unlimited targeted emails before and during launch.

You should also read how you can do lead ads yourself for a Kickstarter campaign, written by one of our very own performance marketing experts.

I haven’t launched my campaign yet. How do I know if BackerKit Marketing will be a good partner for me once I launch?

Our marketing service isn’t always the most cost-effective way to get more pledges and after years of experimenting with all kinds of projects, we only take projects on where we feel we can make a positive impact.

Generally speaking, we are not able to work with:

Projects in the following categories: Comics, apparel, pet, kids, eco-friendly, watches, food, toiletries, consumables, or outdoor games,
Creators
- That have never run a crowdfunding campaign before with fewer than 500 subscribers to their email lists, or
- With a track record of previous campaigns with less than 1,000 backers

I have launched my campaign. How do I know if BackerKit Marketing will be a good partner for me?

Generally speaking, we work with:

Projects NOT in the following categories: Comics, apparel, pet, kids, eco-friendly, watches, food, toiletries, consumables, or outdoor games
Funded projects
Projects that have raised at least $50,000 from organic sources
Projects that have at least 10 days left

How does pricing work for BackerKit Marketing?

BackerKit covers the cost of ads, and you reimburse us once you receive your funds from Kickstarter after your campaign has finished. We charge a 15% commission on Kickstarter’s tracked pledges.

Why don’t you work with campaigns that have raised less than $50,000?

Paid marketing is always going to be a risk — performance is never guaranteed. After testing marketing with campaigns that have raised less than $50,000, we found it's too risky. We advise against running ads unless you've already raised at least $50,000 and are on your way to much more.

We require a healthy budget commitment to optimize and test ad performance and want to make sure our customers can afford this. In no world do we want you to end up spending your funding and be stuck with marketing debt for ad spend! You have a great campaign, and we want to ensure your success.

If you want to learn how to make your ads perform better, check out our free guide. It’s written for creators gearing up to launch, but the same rules apply to a live campaign.

BackerKit Marketing won’t be a good fit for me, do you have any advice for what I can still do while my campaign is live?

Do you have an email list already? How many times have you messaged them? Are they already familiar with crowdfunding? We have seen the power of email lists time and time again, and usually estimate around 5% of the people on a high-quality email list will become backers.

You can sign up for BackerKit Launch to test the strength of your email list. Our software is able to detect who on your email list already has a Kickstarter or Indiegogo + BackerKit account, this is important because this will give you an idea of who has pledged to one of your campaigns before and who is more likely to pledge again.

Using Launch, whether you’ve run a campaign before or not, you can then send unlimited targeted emails to your list and previous backers that haven't yet pledged, and if any of your fans don't know what crowdfunding is, it will help to explain that and how to back your project.

Also, you can measure the effectiveness of each of your marketing efforts by using Kickstarter and Indiegogo’s custom referral tags to figure out which marketing tactic is driving the most pledges. Pair that with BackerTracker and you’ll be able to see if your project is on track to meet its funding or stretch goals. If you are familiar with Google Analytics, Kickstarter and Indiegogo have a way of connecting that to your account so you can check page view traffic from various sources.

If you want to learn how to run ads or make your ads perform better, check out our free guide. It’s written for creators gearing up to launch, but the same rules apply to a live campaign.

My campaign finished, can BackerKit Marketing promote it now that it’s over?

We only advertise live campaigns because we specialize in marketing for crowdfunding campaigns. However, BackerKit offers pre-order stores to keep raising funds and attracting new backers after the campaign finishes.

Sometimes backers miss the crowdfunding campaign, but with these stores, you can still accept late pledges with minimal effort. You can drive backers to your pre-order store directly from your campaign page or embed it on your website. You can do your own advertising to the pre-order store, but we do not provide marketing for preorder stores at this time.

BackerKit Launch

How can Launch help me?

BackerKit Launch allows you to create a landing page to collect emails and to test the strength of your email list as you work on it. You will be able to share your Launch landing page on BackerKit’s upcoming project tab to our backer community as well.

Our software is able to see who on your email list already have Kickstarter and Indiegogo accounts, which will make them more likely to pledge, and you can send unlimited targeted emails before and during launch. Once you've launched, you'll be able to see in real-time who's pledged and retarget those who haven't. You can read more about the benefits of using Launch here.

Are there any fees to use Launch?

It is free to sign up and get powerful data on your backer list.

If you would like to send email campaigns to your own imported email list, there is a $99 activation fee per project. No email limitations or other fees.

