Guest Post // How Google Ads Can Further Your Nonprofit’s Mission
By Grant Hensel of Nonprofit Megaphone
Nonprofits, due to their governing structure and limited resources, must be extra careful with the investments they make to market their causes to the public. Therefore, nonprofit leaders need to carefully consider every investment and seek opportunities that are of specific benefit to nonprofit organizations.
At Nonprofit Megaphone, we’re experts at finding these opportunities to help nonprofits further their mission. Our specialty is the management of the Google Ad Grant, an opportunity that is exclusively available to nonprofits. The Grant gives nonprofits the ability to affordably use Google Ads, creating a sustainable and effective way to conduct digital marketing.
Google Ads are sponsored links that appear in the Google search results for specific keywords. Normally, this advertising space is costly, but the Google Ad Grant provides $10,000 worth of Google ads to nonprofits every month at no cost to the organization.. The Google Ad Grant never expires and is automatically renewed—the only requirement is that you manage your account so as to be above Google’s minimum compliance standards.
The low costs of acquisition and maintenance make the Google Ad Grant a valuable tool for any nonprofit. However, you’ll want to approach the Grant with a strategy in mind so that you can use the Grant successfully. Below, we’ll discuss some of the common goals that nonprofits try to achieve with the Grant, and some best practices for achieving them. The goals we’ll be discussing are:
Increased Fundraising
More Volunteer Signups
Increased Awareness
A More Robust Email List
With these goals in mind, you’ll be able to form a smart strategy for your Google Ad Grant program. Let’s get started.
1. Increased Fundraising
The primary function of Google Ads is to drive traffic to your website. If your ad is displayed to a user and they are compelled to click, they’ll be taken to a specific page on your website. This page is appropriately called a “landing page,” and it will usually create the first impression a new user has of your organization, website, and mission.
Thus, landing pages are of crucial importance and contribute greatly to whether your Google Ads are successful. While a landing page can be any existing page on your site, a good strategy is to design landing pages specifically for use with your Google Ads. By optimizing your landing pages in this way, you’re in a better position to meet a user’s needs when they arrive on your site. For example, if their search query was “volunteer opportunities near me,” then you’re more likely to have success if your ad is attached to a landing page full of volunteer information.
Many of our clients want to drive fundraising efforts. However, as you can tell, doing this with Google Ads isn’t as simple as driving traffic to your generic donation page. If you choose to pursue this strategy, you may want to create many different donation pages that are optimized for each Google Ad that you run with them.
Each Google Ad is attached to a specific landing page, and Google requires that the page be minimally relevant to the content of the ad, so your ad and page copy need to be synchronized. Building landing pages that are compatible with the searcher’s intent will make it more likely that a donation will ultimately be acquired with each site visit.
2. More Volunteer Signups
Many people use the internet and Google to find opportunities to give back to their communities. Often, this includes those who desire to volunteer for a local nonprofit with a mission they believe in. The Google Ad Grant can help you target these people and bring them into your volunteer network.
The strategy outlined in the previous section retains much of its value when driving volunteers. You’ll benefit tremendously from having multiple landing pages that attempt to cover all of the queries that potential volunteers may be searching for.
To drive volunteer signups, you’ll benefit from using Google Ads to advertise nearly any piece of content on your website, allowing you to promote different aspects of your mission. A common strategy is to then place optimized Calls To Action on each page and throughout your website. If your goal is to increase volunteer signups, your CTA should ask the visitor to sign up for a specific volunteer opportunity.
CTAs are vital to any digital marketing strategy because they ask visitors to take a valuable next step. They are often direct appeals, enticing someone to consume more of your content or give your organization something of value. To make the most of your CTAs, make sure to prioritize aesthetics. You’ll want to make sure your CTAs are:
Visually appealing
Eye-catching
In a prominent location
Whether your goal is to increase fundraising, volunteers, or newsletter signups, having an arsenal of well-placed CTAs can help you make the most of your Google Grant traffic.
3. A More Robust Email List
Another common use of the Google Ad Grant is to build out your email list. This goal is also a good candidate for a flashy CTA button that can be easily placed on any page on your website. Then, whenever someone lands on your website and is impressed with your content, they can easily click to join your newsletter and stay in the loop about your nonprofit’s programs and opportunities.
Having a robust email list of supporters that are even a little bit interested in your cause can ultimately lead to more volunteers, more donations, and more engagement with your organization. The key is to get the website visitor to enter their email address.
This process of turning a click into a valuable action is called a conversion. Conversions can be anything, including the fundraising and volunteer goals mentioned above. They can also be more innocuous goals, such as spending time on your website or navigating through a certain number of pages.
Conversions are an important metric because they allow you to track engagement with your site. Google Ads easily integrates with Google Analytics, giving you a full suite of data tools to tweak, hone, and modify your website and digital marketing in tandem. After all, email lists are important in themselves, but they often can be a foundation for more valuable conversions down the road.
4. Increased Awareness
As mentioned before, the primary purpose of the Google Ad Grant is to drive traffic to your website. Even while pursuing the concrete conversions discussed above, you’ll be making valuable progress toward raising the overall awareness of your organization and its mission even if a conversion isn’t taken to completion.
No matter your organization's size, scope, or mission, you can use the affordability and flexibility of Google Ads to make progress towards multiple digital marketing goals—including general awareness.
Raising awareness lays an important foundation for future growth by planting the initial seed in new website visitors about your organization and its cause. Your website can make a meaningful impression on first-time visitors who are impressed by your content.
This is an important first step that can lead to the cultivation of new donors, volunteers, or loyal supporters. The key to using the Google Ad Grant effectively and efficiently is to continue to create high-quality content that people enjoy engaging with. Whether they come across your organization via a Google Ad or by traditional means, good content ensures that your organization is well-represented in digital space.
The Google Ad Grant can be a pivotal element of your organization’s digital marketing strategy. Paired with quality content and data analytics, the Grant can be employed as a cost-effective way to share your organization’s mission with the world. Whether your goal is to increase fundraising, volunteer signups, your email list, or overall awareness, the Google Ad Grant can help you achieve these goals effectively and efficiently.
This guest post was written by Grant Hensel.
Grant Hensel is the CEO of Nonprofit Megaphone, an agency focused 100% on Google Grant Management for nonprofits. NPM is honored to manage the Google Grant for 370+ leading nonprofits worldwide and to be an inaugural member of the Google Ad Grant Certified Professionals community.
