Google Ad Grants provide nonprofits with up to $10,000 per month in free advertising credits as a philanthropic way to help nonprofits promote their missions. This is a wonderful opportunity to get free Google search ads, and using the grant along with paid Google or other digital advertising channels can offer a substantial boost to your overall advertising efforts.
As a Google partner, Trillion maintains credentials that help our clients leverage the power of Google Ads. We implement the campaign from setup to optimization, and provide key understanding of how to get the biggest benefit from these free advertising dollars.
Trillion has been the outsourced marketing team for many of our clients’ digital campaigns, and we encourage our nonprofit clients to apply for and use a Google Ad Grant–its potential to increase your visibility is huge! Here is an overview of how it works.
Wondering how to apply for a Google Grant? Read our NFP Guide to Google Ad Grants to get started.
Google Ad Grants: How to Begin
The grant applies to Google search ads and Performance Max Campaigns, each of which has certain guidelines.
With those guidelines in mind, set realistic marketing goals for what you would like your ads to achieve. Goals could include increasing website traffic, selling tickets, increasing donations, or recruiting volunteers.
Google Ad Grant policy dictates that you need to maintain a 5% click-through rate (CTR) on your ads each month, so the ads must be relevant and engaging to your audience. The ads will send users to your website, so make sure your site is optimized with a user-friendly design and clear calls to action that facilitate the actions you want users to take.
Choosing the Right Keywords
Google’s free Keyword Planner tool can help you choose keywords specific to your nonprofit’s mission or activities. There must be at least two words: Pet adoption near me or animal shelters near me, for example, are strong keywords that a local animal shelter could use.
Keywords can be put into related ad groups for better relevance and performance. For example, you could have an ad group labeled “adopting” for an animal shelter, focused on the following keywords:
- Adopt a pet
- Adopt a dog
- Adopt a cat
- Dog adoption near me
- Animal adoption near me
You can also add negative keywords. These words or phrases can be added to your campaign to prevent your ads from appearing in searches that aren’t relevant to your organization. For example, if you are looking for food donations, you might choose “gourmet” as a negative keyword so that people searching for gourmet food would not be served your ad.
Google Ad Grant Account Budget
With a daily budget of $329, maximizing that ad spend is key. Focus on ads that promote action, such as a donation or signing up for an event. Assign a higher budget to these types of campaigns and reserve smaller budgets for awareness campaigns that will likely have lower CTRs.
The metrics from search terms insights will show which ads are driving your conversions, so you can reallocate funds to the better-performing campaigns.
Using Conversion Tracking
Ad Grants account requirements stipulate that all accounts implement valid conversion tracking. This tracking will let you see which ads led to certain actions, like purchases, signups, or phone calls. You can set goals for conversions and assign them values, then track the actual merit of the ads for each conversion type, as opposed to merely the number of conversions.
Google Ad Grants: Best Practices
Google Ad Grants represent a terrific opportunity, but they do require time and some skill to use them successfully. Working with an outsourced marketing team experienced in digital advertising campaigns can ensure you get the full benefit of the free ads.
Strategically pairing the Google Grant ads with your other digital marketing efforts, such as paid social, email marketing, and programmatic advertising, can lead to increased website traffic and engagement, heightened awareness of your organization and its events, and increased donations or signups.
Successful Google Ad Grant Management
Trillion has successfully managed Google search ads and online advertising initiatives for numerous not-for-profit clients, and we’d love to help you succeed with yours. Contact us at 908-291-4703 or on our website for help with your online ad strategies. We look forward to helping you optimize your digital campaigns!
