In today’s digital age, nonprofit organizations are increasingly relying on online platforms to reach a wider audience and fulfill their missions. Google Ad Grants is a program that offers a unique opportunity for nonprofits to harness the power of Google Ads, providing them with up to $10,000 per month in free advertising credits. This substantial budget can significantly enhance a nonprofit’s ability to promote their causes and initiatives.
Watch our webinar The Ultimate Guide to the Google Ad Grants for Nonprofits organised with Nonprofit Tech for Good, and find out:
How Google Ad Grants works and how to apply
What results you can expect from the program
which set of campaigns to use for maximium results
how to correctly set up campaigns with a step-by-step instruction
how to stay compliant with Google Ad Grants Policy
What is Google Ad Grants?
Google Ad Grants is a program that gives free $10 000 USD a month to spend on Google Search. See below how Ads run by the Google Ad Grants program look like:
What results can you expect?
See below a screenshot of results from one of our client's account. The results are shown over Q1 (January-March) of 2024:
Clicks - 65.1 K - how many users visited the website through the Ads
Impressions - 369 K - how many times the Ads were shown to users
Cost - $28.1 K - total Google Ad Grants budget spent on the account
Who is eligible for Google Ad Grants?
In order to apply for Google Ad Grants, you need to hold a valid non-profit status in your country. Please refer to Google's Country Requirements to see specific requirements for 60+ countries where program is available.
You also have to meet website requirements, including:
your domain has to be owned by the organization
your website has to have an active SSL certificate
your website has to contain organization's name, registration number, logo and mission statement
How to apply?
The application process is very simple and takes around 7 days in total. It has 3 steps:
register on Google for Nonprofits
get verified by Percent
activate Google Ad Grants
Google Ad Grants campaigns
The Ad account has 3 layers: Campaigns, Ad Groups (that contain keywords) and Ads. Campaign refers to the topic you'd like to promote. In each campaign you use at least 2 Ad Groups that include pools of keywords related to each other, and finally you have Ads - the google results that are shown to users.
Example of simple account structure for an Animal shelter with 1 Campaign (Adoption), 2 Ad Groups with keywords (cat adoption, dog adoption) and 2 Ads:
At Webup! we usually look at Google Ads campaigns as one of the 6 types:
Branding - with keywords related to your name, brand, mission, location and volunteering. Used to target users looking for your organization, specific type of organizations or volunteering offers.
Seasonal - with keywords related to calendar events such as "Black Friday" that have high search volume which can be used to attract new users, as well as keywords related to your internal events, such as: "charity marathon 2024", or "charity run New York".
Fundraising - with keywords related to donations, such as "donate now" or "how to donate to charity" and different ways of financial support, such as "planned giving" or "matching gift program". This campaigns also includes keywords related to raising funds for particular projects or general organizational needs such as “annual fundraising drive” or “shelter renovation fundraiser”
Products & Services - with keywords related to their categories “health services”, specific products and services “tax preparation services” or services delivered locally "free legal advice New York".
Projects - where keywords include name and type of the project, benefits for the users and any necessary details.
You can also use keywords in users' area of interest - for example: if we were to promote this webinar and wanted to reach nonprofits who are not aware that Google Ad Grants exists, we could then use keywords like "grants for nonprofits" or "free advertising for nonprofits", to reach users in a similar area of interest.
Blog - with keywords related to specific articles, for example "how to adopt a dog", related to common subjects covered on your blog "dog adoption blog" and blog categories "case studies" or "event recaps"
Google Ad Grants Policy
It's important that your account is run in compliance with Google Ad Grants Policy, in order to avoid account suspension or deactivation.
Google Ad Grants policy can be categories into:
account management
results
campaigns
keywords
website requirements
If you actively apply GAG Policy rules on your account, you’re more likely to get good results with the allocated budget.
Make sure to use PING.NGO to receive a free Google Ad Grants Policy compliance check with additional tips for better account performance. The tool is free with complimentary account audits every 90 days.
Next steps
At Webup! we help nonprofits manage their Google Ad Grants accounts in multiple ways.
Account management
If you'd like to outsource your account management - feel free to schedule a free, non-binding consultation with our team:
Keep Google Ad Grants management in-house
If you and your team would like to keep Google Ad Grants management in-house, please refer to our offer we created for this webinar, including Google Ad Grants Course and PING.NGO.