From drafting email newsletters to curating social media posts and promoting your website, marketing requires much of your nonprofit’s manpower. Resources like the Google Ad Grant offer additional ways to boost your nonprofit’s online presence, but each marketing tool you add to your strategy requires time and energy.
Professional grant management allows your nonprofit to unlock the power of the Google Ad Grant while saving your team’s time for other marketing endeavors. But outsourcing does more than save time—there are numerous reasons your nonprofit should invest in professional Google Ad Grants management, including:
Delegation is critical to any leadership role, but especially for nonprofits that are tasked with making a big impact using limited resources. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at how you can make the most of Google’s Ad Grant from the very beginning of the process.
1. Timely Setup
Google Ad Grant agencies do much more than manage the grant. These experts can help your nonprofit from the very beginning of the process, starting with acquiring the grant.
According to Getting Attention’s Google Grant application guide, the application process is meant to prove you’re a trustworthy nonprofit with valuable content to promote to internet users. This thorough vetting results in a lengthy application process, which is why it can be helpful for an agency to handle:
- Checking eligibility
- Registering with TechSoup
- Creating a Google for Nonprofits account
- Preparing your website
- Completing the eligibility form
The application’s pre-qualifying steps can take weeks to complete, especially if you aren’t familiar with the requirements. Delegating the application to a professional can speed up the process and increase the likelihood you’ll be approved on your first try since an agency will have the experience to ensure nothing is left out.
2. Campaign Maintenance
Once you’re approved for the grant, the real work begins. You’ll need to maintain your website, create ads, and research what content prospective donors want to see. That’s where the expertise of a Google Ad Grant agency is vital.
Grant experts have the insight needed to create, maintain, and adjust campaigns as needed. You’ll likely have 3-5 campaigns going at once, and a professional’s insight can help you:
- Track campaigns: As a nonprofit leader, you have several other marketing channels to keep an eye on. Meanwhile, the professionals at a Google Ad Grant agency specialize in watching over your ad campaigns. This consistent tracking can ensure you’re doing everything possible to promote your cause on Google.
- Evaluate performance: A grant expert will keep an eye on your campaigns’ performance. This is especially beneficial for nonprofits with little understanding of search engine marketing or Google Ads since they likely won’t know what metrics to track or how to improve them.
- Adjust online content: For example, do you want users to read your nonprofit’s mission statement or purchase a donation eCard from your website? A grant manager can help you choose the right landing pages and optimize them to drive conversions.
Whether you need to share your nonprofit’s story or promote giving opportunities, you likely know the core messages you need to communicate to drive conversions for your cause. However, Google’s Ad Grant program introduces even more complexity when considering how potential donors use the internet and their behavior on your website. That’s why an expert’s supervision of your campaign performance is especially beneficial.
3. Expert Compliance
Effective campaign creation doesn’t just mean targeting keywords or landing pages. You’ll also need to monitor your compliance with Google’s rules to remain eligible for the program and make the most of the grant money. Some of these rules include:
- Account activity: You must log into your account at least once a month and update it every 90 days. This signals to Google that you’re still using the funding and need your ad credits renewed each month.
- Keyword relevance: You must target keywords that prospective donors are searching for your Google Ads to be shown. Google requires nonprofits to optimize their keywords for the best results, which also helps you create relevant content that ensures users don’t ignore your marketing efforts.
- A 5% click-through rate (CTR): Not only must you actively target optimized keywords, but Google requires that nonprofits maintain a 5% CTR starting after the first 90 days post-approval. This means you can’t just try for relevant keywords, but you also must successfully convince people to click on your ads and explore your website.
These guidelines benefit both nonprofits and their target audiences. Overall, they help nonprofits achieve meaningful marketing objectives and ensure that users can find useful information. A grant expert’s familiarity with these rules allows them to create effective nonprofit ads that will ultimately increase your chances of converting prospects into donors.
4. Clear Reporting
When it comes to narrowing down the right agency to help with your Google Ad Grants management, Double the Donation’s agency guide recommends looking for partners that offer services for the specific areas you need help with. So, let’s say you want complete transparency about your campaigns’ performance. In that case, find an agency that provides comprehensive reports to your team.
These reports may include:
- Data to help you understand each ad campaign’s performance.
- Insights to explain what the data means.
- Improvements based on the conclusions drawn from your data.
Whether you know the basics of Google Ad Grants or nothing about the program, you’ll likely have too much on your plate to also be in charge of analyzing and reporting on the performance of your ads. Entrusting this task with a professional can save you time and help you draw more meaningful conclusions from your reports.
Remember, there’s a huge learning curve to overcome when you start marketing on Google for the first time. A Google Ad Grants agency can guide you through this process and ensure everything goes smoothly. And, if something happens to compromise your eligibility for the program, these experts can also help you reactivate your account and quickly get back to creating ads that drive traffic to your website.
About the Author
Jessica King
Jessica helps nonprofits acquire and manage the Google Ad Grant to expand their impact. Prior to her work at Getting Attention, Jessica worked in nonprofit and higher education organizations focusing on communication and digital marketing, and most recently in search engine optimization in the mission-driven sector. Jessica holds a master’s degree in communication from Virginia Tech. In her free time, you can find her reading, building furniture, and hanging out with her cats, Benny and Olive.
