How to Use Google Ad Grants to Boost Your Marketing and Fundraising Efforts

We’ve all heard of Google. In fact, we’d probably go as far as to say we all use it. 

Organisations of all sizes across all sectors are tapping into digital marketing to generate new leads and greater brand awareness. This includes charitable organisations too, perhaps more than ever before, thanks to the Google Ad Grants programme, which provides non-profits with free Google Ads.

What Is the Google Ads Grant Programme?

We aren’t going to major on it too much in this blog because, given the fact we’re a Google Partner agency, we’ve already written an introductory blog right here. But what we will say is that the initiative essentially involves you potentially receiving $10,000 in free Google advertising a month for your organisation.

Many charitable organisations are using this free marketing opportunity to increase brand awareness and attract more people, who are willing and actively looking to donate, recruit volunteers and share their stories far and wide. If you haven’t already done so, take a look at our first blog for insight on who can apply for the funding, how you go about doing it and some initial pointers on creating a Google Ads action plan.

How Do Google Ads Work?

Again, we aren’t going to take up too many paragraphs delving into this detail because the focus of this blog is to provide you with practical measures for successfully using Google Ads (plus you can always get in touch with our SEO team who are more than happy to answer any queries you may have).

Simply put, Google Ads is a marketing platform where you can present tailored digital adverts to searchers using websites across the Google network. This includes Google Search itself, YouTube and other websites that have display (or image-style) placements on their websites, like this:

When it comes to using Google Ads for charities, you must advertise on the Google Search network in order to be eligible for a grant. Once you’re all set up, you can create specific ads and keywords or key phrases to target people who are searching for related topics. Note: While there may be various different ad formats, not all of them are covered by Google Ad Grants, so make sure you do your research beforehand. If you’re unsure about anything, get in touch with us on the contact details below.

3 Top Tactics for Using Google Ad Grants to Generate Increased Donations and Awareness:

Tactic 1: Optimise your Google Ads

In doing so, this makes sure they’re relevant to your website copy and the keywords you are using. Google Ads have a quality score that determines if your ads are eligible to be displayed based on a user’s search.

Tip: Link your ads to related landing pages. If the landing page isn’t relevant, it will have a negative impact on your quality score.

Tactic 2: Choose the right keywords 

Selecting the right keywords is a fundamental part of getting started with Google Ads and making sure your activity performs. Use the right keywords and it’ll increase the chance of your ad or ads popping up in people’s search engine results. How do you find them? You can use the Google Ads keyword planner, as well as many other tools, such as Moz and Semrush, to name but a few.

Tip: Use phrases that are relevant to your organisation and include them within your ad copy.

Tactic 3: Organise your Google Ads campaigns 

The most successful processes are organised, and Google Ads activity is no exception. Divide your campaigns into different ad groups based on the desired goal. This will help you identify which campaigns, ad groups and individual ads are working and which ones aren’t. Having this level of insight means you can constantly optimise your Google Ads to improve their performance.

Tip: Experiment with using different ad text and calls to action for users to take and constantly monitor the results.

These tactics are literally just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to getting the best results from Google Ads. They also happen to be just one of several best practice measures that we’ve shared in our free guide, A Digital Glue guide on how to make the most of Google Ad Grants, which we’ve specifically written to help charities ace their Google Ads activity.

 

What Does Using Google Ads Look Like in Reality?

If implemented correctly, using many of the measures featured in our free guide, Google Ad campaigns can take your marketing efforts to a whole new level. It’s exactly what youth homeless charity, St Basils in Birmingham, has experienced since they’ve been using Google Ads.

Initially, when they came to us, they found the whole process of enrolling for their Google Ads Grant and managing it on an ongoing basis challenging. They wanted to use Google Ads to boost their online donations, events registrations and overall awareness of their work.

We developed a dedicated campaign strategy for them, which has really paid off and helped them overcome financial challenges brought about by Covid-19. In the space of just six months, their Google Ad campaigns generated 240 unique donations and drove 4,380 new users to their website. The income generated through donations and virtual event registrations has given St Basils a significant return on their investment with a 2-1 ROI.

Increased donations go hand-in-hand with increased awareness, which Google Ad campaigns can help you achieve. If you would like to apply for a Google Ads Grant, but aren’t sure where to start or have been given a grant and aren’t sure what to do next, we can help. Our team of SEO experts can also advise you on how to optimise your Google Ads performance if you’ve got some campaigns that are already up and running.

To find out more or share any queries you may have with us, give us a call on 0121 399 0065 or email us at hello@dg.projectupdates.co.uk

Alternatively, if you want to see more exclusive news and tips from Digital Glue, head to our insights page or join our mailing list.

 

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