A Complete Guide to Google’s Free Ads for Nonprofit Organizations

Whether it is investing in a new website, spending on social campaigns, events and other marketing collateral, the refrain is the same – especially for nonprofits who have a limited budget.

However, there is a tool that not many nonprofits are aware of that they can leverage on to grow their digital marketing efforts to drive ROI and receive extra advertising spend. This brings me to introduce Google Grants.

So what exactly is Google Grants?

Google Grant allows nonprofit organizations (organizations that are registered as 501(c)(3)) to qualify for up to $10,000 per month in ad spend which will be used in the Google AdWords platform to run paid search campaigns. Organizations are able to take advantage of this opportunity to target their audiences and spread awareness of their mission through custom search ads.

Considering there are over 3 million searches performed on Google every day, there’s certainly a great opportunity to capture donor traffic – Google says that implementing Google Grants has the potential of 10,000 to 40,000 new website visitors a month.

If you’re interested in taking advantage of Google Grants, here are a few things to keep in mind: (but first, check if you are eligible!)

• Create a campaign that aligns with your goals. You should have robust keyword lists, leverage brand terms, and include problem and solution-oriented keywords.

It is important to align your company’s SMART goals with every marketing campaign you create. By doing so, you will be able to develop a successful and data-driven campaign which can realistically achieve goals.

• Use all three match types when creating your keyword list – broad, phrase, and exact match.

Take the keyword “women’s hats” for example:

Broad match (in any order, at least one word needs to exist in search)

Women’s fedoras, hats for women, women’s clothing

Phrase match (in exact order)

Red women’s hats, women’s hats for weddings  (hats for women, women’s blue hats

Exact match

Women’s hats

• Drop visitors on the most relevant, targeted page on your website in relation to the ad. This will help with conversion rates.

Leading visitors to other pages on your website that they are uninterested in will only result in an increase in bounce rates. Avoid distracting visitors by dropping them to the optimized landing page directly to convert them into leads.

• Keep forms on those pages as short as possible to increase conversion rates.

A simple and clear form should be presented on your pages. A form that is easy to understand and easy to fill out without requesting for too much information makes it easy for prospects to get converted.

So, there you go! You can now get started and use Google Grants to fund your Google AdWords campaigns and drive more traffic through organic search today!