What is Google Ad Grants?

With Google Ad Grants, you can recruit volunteers, attract donations, promote fundraising events or deliver your charity services.    

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Ad Grants is free advertising money for charities. It uses Google Ads, a form of online advertising which millions of commercial businesses pay to use but as a non-profit you are eligible for a $10,000 grant per a month for free. Your adverts will appear in Google search results.

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Google Ads works on a system of “bidding” for keywords that people use in their Google searches. With a Google Ad Grant you could get around 300 clicks (visitors) to your website every day.

 

Why should you use Google Grants?

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1. It's a $10,000 per month free advertising budget

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It's $10,000 every month, just for your charity. A small business would bite Google's hand clean off for the same grant, yet many charities put it off. A reminder, it's $10,000 EVERY MONTH until Google stop the program. Google Ad Grants has been around for over 15 years. That means a charity without a Google Ad Grant has already missed out on over $1.7m. The right moment to start really is now. 

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2. Attract 200-300 visitors per day to your website

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For many charities, this could be the largest source of traffic. Unless you're a prolific blogger, industry thought leader or source of interesting news, pulling in 200-300 people per day is a challenge for small charity but with a Google Ad Grant, it's totally possible.  

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3. Generate donations

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The holy grail, but let's be clear, people do not search Google for "charity to make a donation to". When a person likes your charity and trusts your charity, then they may donate. A Google Ad Grant is the first step in the journey of acquiring lots of lovely new donations. With a well thought out digital strategy, using a Google Ad Grant could start to pay off. 

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4. Recruit volunteers

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Advertise your own opportunities with Google Grants to give yourself the best chance of finding your ideal candidate. 

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5. Help deliver your services and mission

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87% of the UK population uses Google to search and it's just as high in many other parts of the world. Be seen by those people, in the locations you choose, at the very moment that they’re searching on Google for the services you offer.  

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6. Develop new digital insights

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Connecting Google Ads to Google Analytics can produce insightful data. Start learning about the visitors to your website and how to keep them coming back. Discover how visitors find you, what they are looking for and develop a richer insight into how to improve your website and create a better customer experience.  

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7. Recruit fundraisers

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Have you got charity places for fundraising events like a marathon in London? How about promoting it to people seeking a runners place. Maybe you're attending a local festival, why not promote that you will have a stall there and that people should come say hello. Again think outside the box on this one, the possibilities are endless.  

   

8. Control your key message

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In regular (organic) search results, Google determines the search result appearance using your meta data. Google Ads is more flexible, you can write the adverts yourself and they often appear above organic search results, so are highly visible.  

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9. Protect your brand

 

Showing adverts when someone searches for you charity’s name, may sound like a stupid idea because they would come to your website anyway right? Maybe not... to illustrate the point, when users searched "AIESEC" the top search result was an advert for a charity called Abroader View, so imagine how many potential AIESEC customers were lost to Abroader View by clicking their advert first.     

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10. Aim for a positive ROI 

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Whether you manage a Google Ad Grant in house or outsource it to a Google Ad Grant certified professional, your return on investment will be positive if your objectives are carefully aligned. Start by asking yourself the question; if successfully marketed, what would give us the best return on investment? The answer could be a steady supply of willing volunteers or increased newsletter sign-ups that eventually donate to your Christmas fundraising appeal. 

 

In summary:

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• Reach the right people at the right time with your charity marketing messages. 

• Getting set up with Google Ad Grants is really quick.  

• Attract new website visitors, grow online donations and attract people to your charity events.