Getting Started with the Google Ad Grants for Nonprofits

Getting Started with
Google Ad Grants for
Nonprofits
May 12, 2020

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Rachel Clemens
Digital Strategist Whaler
Nicole Jones
Content Producer, TechSoup
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Nicole Jones
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Rachel Clemens
Digital Strategist
Whaler

Getting Started with the Google Ad Grant for Nonprofits
May 12, 2020

. © TechSoup Global | All rights reserved9
Agenda
• Welcome + introductions!
• What is the Google Ad Grant?
• How to apply
• Program policies
• Best practices + use cases
• Account anatomy

Who is Whole Whale?
Whole Whale is a digital agency that leverages web data and
technology to increase the impact of nonprofits.

Who are we?
Rachel Clemens
Digital Strategist Whaler
Alison Glazer
Advertising Manager
Meghan Daly
Digital Advertising Whaler

12
Audience Poll: What is your
experience level with the
Google Ad Grant?

What are Google Ads?
Google Ad
Organic results
Google’s online
advertising platform
— advertisers can pay to
display brief ads and
service listings within the
Google Network
Google Ads show up
before Organic results
on the search engine
results page (SERP).

What actually happens?
1. User Googles something
2. Algorithm looks at all accounts that include that keyword
3. Algorithm ranks accounts + sets cost for each based on quality score of the
keyword + bid
4. Algorithm chooses which ads to show
5. Ads that are clicked are charged to the account

What is the Google Ad Grant?
• Subprogram of the Google for
Nonprofits suite
• Distributes free in-kind Google
advertising dollars to select
nonprofits
• Qualifying organizations receive up
to $10,000 per month to advertise
within the Google Ads platform

Why we love this grant
Beyond the free advertising dollars, we also love...
• Growing awareness: Increase nonprofit site traffic and allow more people
to access vital information and learn about important causes
• Testing strategies: Try out messaging and optimize strategy with Grant
money before investing in paid advertising platforms
• Driving impact: Help nonprofits achieve meaningful conversions, such as
partnerships, purchases, donations, program applications, and more

Terms to Know
● Impressions: Total number of times your ad was served
● Clicks: Number of times someone clicks on your ad
● CTR: AKA, “click through rate” — Total clicks / Total impressions
● Max CPC: The max amount amount you’re willing to pay for each click (Ad
Grant caps off at $2, except using Maximize Conversions)
● Avg. CPC: The average amount you’ve been charged per click
● Avg. Position: Ranking from 1-10 that indicates where your ad is showing on
the search engine results page (SERP)
● Q Score: Ranking from 1-10 that indicates the quality of your keyword
● Keyword: The search terms that trigger your ads
● Conversion: The on-site user action that your ads seek to encourage

Eligibility
• Must be recognized by your country as a valid charity organization formed
for charitable, educational, religious, literary, scientific, or other tax-exempt
purposes.
• Fiscally sponsored organizations are not eligible
• Must not be a governmental entity or organization, a hospital or health
care organization, a school, academic institution, or university
• Be registered and validated as a nonprofit by TechSoup
• Have a high quality website that meets Ad Grant website policy

Applying, Part 1
1. Assuming you’re eligible, you’ll need to apply for a Google for Nonprofits
account.
2. Follow the Ad Grant enrollment guide to complete pre-qualification steps:
• Create an Ad Grant account
• Submit the pre-qualification survey
• Complete the Ad Grants training video and quiz
• Submit for pre-qualification review by checking the box for Ad Grant enrollment and
providing your customer ID (found in the top right corner of your account, in the
XXX-XXX-XXXX format)
You will receive an email regarding your pre-qualification submission within 5
business days.

Applying, Part 2
Once you have received pre-qualification approval, complete your application
process by:
1. Setting up a full Smart campaign according to the Ad Grant Enrollment
guide
2. Submitting your account for final review by checking the box for Ad Grant
enrollment and providing your customer ID (found in the top right corner of
your account, in the XXX-XXX-XXXX format)
You will receive an email regarding your final account application within 10
business days.