If you would like to send email campaigns to subscribers gained through BackerKit Launch, there is no fee, email limitations, or other fees.

I've signed up for Launch and need help on getting started.

You can access our Launch playbooks here.

BackerKit Pledge Manager

What is BackerKit and how can you help me?

After your campaign ends, BackerKit's pledge manager can help you:

Save you time by managing all the order, shipping, and payment data for your backers
Make it easier to ship whether you're fulfilling yourself or through a third-party logistics company
Raise more money once the campaign is over through our surveys and late pledge store
Ensure backers have a smooth experience and that you don't have to spend a lot of time responding to lots of emails with our in-house backer support

You can read more about all that we do here.

Can I see a sample survey?

You can go through a demo of our survey here where you will see it's like an e-commerce check-out experience.

Do I need to apply for BackerKit's pledge management service and how do I sign up?

No, there is no application process. You can sign up once your campaign is live here.

Now that I've signed up, how do I get started?

We're happy to have you on board!

What's next?

We encourage you to check out our project update templates that you can use to keep backers informed in the meantime.

If you haven't already, please complete the onboarding through the link here
Complete the steps under each section on the left-hand sidebar- 1) Connect 2) Build and 3) Review. As you complete each step, you will need to check the boxes "Yes, I completed this step".

Pro tip: Make sure to use the Item Generator to configure all your reward and add-on items. It will create your items (also referred to as SKUs), pledge questions, and add-ons in one go. Please read through our best practices here.

If you charged for shipping during your campaign, these fees will import automatically. You can learn about the different ways to charge shipping for any add-on purchases here. If you did not charge any shipping fees during your campaign and would like to collect this in BackerKit, we have a couple of options to handle this - you can learn about these options here.
The last step before getting surveys out is the Setup Review. Once submitted, we will carefully go through your project and follow back with any feedback or suggestions. If all looks good, we will set your project live so you can send out your surveys. Please keep in mind that the review may take a day or two so make sure to plan that into your timeline.

Please also be sure to bookmark this Creator Help Center where you'll find helpful articles on the project setup, backer management and communication, fulfillment, and much more. The Getting Started Guide is a great reference and provides step-by-step instructions on setting up your project in BackerKit.

If you used the Kickstarter add-on feature, you can read up on how these will transfer to BackerKit here.

We look forward to working with you!

Add-ons

Add-ons are extra items that backers can purchase in the survey. They are a great source to generate additional sale for the campaign. Add-ons can be set up as stand-alone add-ons or bundles. We recommend creating items automatically that you want to offer as add-ons using the item generator tool. If setting add-ons manually, you can set them up on Customize Add-ons page.

If you are wanting to offering add-ons at different prices and/or wanting to charge different shipping fees for different pledge levels (eg. No Reward pledge level vs Reward pledge level), you can easily duplicate add-ons and set up different add-on shipping profiles. To learn more about the shipping options available in BackerKit, click here.

Pre-orders

BackerKit Pre-order store allows you to set up a late pledge store for any backers who missed the original campaign as soon as your campaign ends. You can offer stand-alone add-ons or bundles for products offered during the campaign along with their shipping fees and start accepting late pledges right away. The backer will have e-commerce like checkout experience where they pick out all items that they like, add their shipping address and payment information before checking out. To learn more about best practices for pre-orders, click here.

In addition, BackerKit rolled out a new beta feature for the Pre-order Store where creators can offer original campaign pledge levels for late backers. This flow will give late backers access to a 'survey' where reward selection, add-ons purchase and shipping fees are submitted after the surveys are live. To learn more about the new beta feature, click here.

Shipping

Charging shipping after my campaign through BackerKit

Yes, you can charge shipping after your campaign, and we recommend it. We offer a variety of ways to charge for shipping, you can read more here.

Calculating taxes/VAT

In BackerKit, you have the option to set up a tax rate, this is entirely up to you and your needs. We are not accountants and cannot give tax advice, but if you want to set this up we do provide the tools.

If this is something you are going to be using, it is important to make sure that backers know they will be responsible for tax in BackerKit, this helps alleviate confusion and frustration for backers.

Calculating shipping costs

We don't estimate shipping costs as we are not a fulfillment company, that is something you'll have to do on your own or with a fulfillment company. If you're unsure where to start, here are our partners.

BackerKit Postage is a self-service option if you're shipping yourself from the USA. Everything around shipping is managed within BackerKit (buying postage, setting up packages groups, printing labels, etc.) and you can use USPS's Shipping Calculator from within BackerKit. This tends to be the most seamless option if you are fulfilling in-house. You can learn more about BackerKit Postage here.

