In the always changing world of digital advertising, countless opportunities often go unnoticed by businesses. In this blog post, I sit down with Paris Huckaba, 2TON’s Digital Marketing Lead, to dive into the realm of Google Ad Grants. With years of expertise, she sheds light on why nonprofits should actively harness this powerful tool to elevate their online presence.
1. Hi Paris! Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. What is your experience?
I have 6 years of experience working directly with nonprofits in various industries, helping to maximize their digital marketing efforts through social media, Google Ad Grants, programmatic display, and consulting.
2. What is the purpose of Google Ad Grants and why is it relevant for people?
The Google Ad Grant is an in-kind donation from Google that provides eligible nonprofit organizations with up to $10,000 of free Search Advertising every single month.
This is a huge advantage for nonprofits to take that will help spread their mission to users who may be actively researching the organization’s efforts, but don’t know where to find them.
Although the Ad Grant comes with a handful of policies to follow, our team of experts has creative ideas in mind that can help maximize the $10,000 grant to its fullest potential. Each nonprofit is unique when it comes to advertising through the Ad Grant, so success will vary depending on the industry and goals.
3. And in your experience, how often do you find that nonprofits aren’t leveraging Google Ad Grants?
It’s pretty common that nonprofits aren’t leveraging the Ad Grant, but it’s understandable. Nonprofits often wear many hats throughout their organizational roles, leaving them with very little time to learn and understand Google Ads. Add that to their daily mission of serving the community, and it's definitely a balancing act.
That’s why we’re always excited to help relieve that burden by helping nonprofits apply for the Google Ad Grant, set up their account based on their mission and goals, provide transparency and education throughout our partnership, as well as provide consulting for other areas of opportunity that the Ad Grant may not be able to help with.
4. What are some common misconceptions that nonprofits may have about utilizing Google Ad Grants?
Oftentimes the Google Ad Grant can get perceived as a standard Paid Search account and nonprofit organizations won’t be able to bid and compete against larger PPC (pay-per-click) businesses. This just isn’t true. The Google Ad Grant has to be treated as an opportunity for nonprofits to spread their mission as broadly as possible to start bringing in as much awareness to their organization as possible. From there, they can funnel their traffic through a multi-conversion funnel, such as registering for events, signing up for newsletters, watching or listening to their videos or podcasts, and the most important conversion of all, donating.
Some people also think that because you have the Google Ad Grant, you can’t leverage other online marketing options. You can! Depending on your goals, you can absolutely utilize social media ads, programmatic display ads, or a paid Google Ads account and you won’t have to worry about bidding against yourself. Plenty of nonprofits branch out to these options to help achieve and measure more KPIs beyond Search, such as interest targeting, obtaining foot traffic, expanding reach, and more.
5. Can you share success stories of nonprofits that have benefited from Google Ad Grants?
We were able to bring in tens of thousands of users to a local organization’s website through Search Ads that never used to see this level of website traffic prior, which has helped generate incredible awareness of their mission.
6. Are there any upcoming initiatives or developments within Google Ad Grants that nonprofits should be aware of?
It’s not specific to the Google Ad Grant, but recently the use of AI has grown, becoming more prominent within the digital advertising space. There are plenty of AI tools that nonprofits can take advantage of to help produce website content, search for online trends, develop copy and imagery for ads, and more. It’s incredibly important to keep up with the latest tech to help make your organization more efficient in ways you may not realize!
7. Last but not least, for nonprofits considering Google Ad Grants, what advice would you give them to ensure a successful and impactful digital marketing strategy?
Be open and willing to ideas, and be patient. Success doesn’t always happen overnight! With so many limitations in the Ad Grant, it’s important to be open to creative ideas on how to get users to find your organization online. Since we can only use the power of Search, it’s also important to know that being open to change will go far in the long run. You may find that changing the position of your content and how it gets presented will help contribute to your overall success.
This process also takes patience. Depending on your industry, it may take trial and error to understand how to get people to find you, especially if you have niche content. However, once you find the right strategy and flow, it shouldn’t take long to see progress!
Embrace the possibilities, empower your cause, and let Google Ad Grants kickstart your nonprofit's digital success. Ready to get started? Let's talk.
