Google Ad Grants are a great thing for non-profit organizations and NGOs in Germany. The campaigns can pursue different goals: Either you use the ads to collect donations and thus generate engagement. But you can also create awareness and make your organization better known online. As a third option, advertisements can also be used to draw attention to upcoming campaigns and fundraising activities, for example.
Who still gives gifts today? Google!
Google Ad Grants, the free AdWords budget from Google, are available for all these options, that was launched in 2003 as a donation program. Selected non-profit organizations can place ads here free of charge. This program is available in a total of 28 countries.
If you are interested in a Google Ad Grants campaign and would like onehundred.digital to manage the review and application, creation and optimization of the Google Ad Grants campaign, click here for more information on a free consultation.
How do I optimize my Google Ad Grants campaign after activation? 10 professional tips for an optimized Google Ad Grants campaign:
Eligibility to participate
- The status of a non-profit organization is required.
- Certification regarding non-discrimination and the receipt and use of donations is required.
- No participation for: state institutions and organizations, hospitals, medical groups, schools, kindergartens, educational institutions, universities
Prerequisite for participation
- The organization must have its own website
- No revenue-generating advertisements (links, Google AdSense, etc.)may be placedduring participation .
- The organization must actively and independently work on and with the account (answer email requests from the Google team, log in once a month). After three months of inactivity, the account will be deactivated or deleted.
Define a very clear strategy for your Google Ad Grants campaign. At $10,000 per month, they have a considerable budget at their disposal. Divide it sensibly into different ad campaigns. The individual ads then lead the prospective customer to the appropriate landing pages.
- Carry out detailed keyword research.
- The campaigns may only be keyword-related text ads. The ad is only placed on Google.
- The ads must be targeted and contain relevant keywords that describe the programs and services.
- It must not be commercial advertising. However, if revenue is generated from the advertising of products and services, 100% of this must go to the programs.
- Advertising, advertisements and keywords for financial products are prohibited.
- There is a fixed daily budget of $ 330 (approx. $10,000 / month).
- The maximum cost-per-click amount(CPC) is $2.00 (since Jan. 2013).
- If the advertising budget of $10,000 per month is exceeded for three consecutive months, a special application can be submitted. Approval leads to an increase in the budget of up to $ 40,000(ask us about the requirements, we will be happy to help you).
- Use your keywords in the ad headlines and in the ad text.
- Formulate your ads clearly and in a way that is easy for users to understand.
- Clearly present your unique selling proposition to set yourself apart from the competition.
- Ask users to take action. (“Donate now!”)
- Use numbers and characters to make the display more eye-catching.
- Your landing page must create trust.
- You create trust if you also request as little data as possible for lead generation.
- Appeal to the user emotionally.
- Speak to the user personally.
- Put the benefits of the site in the foreground, not the design or functionality.
- Make sure you have a coordinated Google Ad Grants campaign that matches the content of your landing page.
- Check and measure the success of your landing pages.
- Make sure that the content in the ads matches the content on the website.
- Do not make empty promises in the ad texts that are not fulfilled on the website.
- Think about which subject areas can be reflected in the advertisements.
- Use different subject areas in the ads to appeal to different users.
- Produce unique and individual text ads. Never simply copy advertisements from the competition!
- It is not permitted to link to pages that are in turn linked to other websites.
- The links may only be made to the URL specified in the application. Changes to the URL or the website or additional URL’s (direct line to main page) can be added as long as they meet Google’s conditions for non-profit organizations.
External: Google adWords key figures such as the impressions of an ad or the CTR, i.e. the click-through rate, should be constantly optimized. The better the performance of an ad, the more often it will be displayed in Google searches.
Internal: You should regularly check the traffic history on your own site. Do users stay on the target page? Why do users bounce? How long do users stay on your website? All these factors influence the performance of an AdWords campaign
Target project: A classic target project in AdWords is conversion. Inquiries/donations received can be checked in the AdWords dashboard by integrating a so-called coverage code.
As already described in tip #9, a conversion code should be integrated on the page to measure how many requests/donations have been received within a certain period of time. Conversions should be evaluated regularly in order to constantly optimize your own AdWords campaigns.
The quality factor of an ad in combination with a keyword should be checked regularly. Google AdWords rates the quality factor between 0 and 10. A keyword should have a quality factor of at least 5. If this is not taken into account, the ads will hardly be displayed or not at all. Important factors for the quality of an ad or a keyword are:
- Expected click rate
- Ad relevance
- User experience with the target page
#Google Ad Grants additional tip from the onehundred.digital editorial team:
Unfortunately, many websites are still not mobile friendly. If your website is displayed poorly or – even worse – not at all on mobile devices such as iPads and smartphones, it is better to exclude mobile traffic and concentrate on desktop traffic.
Conclusion and outlook:
It takes patience and experience to create and permanently optimize optimal Google Ad Grants accounts. If you implement our 10 tips, you’ve already made a start. Rarely does every campaign hit the big time straight away. But, after repeated optimization, you will be successful.
We hope our 10 pro tips will help you get even better performance out of your Google Ad Grants budget. Our experience shows that almost 80% of Google Ad Grants accounts have more potential. These simple “low hanging fruits” could significantly increase the performance of many accounts.
Clearly define your organization and direct the user clicking on your Google Ad directly to the thematically appropriate landing page – and not to the homepage of your website, because the potential interested party is not searching for your organization, they will quickly disappear again. Google always evaluates the quality of the landing page and checks whether the keywords defined in the ads can also be found thematically on the landing page.
Even with supposedly very well-optimized Google Ad Grants accounts, basic things are often overlooked. A well-functioning account is based on individual adjustments and continuous optimization. Be creative, because your ideas are the decisive factor for success.
Do you still have questions about the Google Ad Grants program?
onehundred.digital – your online marketing agency in Berlin – will be happy to answer your questions!
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