How Nonprofits Can Optimize Their Google Ads Account and Maximize Their $10,000 Google Ad Grant

At this stage, you have probably already applied for the Google Ad Grant, been accepted, and are interested in learning more about how to leverage your up to $10,000 per month grant. Whether you’ve applied for the Google Grant Ad or not, below are essential points to consider how Google Ads work and what you can do to maintain your eligibility for the Google Ad Grant.

Optimizing Your Google Ads Account

In order to get the best results from your Google Ads Account, there are a number of best practices that organizations should follow. For starters, figure out what you are looking for out of your online efforts and have campaigns set for each goal. Some goals in this scenario could be:

• Increasing your mailing list
• Recruiting volunteers and members
• Informing the public about community-wide events through public announcements
• Attract prospective donors

Recognizing your goals and the purpose of the ads is highly essential as it will result in more tailored searches. Additionally, make sure each campaign has at least several ad groups that are focused on relevant topics. From here, ensuring proper targeting of your ads through keywords, ad creation, and ad extensions is essential for getting the results you seek.

How it Works

Once you ensure proper targeting and create several ads for each ad group, Google’s algorithm will determine which one will have a larger clickthrough rate in response to a specific web search. The more ads you include in your campaign, the more choices you are providing Google to work with in terms of selecting the ones that better meet the needs of online users.

Responsive Search Ads

Another method to increase clickthrough rates is by including a Responsive Search Ad in each group. Responsive Search Ads are ads that encourage marketers and advertisers to write multiple headlines and descriptions for an ad, thereby allowing Google to mix and match the text in a way it determines will generate a higher clickthrough rate. Well-written ads that are engaging and include a call to action are the recipe for an ad campaign’s success. 

Determine Your Demographics

One crucial aspect in optimizing your Google Ads account is determining your demographics. Who is the ad catering to? Where do they live? These are important questions to sort out in order to ensure the ads are reaching the proper people. 

With Google Ads, organizations can specify which geographic areas they would like their ads to reach. Additionally, you can set the ads to specific days and times and also set them to respond to specific searches. Ads that are repeatedly shown for searches that are not relevant to your line of operations can only hinder the appearance of your ad. This is where selecting the right keywords for your campaigns is highly essential. 

Keywords and Ad Extensions

Keywords are any word or phrase that users may search for in order to find products, services, events, etc. The keywords used in your campaign will determine its success and clickthrough rate. 

If you are using too many popular keywords, your ad may come across trouble in appearing near the top of certain pages. This is more of a case when discussing ads created through Google Grants account as they typically appear below all ads from paid Google ads accounts. 

As a nonprofit, you will benefit more from including long-tail keywords and specific phrases consisting of three to five words. These keywords do not appear as often in searches but are still valuable to the efficiency of your campaign. 

Keywords coupled with proper use of Ad Extensions can take your campaign to the next level. Google Ad Extensions provide extra information to web users and can help increase the clickthrough rate of your ad. 

Below are examples of relevant ad extensions you should consider if relevant:

• Call extensions provide your organization’s contact number and allow people to call directly from the ad
• Message extensions encourage people to text your organization 
• Location extensions show your organization’s address 
• Sitelink extensions provide links to specific pages on your website. A best practice is to have 4 to 6 sitelinks in order to improve an ad’s clickthrough rate.
• Callout extensions showcase your organization’s pitch or description

Tracking Google Grant Results and Google Ad Results

After setting up your Google Ads account, make sure to constantly improve it based on the parameters in this article. To best determine the results of your account, look at the information offered in Google Ads and Google Analytics. Make sure your clicks from website traffic and your ads continue to improve over time. 

Set some conversion goals around actions you want to track. Some examples of conversion goals may be to track:

• Phone calls that were ad-driven
• Submissions from contact forms
• Donations

Tracking conversions is the most important metric your organization can focus on to ensure your Google Ads account and the campaigns are achieving the goals your organization set out to achieve. 

Effectively Using Your Google Ad Grant

In order to get the most out of your Google Ad Grant, set some time aside to test ad changes to ensure you are reaching your intended results.

Testing your changes can be done through A/B testing which allows you to compare two ads against each other to see which one leads to a higher conversion and click-through rate. You can also use A/B testing to determine if your website or landing page needs to be refined.

There is a lot you can benefit from concerning the Google Ad Grant of up to $10,000 per month. The organizations that see a higher success rate in their marketing efforts, use the full grant amount each month. 

9Marketing Application Management and Google Ad Grant Account Maintenance

Understanding the technicalities that come with a Google Ad Grant may be overwhelming to some. Given the amount of attention to detail that the application process and the account maintenance needs, seeking the help of a marketing expert would be highly beneficial.

9Marketing, is a certified Google Partner, that is experienced with the step-by-step process of overseeing your Google Ads account. They can help manage your Google Ad Grant application process and provide account maintenance after receiving the grant. 

Reach out to 9Marketing about costs for these services and let them take care of it so you can focus on the rest!

9Marketing now offers all GrantWatch annual memberplus subscribers,  an exclusive 10% discount for all for the preparation of their Google Ad Grant application service and for Google Ads management fees.