When running a nonprofit, keeping costs low when advertising is key. Google Ad Grants allow nonprofits to run up to $10,000 in Google Ads each month- for free. However, there are a few caveats, which we’ll discuss in this blog.
Who is Eligible for Google Ad Grants for Nonprofits?
While Google ultimately determines eligibility, there are some basic rules governing what type of nonprofit is eligible for this great free marketing opportunity. Whole groups of nonprofits simply aren’t eligible to apply for this type of free advertising, including:
- Schools
- Educational nonprofits
- Teaching hospitals
- Healthcare entities
- Entities in any medical field
If your nonprofit is eligible, and you are looking for a way to save money for your nonprofit’s advertising, you can apply online here. Once you apply and are approved, you’ll want to determine best practices for utilizing this generous advertising grant from Google.
Benefits of Applying for the Google Ad Grant
Often, the biggest challenges for nonprofits are fundraising and raising awareness within your community. This is where Google truly excels, and the $10,000 per month search advertising grants can go a long way towards improving the cash flow for your nonprofit. With each search of a topic of interest for your audience, the Grant offers the opportunity to boost your nonprofits placement in the search results with a text-based ad. This can result in more people seeing your website, learning about your services and products and enhancing the fundraising ability of your team. One of the key challenges with this grant is that nonprofits may struggle to adequately manage the complex Google Ad Grants process, navigating through the applications and approvals as well as handling the day-to-day operations that are required to stay within Google’s required parameters.
Staying Within the Google Grant Guidelines
With the Google Ad Grant, nonprofits must maintain certain requirements in order to keep their funds on a monthly basis. Google can audit their account and retract the funds if these rules aren’t followed. Requirements include:
- Cannot bid on a single word (Instead of “hunger”, would need to be focused around “World food banks” instead)
- Must maintain a click-through rate of 5% across all campaigns
- Your account must contain multiple campaigns and be well-organized and structured
- Your advertising must geographically match your programs (if you only offer programs in the US, advertising must be targeted to show within the US)
- Your campaigns must have a goal, such as making a donation or signing up for a newsletter that is being tracked and measured within Google Ads
Each of these requirements is not built to be difficult, but to encourage active management of your Google Ad Grant and to ensure that searchers are finding the information they need to be successful.
Professional Google Ad Grant Management
With Google Ad Grant management, nonprofits are able to work with an external organization to receive best-in-class management of their Google Ad Grants. This can help take the pressure off of internal teams who may be attempting to maintain this important free advertising opportunity while also completing daily activities.
With professional Google Ad Grant Management, you can be confident that your nonprofit is taking full advantage of this free advertising opportunity. You will be several steps closer to bringing in additional donations and raising needed awareness about the mission of your nonprofit, too. Contact the Ballantine team for a free initial consultation with our experts. We have been supporting nonprofits and for-profit organizations since 1966, offering a blend of print and digital marketing strategies that deliver results for our clients.
I'm the Director of Digital Services and Partner at Ballantine, a family-owned and operated direct mail & digital marketing company based in New Jersey. and started in 1966 by my great uncle!
