Optimize Your Google Grant

Google offers a unique program for non-profit organizations to advertise for free on Google.com’s keyword advertisements – Google Grants. From Google:

“Designed for 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations, Google Grants is a unique in-kind advertising program. It harnesses the power of our flagship advertising product, Google AdWords, to non-profits seeking to inform and engage their constituents online. Google Grants has awarded AdWords advertising to hundreds of non-profit groups whose missions range from animal welfare to literacy, from supporting homeless children to promoting HIV education. Google Grant recipients use their award of free AdWords advertising on Google.com to raise awareness and increase traffic. “

Google was recently shown to have more than 70% search engine market share and is routinely touted as marketer’s #1 performing advertising placement. The upside is the program is free, the downside is that there are some limitations and hurdles to getting it to work properly. Whether you have a Google Grant or want a Google Grant, here are three things to look out for with your Google Grant program:

Application: Google reviews applications each quarter and you will find out within 6-months if your application is approved. The first step is to create a well-crafted proposal that clearly outlines to Google how you will use the Google Grant and that you are an Adwords expert. To increase your likelihood of approval, key in on the specifics such as campaign objective, target audience, sample advertisements and a keyword list. Make sure to spend time reviewing the Adwords best practices documentation that Google provides so that you can submit your best application the first time.

Getting Live: Once approved, you need to design a campaign that will compete in Google’s open and competitive marketplace where your ads will compete against other Google Grant recipients and paid advertisers. Google utilizes the Quality Score to evaluate your campaign’s advertisements and keywords against the competitive set before allowing the campaign to go live. Google Grants puts constraints on your campaign – maximum cost per click, maximum budget, Google.com only distribution – that make it harder for your campaign to achieve a Quality Score high enough to have Google approve the ads and post the campaign ‘live’. To get your campaign competitive and live requires extremely tight Adgroup definition with explicit tie-ins between the creative and the keywords – the more specific the better.

Utilizing Budget: Google grants you a set budget per month (often set to a daily budget) which allows you to purchase clicks up to that limit without incurring any actual cost. If you do not use your daily budget, the budget does not roll over to future months. It is imperative to maximize your campaign’s performance so that you can utilize 100% of your Google Grant. Given the constraints on cost per click and distribution that Google Grant recipients have, utilizing the maximum budget often becomes a major hurdle. For example, if you receive a $10,000 per month Google Grant and spend $150 per day, you would be leaving $65,250 per year on the table. And if for every dollar spent, you generate $5 in donations, the total loss could be >$325,000 which is a significant sum for any organization. Ensuring that you use every dollar of the Google Grant should be a key goal of the program which requires ongoing attention paid to optimization, budget and bid management.

Thrivepoint offers a service, Thrivepoint for Google Grants, which helps you in each of these three stages of the campaign – application, setup and program optimization. The program is designed specifically for non-profits looking to maximize the utilization of their Google Grants budget.

If you would like additional information on this topic or a free consultation on your marketing efforts, please download the service fact sheet or contact a Thrivepoint advisor.

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