If you’re reading this, you’re probably already aware that Google offers nonprofit organizations up to $10,000 per month in search advertising through its Ad Grants program. This is a tremendous benefit when building a multichannel marketing plan with tight budgets and margins, but to truly get the most value out of Google Ad Grants, you need to execute the proper strategy.
While it’s difficult to find fault with free money (yay!), Google Ad Grants does have its limitations. In order to build a strong and effective marketing strategy, you should also consider paid search efforts in your advertising budget equation. The key to an effective digital marketing strategy is to find the right balance between the two.
Read on to learn how to utilize the strengths of each to build a full, well-rounded nonprofit marketing strategy.
Not to burst your bubble, but Google Grants have a few drawbacks that you need to understand as you implement your marketing plan:
With these limitations in mind, let’s begin fine-tuning your Ad Grants strategy. If you’ve run into any of these problems with Google Ad Grants, here are a few easy ways to utilize your budget to its fullest advantage:
Simply put, don’t just “set it and forget it.” For example, when Hurricane Harvey hit Texas in 2017, we worked with the Houston Food Bank to rapidly optimize their Ad Grants account to capture the increased search interest surrounding the disaster relief efforts. As a result, the Houston Food Bank received 12 times the donations, allowing them to support their community during a time of need.
Once your Ad Grant strategy is set in place, paid search can step in and provide the missing pieces to your strategic marketing puzzle.
You may have certain search terms that are vital to your fundraising efforts, but you simply can’t seem to gain any traction on them through Google Ad Grants. This is where Google can help. Investing some of your budget toward paid search efforts can help fill in the gap for these crucial keywords that your Ad Grants campaign misses.
Also, some nonprofit marketers may not realize that paid search efforts extend beyond Google – don’t forget about Bing! You might think, “Do people really even use Bing?” The answer is yes – a lot more than you may realize. There are several audiences who find Bing as their go-to search engine over Google.
Bing offers some surprisingly effective benefits as a paid search source – not as a replacement for, but in addition to using Ad Grants and Google . Here are some ways Bing’s Microsoft Advertising can help enhance your approach:
Free money from Google is a terrific starting point for your digital advertising plan, but don’t stop there. By utilizing both Google Ad Grants and paid search on separate platforms, you can build a well-rounded and balanced strategy.
With more of a focus on quality keywords and testing, your Ad Grants account can reach a wide portion of your target audience, while your Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising and Facebook Business accounts reach the remaining audience. Combining the two approaches and focusing them in your digital fundraising strategy can help spread your message to a vast network of potential donors.