Paid online advertising comes in many different forms; boosting a social media post, advertising on social media, and advertising on search engines (like Google, Bing and Yahoo), to name a few. But what if I told you that it might be possible for your nonprofit organization to get access to paid advertising… without having to spend a single dollar of your marketing budget.
You read that correctly, there is a group of nonprofit organizations that have access to paid advertising without spending any of their organization’s money… and that advertising is Google Ad Grants, the nonprofit side of Google Ads (formerly Google Ad Words).
What is Google Ad Grants?
Ad Grants is pay-per-click (PPC) advertising service on the Google network. It allows for your organization to increase its visibility by showing up higher on search results associated with the keywords of your choice. Although Ad Grants is an advertising service, like Google Ads, it does not have all the features available to the paying customer… and unfortunately, not all nonprofits have access to this free service from Google. Let’s look at some of the things about the service.
How It Work
Google provides qualified nonprofits with access to at least $10,000 in advertising each month on their network. What exactly does that mean? Google has partnerships with other search engine organizations. Unlike with the paid side of Google Ads, Ad Grants advertisements only have access to Google’s network and not the network of the partners. Although that can seem a little discouraging, make sure to keep in mind that Google on its own processes over 3.5 billion searches a day… which means you still have access to a lot people who might be looking for an organization just like yours.
In addition to having your advertisements stay on the Google network, it is only text-based advertising. Wait, aren’t all advertisements text-based? Actually, no. The Google Ads can be seen different places on a search page (maps, videos, images) and even on the advertising you find on your free mobile apps. Even with the limitation on the type of advertisement, it is still a very effective way to get seen on Google’s search network.
Eligibility
The amount of advertising being offered to nonprofits sounds great, but how do I qualify for this offer? If this service sounds like something your organization wants to get involved with there are a few things that Google wants you to do before you can get started with all this free advertising on their network. When you apply, you need to have a live website and prove your nonprofit status. Giving them with your organization’s EIN is a valid way to prove your nonprofit status. They also want to make sure you “acknowledge and agree to Google’s required certifications regarding nondiscrimination and donation receipt and use.” All of that is Google’s way to say they want to make sure your organization doesn’t discriminate when it comes to who can receive your services or the hiring of staff, and they don’t want you to use donations to negatively impact Google.
All of these requirements seem pretty easy to abide by. Does that mean any nonprofit can have access to this program? Unfortunately, no. Google has a list of organizations that are not allowed to have an account. Those organizations include governmental entities and organizations, hospitals and medical groups, school, academic institutions and universities, but philanthropic arms of educational institutions are allowed. If you aren’t one of the above groups, you will typically get approved within 2 weeks (the time to process depends on how busy they are) of submitting your application online.
Tracking
Having access to this free advertising on Google’s network is great, but how do you know if it’s really helping to bring the right people (donors/volunteers) to your organization’s website? Google has made it very easy to connect your Ad Grants account to your Google Analytics account. Once they have been connected, Google Analytics can quickly compare the website visitors who came from your Ad Grant advertising versus organic and/or social media posts. In addition to comparing the effectiveness of your different marketing efforts, you can analyze which campaigns, keywords, extra advertisement links and search queries helped your organization achieve its website goals. Each one has the option to see the number of clicks, bounce rate (people that do not engage with the website before leaving), how long they stay on your website, and more. The data is very similar to what you would expect on the rest of Google Analytics only with the focus on your Ad Grants advertising.
Conclusion
Google’s Ad Grants program is a great way to help nonprofit organizations be able to increase mission awareness and help boost donations and volunteer efforts. For the organization’s that qualify for the advertising assistance, the program is worth the time and effort to setup and maintain. If your organization does participate in the program, it is best to connect your advertising account to your analytics so you can keep track of your efforts.
