Google Ad Grants offers nonprofits up to $10,000 in ads per month. This virtually free advertising can help nonprofits acquire website visitors while furthering their organization’s impact. Google Ad Grants also has a simple application process. We’ve pulled together all the basics to help set up your Google Ad Grants account and get the most out of the program.
Long gone are the days when direct mail and door-to-door were sufficient to get the word out about an organization. The reality of nonprofit advertising today is far more complex. Nonprofits can’t bring in the funds needed to fuel their important work without it.
However, having an extra budget for advertising expenses is oftentimes out of reach for many nonprofits. This is where the Google Ad Grants program comes in. For many organizations, Google Ad Grants for nonprofits serve as a strong foundation for advertising. The virtually free advertising that the program offers can help your nonprofit acquire website users while furthering your organization’s impact. Unlike most grants, Google Ad Grants also has a very simple application process.
Every nonprofit has unique goals. Whether you are trying to build awareness, recruit volunteers, attract new donors, or increase donations, Google Ad Grants can help you achieve them.
We’ve put all the basics together here in our guide to Google Ad Grant management for nonprofits. We hope it will help you set up your Google Ad Grants account and get the most out of all that the program has to offer.
Check out this webinar on Google Ad Grants with Nonprofit Megaphone. It’s a must-watch for all Nonprofits who want to capitalize on Google Ad Grants!
Google Ad Grants offer eligible nonprofits $10,000 each month (daily limit of $329 USD) to spend on Google search ads. The goal of these ads is to increase the number of targeted visitors to your website every year. Let’s see how Google defines its Ad Grants program:
“Google Ad Grants provides up to $10,000 USD per month of free Google Ads advertising on Google search result pages to eligible nonprofit organizations. The program is designed to help people connect with causes to make a greater impact on the world. The program is open to organizations who join Google for Nonprofits, meet Ad Grants’ eligibility and program policies, and are approved through the Ad Grants pre-qualification process.”
As mentioned in Google’s definition, the first and foremost requirement for getting the grant is to join Google for Nonprofits.
Your eligibility for Google for Nonprofits is a must to ensure you get the Google Ad Grants. With Google for Nonprofits, nonprofits get to leverage Google’s technology to make a difference in the world. You get access to the following resources with Google for Nonprofits:
But as a nonprofit, you must be eligible for Google for Nonprofits. Here’s how –
To be eligible for Google Ad Grants, an organization must:
The following organizations are not eligible for Google Ad Grants:
You can apply for Google Ad Grants on the respective Google website page by logging in with your nonprofit account. Here are the specific steps you need to follow –
Learn more about launching your first ad campaign in this video series.
In order for your activation to get approved, your website will need the following features:
You can find more information about these requirements here.
Here’s how to make sure your grant maintains compliance and you get the most out of your advertising credit.
It’s important to get the keywords right both in your account and for your ads. Don’t waste your time on broad keywords like “donation,” “nonprofits,” or “San Francisco.” If you do, it’s likely that your ad won’t be shown since there are already huge organizations and other companies that are bidding on that same keyword.
Also, shift the focus from quantity to quality. Use long-tail keywords in your Google Ad Grants strategy. The more specific you get, the more likely your ad will be seen.
Find your keywords by brainstorming a list of topics that are important to your organization. These can be anything: problems that your nonprofit is tackling, communities that you serve, issues you stand for, or services that you offer. Conduct data-driven keyword research. Take one of your keywords and enter it into Google’s Keyword Planner.
From there, create a list of keywords that are relevant to each topic (eventually, you’ll commit to focusing on one keyword per topic). Your keyword research should involve SEO tools, conversations with customers, and data from your web analytics software.
Focusing on these longer, more nuanced keywords can help you rise to the top of a specific market.
Simply put, negative keywords are the keywords for which you don’t want your nonprofit ad to be displayed. They are the exact opposite of keywords. Using them allows you to eliminate the searches from people who aren’t looking for your organization or your programs and services.
Find related search terms and add them to the “negative keyword” list. Go to “search terms” and look for searches that are driving traffic to your site, but aren’t actually related to your content.
When the relevance of your ads is improved, your audience will find them more interesting. This means that there will be fewer wasted impressions on your ads. That translates into higher conversion rates and click-through (CTR) rates. When your CTR increases, your Quality Score for your account will also improve.
Organize your keywords into general categories. A helpful rule to follow is that all of the ad groups within a campaign should lead to the same landing page. This will create a more relevant customer journey for your audience.