If you're not using it, you'll have to plug in your own numbers into our system, and then shipping costs will be automatically calculated for your backers.

You can read more about shipping here.

Is BackerKit a fulfillment center? Can BackerKit pack and ship my rewards?

We are not a fulfillment center, but we do offer BackerKit Postage as a self-service option if you're shipping yourself from the USA. Everything around shipping is managed within BackerKit (buying postage, setting up packages groups, printing labels, etc.) and you can use USPS's Shipping Calculator from within BackerKit. This tends to be the most seamless option if you are fulfilling in-house. You can learn more about BackerKit Postage here.

We also have direct integrations with many fulfillment companies and a variety of exports for those we don't have integrations with. You can read more here. Additionally, if a fulfillment company you're using is on Shopify, you can use the Shopify integration to push from BackerKit > Shopify > fulfillment software.

Digital rewards distribution

Yes, you can easily distribute digital rewards with BackerKit. You can read an overview here and in more detail here.

BackerKit Pledge Manager Pricing

What is BackerKit's pledge manager?

BackerKit’s Pledge Manager allows you to set up surveys which will gather reward selections, shipping address and payment information from backers while also giving you the opportunity to raise additional funds through add-ons sales.

You may also build a Pre-order store to continue accepting Late Pledges even after your campaign has ended.

How much does the Pledge Manager cost?

The cost of using BackerKit’s pledge manager tool consists of two portions: Campaign fee + transaction fee.

Please check out our Pricing page for breakdown of how these costs are calculated, including a calculator tool to help you identify how much the campaign fee portion would be for your specific campaign.

A 3.5% transaction fee is applied to all funds raised in BackerKit which includes add-ons sale, pre-orders, upgrades, shipping fees, taxes and funds retrieved from reinstated pledge, if applicable.

When do I pay for the pledge manager?

To give you time to get your funds from your crowdfunding platform, at the earliest, you can pay two weeks after your campaign finishes and before sending out surveys to backers.

What if my campaign isn’t successfully funded? Do I still pay a fee to BackerKit?

No, since you can’t use our pledge manager if the campaign isn't successful, you are not charged for anything.

First-time creators

Buying an email list

BackerKit does not sell email lists, and we strongly suggest you build your own email list instead. Purchasing lists does not work for crowdfunding as the people on those lists often don't know what crowdfunding is and they didn't sign up for your list in the first place.

Buying an email list has very poor effects because

You'll violate GDPR
You will have a very low open and conversion rate
If your email is marked as spam too many times, it'll affect your deliverability (meaning you can't send more emails), and this is likely because none of the people will have consented to signing up for your email list
It doesn't constitute actual interest and engagement with your project, which can only be achieved through organic email list building

Building an email list

You can check our resources on building your email list:

Can I launch on Kickstarter and Indiegogo at the same time? How do I choose a crowdfunding platform?

There are successful projects on both platforms but creators typically don't run on both at the same time. After Kickstarter campaigns finish, some creators will open an Indiegogo InDemand campaign which is basically a pre-order store, but it's not at the same time as the live campaign.

The reason it's best to choose one platform is because

You're splitting the amount of backers / funding you're getting, making it less likely that either project funds, rather than driving everyone to the same project
Since both projects will have lower funding, fewer backers will see the projects through organic means
Your marketing won't be as effective because you have to split time between two projects and strategies
It's easier for backers to have one campaign to look at than two
A big reason backers back projects is because they want to be early and feel special. Having your campaign on both platforms takes away this "special" feeling and makes it feel more impersonal
It's a bigger investment on your end for lower results
Fulfillment will be a logistical nightmare because you'll have two separate platforms, two separate lists of backers (and within each will already be a lot of variation), different ways of fulfilling, etc.
Each platform has different rules, so you have to adjust to their needs

It's up to you to decide which is the best fit for you, you can read our blog post and do additional research online to see what others say.

Resources

Here are great ways to keep up to date with crowdfunding news, tips, and events.
Are you planning on launching a campaign? Sign up for our Community Newsletter, where we provide many resources, webinar content, and more in the meantime.
Watch our webinars on topics ranging from shipping and fulfillment to performance marketing secrets
Read our blog full of crowdfunding resources for every phase of the campaign
If you're a creator that needs help setting up your project, check out our help docs
If you're a backer, find your survey here