Did you know that your nonprofit may qualify for a Google Ad Grant? This search campaign displays your message to individuals seeking nonprofits similar to yours and, if eligible, it could qualify for up to $10,000 per month of search ads featured on Google.com.
If you don’t want to see your Google Ad grant budget go to waste, follow these pro tips from our nonprofit digital campaign development experts:
1. Visit the Google Ad Grants Community Forum and Ad Grants Help Center. There you will see strategies for establishing the program and best practices.
2. Tackle keyword selection. You can start by finding your “seed keywords.” Our team has a handy tutorial on how to find those here. It’s critical to select specific keywords that are relevant to what people are searching for. Use the Keyword Planner to select keywords and group them into themed ad groups. Separate ad groups into campaigns to allocate your budget effectively. Don’t forget you can select negative keywords. Our troupe recommends using negative keywords liberally and on an ongoing basis, to ensure your ads direct the right users to your organization to meet your donation goals.
3. Create effective ads. Google has a variety of policies to adhere to. To begin with, it is essential to familiarize yourself with all of them, including advertising policies, trademark policies, punctuation policies, and character limit regulations, etc. You can find examples of search ad text here. Be sure you include a strong call to action as well. Use words like “now” or “today” to create urgency and don’t forget to include “click here.”
4. Ad extensions are your friend. Use these tools to stand out and add useful links below the ad. Learn about various ad extensions and how to use them. Our team often leverages image extensions and lead form extensions when working with nonprofit partners.
5. Don’t sweat the 5% Click-Through Rate rule. We often hear nonprofits have given up their Google Ad Grant dollars because they couldn’t keep up with the required CTR. Just set up automated rules within your grant account to alert you when the CTR drops. You can then hop in the dashboard and pause keywords that are underperforming and update ad copy that’s dragging down your averages.
Lastly don’t forget to measure your KPI’s and leverage this extra exposure in your sponsorship agreements. Your increased website traffic and donations don’t have to be a well-kept board secret, see the video above for ideas on how to leverage the Google Ad Grants traffic! If you have any questions about this process or get stuck tackling your digital media strategy for nonprofit and fundraising campaign you can reach out to our troupe in the form below.