An ad group in Google Ads contains one or more ads that all share a set of keywords. This is in between a campaign and an individual ad. At the ad group level, you can set up:
Each ad group carries its own bid, which is the highest amount you’re willing to pay to get the ads within that ad group served. For search network campaigns, this number would be your maximum cost-per-click or Maximum CPC. Note that the overall budget, bidding strategy, geotargeting, and start and end dates are all set at the campaign level, not the ad group level.
The messaging and objective of your landing page must match the keyword and ad copy. In other words: it must accurately reflect what is promised in your ad. Ensure your landing pages are fast, functional, and relevant. Constantly test your ad copy to improve your expected click-through rates.
Also, don’t drive all your traffic to your home page. To get the highest Quality Score possible from Google Ads, make sure the landing page assigned to your keyword is pulled from the most relevant option on your site. If you don’t have them, build them. Your headline is what your audience will see first. Optimize this by including your target keyword, and specific numbers where possible.
Building out your website landing pages for specific keywords benefits SEO as well. Search engines like seeing new, content-rich pages added to your site.
You should be sending people to the best pages on your site, based on what your ads promise them. Do you want people to go to a donation page, an event page, a volunteer page, or a newsletter sign-up page? Deliver on your promise and send visitors to specific pages based on the keywords used.
On your landing page:
Regardless of how great your ad is, it probably won’t perform as well if it doesn’t appear in the right locations.
Make use of geo-targeting. Your ads should only show to searchers in locations that are relevant to you.
Google Ads location targeting allows your ads to appear in the geographic locations that make the most sense for your organization.
For example, if you work with families in Atlanta there’s no sense in serving ads to searchers in New York. If you’re a large international nonprofit, you might benefit from targeting entire countries. Consider using more precise targeting if your nonprofit doesn’t run programs in all regions or cities, or if you’d like to focus your advertising efforts on certain areas within a country.
Target radius around a location if you’re locally based and your beneficiaries and supporters’ base is in a radius around your location.
Google Ads pushes more toward higher conversion rates – focusing on driving high-quality traffic to your website, rather than just driving a high quantity. Whatever your CTA (Call to Action) is – donation, newsletter sign-up, volunteer application – Google wants you to take advantage of more bidding strategies like Target CPA, Maximize Conversions, and Enhanced CPC to optimize for conversions.
Together with your team, pin down which calls to action are the most effective at driving a visitor to act.
Pro tip: Don’t forget to set up conversion tracking. By utilizing conversion tracking in Google Ads, you’ll be able to see and measure the visitor’s journey from the moment they click on your ad to when they complete an action on-site, such as signing up for your newsletter or donating.
Great campaigns are built on clear data, so it’s important to know how to analyze the results of your advertising efforts effectively. Link your Google Ads account to Google Analytics so you can analyze which campaigns and keywords are performing the best.
Pause or remove any irrelevant keywords that are overspending. Replace paused keywords with new ones. Pause, decrease bids for, or remove any keywords that have lots of cost or clicks, but no conversions. In Google Ads, look at Search Terms and add relevant or high-performers (high CTR or conversions) as keywords.
Since Grant requirements mean you must have at least two ads per ad group, this allows you to test ad copy. Over time, you can determine which ad has the best CTR. You can then choose to replace the lesser-performing ad.
Constantly measure and evaluate the success of your campaigns and ads and change them as needed. Furthermore, conduct an account audit every six months to ensure that it is still structurally sound and performing.
Most nonprofits simply can’t compete in the crowded marketplaces of social media and digital advertising. Google Ad Grants are helping thousands of organizations reclaim their spot in the front of users’ minds. The grants have been helping nonprofits get an equal playing field in the online dialogue for over a decade.
Google Ad Grants are the most effective way to serve targeted ads to your organization’s most important audiences, increase your organization’s reach by getting new visitors to sign up for your emails, increase donations and product sales, and raise awareness about your nonprofit by sending new visitors to your website each month.
If you run into something you don’t understand, Google has free helpful resources that can help you get back on track.
At Donorbox, we strive to make your nonprofit experience as productive as possible, whether through our online fundraising solution, advanced fundraising features, premium solutions, donor management, or tips and resources in our Nonprofit Blog.
Ilma Ibrisevic is a content creator and nonprofit writer. She’s passionate about meaningful work, sustainability, and social movements. If she’s not working, she’s obsessing over coffee or cooking. You can connect with her on Linkedin.
Subscribe to our e-newsletter to receive the latest blogs, news, and more in your inbox.
Ilma Ibrisevic