How to get more out of your Google Adwords Grant

Google’s Adwords Grant program is an incredible benefit available to charities and not-for-profit organisations. It can be a powerful way to find donors, raise awareness, recruit volunteers, increase sign-ups and more. And the best bit? It’s absolutely free. 

Here are our top five tips for utilising this fantastic resource.

1. Blow that budget

There’s a time and a place for being thrifty, but seeing as the Google Grant offers a significant daily advertising budget, this isn’t it. It’s important to remember that any unused budget does not roll over to the next day, so it's essential to optimise your daily spend. After all, reaching the daily limit each day will maximise your reach and impact. Your spending spree could involve creating more diverse ad sets, experimenting with different campaign types or expanding your targeting to new audiences. 

2. Conversions over clicks

Click-throughs measure traffic, whereas conversions measure value. While achieving a high click-through rate is important (and Google demands 5% or more for Google Grant ads), it's conversions that truly measure the success of your campaign. Conversions can include monetary actions such as making a donation or buying a ticket, and non-monetary actions such as subscribing to a newsletter or signing up to become a volunteer. 

Shifting focus from clicks to conversions means aligning your Google Ads strategy with specific actions you want your users to take. Crucially, Google only allows you to exceed the standard $2 per click budget limit for Grant ads if you have conversion tracking in place.

3. Bow out of the competition

Trying to compete with big companies with even bigger budgets might make you think of David vs Goliath, and you’d be right. It's important to find a balance where your ads remain visible without directly competing with for-profit companies who are already enjoying priority positioning. One way to do this is by targeting keywords which aren’t regularly used by commercial advertisers. Niche campaign topics and campaigns about volunteering or donating are unlikely to face heavy competition.

4. Maximised optimisation

Optimising your ads means more than just tweaking the text. Google Ads offers a range of features at your disposal - such as sitelinks, images and the use of multiple headlines. Sitelinks take users to specific pages on your site, providing a direct pathway to important content or calls to action. Adding images makes your ads more visually appealing and engaging. Utilising the maximum number of headlines available allows you to present varied and compelling messages. These enhancements can significantly increase your ad’s visibility and effectiveness.

5. Broaden your horizons

However counterintuitive it may feel to let loose with the spending, broad term keywords are a great way to maximise this. It doesn’t really matter if you get clicks from people who don’t convert, because at the very least this builds awareness of your organisation. Once you have reached your full budget potential, there will be time to refine your campaigns and cut out some of the non-converting.

Your Google Grant has the potential to be a powerful asset for your charity and can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your campaigns. These strategies do require time to implement, but they will increase your presence for your charity on Google over time and ultimately drive more support and awareness for your cause.

If you’re struggling to find the time, or don’t have the in-house expertise to manage your Google Grant campaign, get in touch with us today on 0118 4050 203 / info@cyberlogical.co.uk .