We’ve had calls from a lot of nonprofits recently telling us that they’re really struggling to spend the full $10,000, Ad Grant.
Nothing beats getting $10,000 of free traffic to your website each and every month (equivalent to 5,000 visits at $2 per click). And if you can get clicks for less than $2, you stand to get in front of many more eyeballs.
However… And this is a big HOWEVER. Traffic isn’t everything…
It gets better.
The main reason why Google introduced a list of new policies for Ad Grants customers back in December 2017 was to stop non-profit organizations from focusing on meaningless spending. And transition NPOs into thinking about meaningful and social change-driven results.
Let’s get this straight.
What’s better, 5,000 visitors to your website who do nothing or 200 people who come to your website and sign-up for your newsletter, donation forms, and contact details for a follow-up?
To drive measurable and meaningful social change, we recommend you measure outcomes (mentioned below) using tools, such as Google Analytics and Google Ads:
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Donations
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Newsletter sign-ups
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Petition signatures
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Lead generation “squeeze pages”
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Document downloads
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Video views (from initial play to % completed)
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Page scroll depth
If you do all we’ve just mentioned, your organization will unlock “Maximize Conversion Bidding” which allows you to push above the $2 bid cap imposed by the Google Ads Grant.
Drive Measurable Social Change with Google Ads Grant
By starting with goals you can get things up and running in the most efficient way possible.
Then it’s time to make sure you’re maximizing your outcomes!
To do this, before you even consider expanding your keyword research, ensure you’re getting a good share of impressions on the search terms that are already resulting in conversions.
In recent times, we’ve seen Google Grant Accounts recently that are getting less than 10% impression share for some of their most important search terms. In fact, the situation applies to branded search terms, such as names of non-profits.
Let’s take a look at a key metric…..Impression share.
Impression share is calculated by taking the total number of searches that your ad was eligible to display versus the number of searches actually displayed.
For instance, imagine you have an ad targeting the following search term “build wells in Kenya.” Let’s assume that in one month there were 100 searches for the aforementioned keyword.
But, your ad only displayed for 10 of these searches. Your impression share would be 10%.
Not all conversions are made equal
When setting up your conversions ensure you prioritize the goals that are important to your organization. These goals are broadly categorized into 2 key types, namely:
- Macro-conversions – the big ones! This includes anything where you end up collecting supporter information (name, email, phone) and usually ranges from donations to petition signatures and newsletter sign-ups.
- Micro-conversions – the small (but still important) ones! These usually include metrics around important actions that don’t directly result in you capturing your supporters’ details, for example, document downloads, video views, page scroll depth, and so on.
You can usually use one or a combination of these measures to determine visitor engagement and improve targeting/bids.
Who manages your Google Ads Grant Account?
Managing productive Google Ads Grant accounts in a manner that’s aligned with Google’s principles is crucial. It could spell the difference between achieving your strategic goals and having your account suspended for violation of rules.
Try Africads Agency if you want your Google Ads Grant account to be professionally run for guaranteed results. We have a cumulative experience of almost 15 years of managing accounts for non-profit organizations (churches, foundations, and NGOs).
Among our clients at the moment include:
Summary
In short, ensure you’re maximizing your usage of the Google Ad Grant in terms of the available monthly budget, by focusing more on the strategic goals of your non-profit organization.
Check out our blog for more resources and tips.
