Google Grants can give you up To $10,000 a month in free Adwords.
What is nearly every nonprofit’s dream? More money to support their cause, of course. But you can’t go knocking on doors forever and social media only goes so far. Whatever message your nonprofit is trying to send or whatever change your nonprofit is trying to make, running AdWords can help you reach a larger audience.
Since cost is one of the main deterrents for potential advertisers, you may not have considered running AdWords before. But if you like free money, you’re in luck — through Google Grants, your nonprofit may qualify to receive $10,000 in free ad spend every month.
Aside from the obvious (free advertising!), AdWords will help round out your efforts in a number of ways.
First, by expanding your reach. AdWords for nonprofits works in the same way it does for commercial businesses — by increasing visibility to prequalified search traffic. You can also reach out to people who interested in something that is related to what your nonprofit does by targeting different types of keywords.
It’s also great for education and branding — just spreading the word about why your services are needed. Even if people don’t contact you from your ad, by increasing your visibility to an expanded audience, you are letting the world know that the need is there. That’s a great place to start!
Finally, it helps with attribution. Through AdWords, you can clearly see which services generate the best response by taking a look at the metrics you’ll have built in to your campaign.
$10,000 per month is a lot of advertising dollars!
How To Do It
All you have to do is go to the Google for Nonprofits website and click Join the Program. You’ll go through an approval process and then the website will be your hub for continuing with AdWords.
Of course, there are some rules (Google loves rules). Read on.
Qualifications
- Your organization must hold current and valid charity status (501(c)(3), and updated as such in the online IRS database.
- You must acknowledge and agree to Google Grant’s required certifications regarding how to receive and use donations obtained from the grant.
- You must have a website that functions well and provides adequate detail to the user.
Rules For Use
- When you get a grant, you must manage your own campaigns or have a company manage it for you — Google will not manage campaigns.
- You also cannot use the grant to target keywords that cost more than $2.00 per click or use the Display Network to place ads on a website other than Google.com.
- If you don’t use your $10,000 each month, there is no rollover to the next month.
Ineligible Organizations
- Government entities and organizations
- Hospitals and medical groups
- Schools, childcare centers, academic institutions and universities (although philanthropic arms of education organizations are eligible)
Staying Eligible
- All the ads in your account must link to the one nonprofit URL (and the one nonprofit website) that was approved in your application process.
- If you aren’t being proactive in your management, Google may pause the campaign without notification.
- Ads must reflect the mission of nonprofit.
- Ads can’t direct users to other websites.
- You can only advertise for products or services where 100% of the proceeds are going to support your nonprofit program.
- Your ads cannot offer financial products, such as mortgages or credit cards. Also, your ads can’t ask for donations in the form of large goods such as cars, boats or property donations.
- Your website can’t display AdSense or other affiliate links.
Stay up-to-date and follow the rules because Google has the final say, and once you’re kicked out, you’re kicked out. No second chances!
Some Google Grants Success Stories
According to a Google case study, Kiwis for Kiwi™, an organization that promotes the protection of New Zealand’s national bird, was able to increase their fundraising campaign traffic by 105% in one month. They now get about 80% of their site traffic from AdWords. Travel to Impact, a group that focuses on sending students from South African Universities to foster leadership and education in other countries got 35,000 clicks in 8 months, as well as 1,200 new student registrations.
If You Would Like Someone Else to Run Your Ads
Yes, it’s free money – but it still needs to be managed effectively so the majority of it doesn’t get wasted. If you don’t have any experience managing an AdWords account I highly recommend consulting with a Google Partner to take care of it. I’ve seen nonprofits do it themselves and waste close to $7,000 of grant, and I’ve seen others spend $1,000 with a PPC agency and spend all $10,000 effectively.
If you want to really put that money to work, an agency will know how to get you the best qualified traffic and also keep you in line with Google’s rules. Of course, whatever you decide, we at Logical Position would be happy to consult with you about your options.
Good luck!
