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Whenever I come across a Charity who doesn’t know about Google Ad Grants I send them a guide on how to apply (step-by-step instructions included below), as well as explaining why they should. There are lots of benefits to the Google Ad Grant, as well as the most obvious one – it’s free advertising budget!
We know how difficult it can be for non-profit organisations to find the funds to fuel their advertising campaigns. With Google receiving over 63,000 searches per second on any given day (that’s at least 2 trillion searches per year), having the opportunity to run Search ads is something most brands wouldn’t want to miss out on. This is where the Google Ad Grant can help you. For many organisations it serves as a strong foundation for advertising, and will connect people to your cause in an effective and affordable way.
The Google Ad Grants provides up to $10,000 USD per month, which equates to around £7,750 GBP today, of free advertising on Google Search result pages, to eligible non-profit organisations.
The Grant is open to organisations who:
✓ Are registered as a charitable organisation
✓ Meet and agree to Google Grants eligibility and programme policies
✓ Have a functioning website which contains adequate information on what your non-profit is all about
The following organisations are unfortunately not eligible for the Grant:
✘ Governmental entities and organisations
✘ Hospitals and medical groups
✘ Schools, childcare centres, academic institutions and universities
The Grant programme allows you advertise in Google for free. This unlocks huge potential for charities and non-profits to get in front of the right people.
When someone uses Google it’s because they have a specific search intent; whether it’s for information, searching for a specific brand, or transactional e.g. ready to make a purchase. This is generally the best place to reach your audience as they are actively searching.
To expand your reach, you can use a variety of different keywords and key phrases that are relevant to your brand and organisation’s core objectives. Then you can write copy for your text ads to ensure that your messaging aligns with the keywords and the actions you want users to take. Plus, with your advertising costs largely covered this is a huge benefit.
There is a specific application process you have to go through to register your non-profit. You need to get a validation token from TechSoup in order to apply. Once you’ve qualified it’s not as straightforward as you’d think maintaining eligibility and managing the account.
You have to stick to the strict compliance guidelines from Google, which includes proactively managing the account amongst a wide range of changing criteria (which will be a separate blog article). If you don’t comply Google will immediately deactivate your account – this normally happens before you can do anything about it.
The management of it can be tricky and time consuming, which is why so many non-profit in-house teams just don’t have the capacity or level of expertise to manage it. Many Grants accounts we come across only spend a tiny fraction of the grant available, when they could be spending the full $10k.
1.) Register your non-profit with TechSoup to acquire your validation token
a. Register your charity on the TechSoup registration page here.
b. Once your organisation has been validated, log in and you will be presented with a validation token which will look something like this: 345c476@YourOrgName
c. Copy this code and include it in your Google non-profits account
2.) Register for the Google non-profit programme once you’ve got your validation token
a. Sign up here.
b. Make sure to use a Google email address for this, which can then be used to access the Google non-profit programme and the Ad Grant account.
c. Go to the Google non-profit site
d. Agree to statements about non-discrimination
e. Insert your validation token
f. Fill out your personal contact and organisation information and agree to be contacted by Google
g. Google should approve your application within a day or two – they will send you an email when they do
3.) Apply for the Google Ad Grant programme once your application has been approved by Google
a. Create your Ad Words account here.
b. Make sure you use the same email address you used for the non-profit application
c. IT IS CRUCIAL that you skip the billing process. This is the number one mistake people make in applying
d. Choose USD as your currency
e. Never enter any credit card info – even if it asks you for it. If you do, you’ll be setting up a standard paid account, not a grant account, and you’ll have to start the whole process again.
f. Create some campaigns compliant with the Google Grants criteria
g. Once campaigns are set up, then you can apply for the Ad Grant via the Google non-profits account.
h. To do this, enter your Ad Grants customer ID to the relevant page in your Google non-profits account. You need to make sure that you are signed in with the same email as the one that was set up for the Google non-profit account.
If you’re limited on resources or you’d rather not take up your teams’ time with the day-to-day management of the Google Ad Grants programme, our ppc marketing managers are here to help you.
We’ve been working with non-profit organisations on their Ad Grants accounts for around 5 years and would love to help support more charities boost their donations, memberships and achieve their goals. For more information please don’t hesitate to get in touch today!
