This post was sponsored by Click Nonprofit

The Google Ad Grant is arguably one of the most valuable tools for nonprofits. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, you get access to $10K per month in free Google Ads credits—that’s $120K every year in advertising! These credits allow you to show ads for your website at the top of Google Search when people search for topics related to your organization or cause. 

While the Google Ad Grant is an incredible tool with lots of potential, the average nonprofit is only able to utilize $300 of this grant each month. That leaves $9,700 in lost advertising every month—and it doesn’t roll over! This is why it is so important to learn how to properly manage the Google Ad Grant.

These five Google Grant management tips will help you maximize the full grant and drive the right people to your website.

1. Start with Keyword Research

Keyword research should be the first step in managing your Google Grant. 

Keywords are the phrases that people enter into the Google Search box. You want to know what people are actually searching for on Google before you start creating ads. 

With keyword research tools, you can find out how many times a keyword is searched on Google each month and how competitive that keyword is (ie. how many businesses are showing ads for that keyword). 

There are plenty of great keyword research tools out there including Ubersuggest and Moz. You can even access a free keyword research tool within your Google Ad Grants account called Google Keyword Planner. 

We recommend starting with a few keywords that you believe are relevant to your cause. Next, use these tools to find related keywords that have a high monthly search volume and lower competition.

Once you come up with a list of keywords, target ads with these keywords and drive traffic to a relevant page on your website. You may find that you don’t have any relevant pages or content on your website for these keywords. 

That’s ok! This is where content creation comes into your Google Grant management strategy.

2. Create Search-Focused Content

Secondly, after you discover what people are searching for on Google, you should create valuable content tailored to those searches. 

For example, one organization that Click Nonprofit helps with Google Grant management provides fleece blankets to children in hospitals. They needed volunteers to make these fleece blankets at home. From our keyword research, we found that “how to make a fleece blanket” had 1,600 searches each month. We recommended that they create a blog post on How to Make a Fleece Blanket. 

This blog post alone has driven over 1,000 people to their website each month through the Google Ad Grant and organic traffic. Because they tailored content to their audience, they’ve attracted interested people to their website each month.

So you attract the right people to your website through keyword research and content creation. Then what?

3. Create Clear Call-to-Actions

Once you drive the right people to your website with the Google Grant, you need a clear call-to-action (CTA). 

A CTA is a button or link on your webpage that the audience interacts with. This next step should be moving someone closer to your ultimate goal, whether it be a donation, volunteering, etc. 

A great “next step” CTA would be collecting an email in exchange for a downloadable resource or making a small purchase. This way, you can continue to nurture the lead to your ultimate goal through email marketing. 

This CTA should be relevant to the page it is on. The nonprofit with the article on How to Make a Fleece Blanket chose to create a CTA that drove people to purchase a Blanket Making Kit. This way, the people who see the CTA are already interested in making fleece blankets. This Blanket Making Kit supplies them to make their first fleece blanket and helps them bring comfort to a child in the hospital. Further, once this nonprofit sells the kit, they can then use email marketing to encourage this potential volunteer/donor to get involved on a deeper level.

4. Set Up Conversion Tracking

After creating valuable content with CTAs, you should set up conversion tracking within your Google Ad Grant account or Google Analytics. Anytime someone completes your CTA by giving an email or purchasing a product, you should track that action.

You can then focus your Google Grant management on these conversions. Optimize for maximizing these conversions through proper bid strategies, keyword optimization, and testing ad copy. Also, you can continue to tweak your website content to improve these conversions.

5. Regular Optimization and Management

Finally, after these tips have been put in place, consistency is key in Google Grant management. Additionally, you will need to make frequent optimizations to your Google Grant account and regularly track the results. 

Whether you choose to outsource your Google Grant management or manage it in-house, the Google Grant should be monitored and optimized regularly. Our recommendation would be weekly but, at the very least, once a month. 

Conclusion

You have learned 5 valuable tips to make the most of your Google Grant management strategy. Such as:

1. Start your Google Grant Management with keyword research.
2. Create valuable content tailored to those keywords.
3. Make compelling call-to-actions on that content to encourage visitors to take the next step with your nonprofit.
4. The importance of tracking conversions on your website.
5. The importance of regular optimization.

By implementing these Google Grant management tips, your nonprofit should be well on its way to maximizing the full $10K Google Grant budget. This will drive the right people to your website, and help to reach your goals.

About the Author:

Judson Aulie works with the Click Nonprofit team helping nonprofits expand their reach and impact through the Google Ad Grant and SEO. Click Nonprofit helps nonprofits acquire and manage the Google Ad Grant as well as develop a content marketing strategy based on search engine and keyword research.