What Are Google Grants?

For non-profit organizations that are seeking support, recruiting volunteers, and procuring donations, allocating money for an online advertising campaign isn’t always a realistic option; that is what makes Google Grants so impactful. If you are a non-profit organization, it’s in your best interests to consider this vastly underutilized and highly valuable resource.

The Google Grants program provides the opportunity for non-profits to create and manage Google Ads, free of charge. As part of a greater program called Google for Nonprofits, Google Grants allows Google to give back and support qualified non-profit organizations by providing them with a monthly grant of $10,000 that can be used to help non-profits draw awareness and support through digital advertising.

When Should You Use Google Grants?

If you are interested in seeing if your non-profit qualifies for Google Grants, we encourage you to visit their site to view their eligibility requirements. If you do qualify for Google Grants, it’s important to understand what you need to do to maintain your eligibility. Google keeps close tabs on how their money is being used and will terminate a grant if it is not being used to run a healthy ad campaign.

At the start of 2018, Google’s policy was updated to reflect a new set of strict standards. The changes are as follows.

What Are Google Grants’ New Standards?

Geo-Targeting

With geo-targeting, you can show your ads only to people that are searching from specific geographic locations. Ad campaigns are believed to be most effective when used with geo-targeting, so Google Grants now require non-profits to make use of geo-targeting. This means that ads that are placed must be specific to the area the non-profit serves. For example, the American Red Cross could target the entire United States in a national campaign, while the Portland Food Bank should only target the greater Portland area. These can be based at the campaign or ad group level, as long as the geo-targeting area applies to every ad within.

Budget And Bid Cap

Google Grants provides up to a monthly budget of 10,000 (daily budget of $329) for new applicants. For Legacy GrantsPro Program participants, the budget limit is $40,000 per month (this program is closed for applications). The total budget is split between all active ad campaigns at the discretion of the account holder. An account holder can choose to split the money evenly, or a lot more to an account that they believe is more important to their goals.

Previously in the Google Grants program, the maximum bid for an ad was limited to $2.00 Cost-per-Click (CPC), but under the recent Google Grants updates, this max CPC no longer exists. Google has changed the $2.00 max CPC with the use of their internal bidding strategy called ‘Maximize Conversions’.

This change makes it easier for non-profits to spend their budgets. For non-profits that are unaware of the Google Grants updates, or don’t understand how to adjust bidding strategies, it will make it difficult for them to compete with non-profits that have well-run campaigns in their space.

Ad Groups

Based on the new rules, you must have a minimum of two ad groups and two text ads active at all times. These ads must include at least two sitelink extensions (links that direct traffic to a specific page of your website). For more information on the structure and elements of Google Ads, you can read our previous blog, PPC for Beginners pt. 2.

Click Through Rate Minimum

Google now requires you to maintain (on average) a 5% minimum Click Through Rate (CTR) on your ads. Your average CTR is measured based on the CTR of all keywords combined that are being used in your account. Taking into consideration normal fluctuations, this can be a challenge, so it’s important to do careful research on your target audience, bid on the best keywords for your business (and pay attention to whether they’re helping or hurting your CTR average over time), write targeted and compelling ad copy, make use of negative keywords, and integrate device targeting if applicable. If your CTR drops below a 5% average for 2 months straight, Google will cancel your account, and you will have to reapply and start from scratch (if you are able to get your account reinstated at all) which is inconvenient and tedious.

Keywords

Google has set limitations on the keywords that non-profits can bid for and will flag any account that uses broad, unrelated, or single word non-branded keywords. Like any other account, Google will not allow you to bid on discriminatory or violent words. When setting keywords, as you would in a regular Google AdWords account, make sure you limit them to words that are branded or indisputably relevant to your core purpose. It’s also important to use these relevant keywords throughout your website copy and in any of your associated content. This will stream relevant traffic to your site, maximize ad dollars, and keep you in good standing with Google.

Our Conclusion

With time, energy, and research, the Google Grants program can provide vast exposure opportunities for non-profits. Today, Google Grants provides support to over 35,000 non-profit organizations. Google wants their charitable dollars to be used wisely, so it’s no surprise that they hold their non-profit beneficiaries to a high standard. It is in the best interests of non-profits to take Google Grants seriously and to spend time learning how to make the most of their grant.

We suggest that, if you don’t already have an expert on staff to help you set up a successful Google Grants account, you invest in one. When campaigns are designed properly, they’re well worth the investment. If you are one of these non-profits and you want more information about how you can comply with Google’s new rules to run a successful ad campaign, contact us at Fujisan Marketing, we’d love to help you make the most of your Google Ad dollars, and set you up for success with the help of Google Grants.