Website requirements
● Owned and operated website (you can only send ads to YOUR domain
and subdomains)
● Maintain a high-quality website
○ Site speed
○ Updated content
○ Good user experience
○ Using HTTPS (for new accounts)
● One domain (can apply for additional domains as needed)

Website requirements
● Commercial activity cannot be the main purpose of your site (all
e-commerce must support your org’s overall mission)
● On-site advertising must be relevant to your org’s mission and cannot be
obtrusive to users (no traffic laundering)

General requirements
Ad requirements
● Can run Search ads only
● $2 bid max (with the exception of Maximize Conversions bid strategy,
will touch on later)
● Ad quality requirements (will walk through these later)
Account requirements
● Required response to ALL Google surveys
● Must update the account at least once every 90 days (ideally more often
though!)

Account setup requirements
• Specific geo-targeting — only target locations relevant to the activity of your
org/where users will find your services useful
• Minimum 2 active ad groups per campaign
• Minimum 2 active text ads per ad group
• At least 2 sitelink ad extensions
• Minimum 5% CTR account-wide
• Accounts may be suspended after 2 consecutive months with a CTR below
5%
• Accounts only reviewed for this policy after they are 90 days old

● The account CTR needs to be >5%, but you can still have keywords, ads, ad
groups, and campaigns below that
● To keep your account-wide CTR average up:
○ Use keyword insertion wherever you can
○ Bid on branded keywords
○ Refine ad groups to be more specific
○ Don’t be afraid to pause low performers
Hitting the 5% CTR

Keyword requirements
Organizations advertising with a grant account are not permitted to bid on:
● Branded keywords not owned by the organization (like “YouTube” or
“Google”, or names of newspapers and other organizations—however,
brand names as adjectives or modifiers can be accepted, such as “Airbnb
animal policy”)
● Single-word keywords (excluding branded words, medical conditions, and
other exception keywords)
● “Generic” keywords like “free videos” or “today’s news”
● Low q-score keywords (<=2)

● Google’s “grade” for how “good” your keyword is
● Based on the connection between keyword, ad copy, and landing page copy
— create a cohesive user journey!
● Pause keywords with Q-score <=2 — create automated rules for this function
Quality score

Conversion tracking requirements
● If you choose a conversion-based bidding strategy (Maximize
Conversions, Target CPA, Target ROAS) OR your account was created
after January 1, 2018, you must set up proper conversion tracking
○ Conversions = key user actions (donations, email signups, volunteer
signups, petition actions…)
● Policy does not require a specific number of conversions or a specific type
of conversion to be set up
● If you track a conversion involving a monetary value (donation, sale,
membership fee, etc.) you must use 'Purchase/Sale' conversion category

● Shift from maxing account spend to meaningful conversions
○ “..Donations, purchases, ticket sales, membership registrations, email
sign-ups, volunteer sign-ups”
● Accounts created on or after April 22nd, 2019 must:
○ Have at least one meaningful conversion set up in their account, converting
at least once per month
○ Use conversion-based Smart bidding for all campaigns
● Organizations must complete pre-qualification when applying for a new grant,
including a survey and Ad Grants training
Google Ad Grants Activation Guide
April 2019 Policy Updates

Building a campaign
• Set digital goals
• Choose campaign settings
• Build an ad group
• Pick a landing page
• Choose keywords
• Write ads
• Analyze + optimize!
YMCA East Bay

Funnel of Engagement

People know you exist!
Awareness
Goal
Key Conversions
● Website traﬃc
● Percentage new users
● Unique pageviews on “About” and other
key organizational pages
● Video plays (if applicable)
New users (and potential supporters!) learn about
your organization and visit your website.
Create campaigns that answer user search
queries in your cause space and provide
information.

Engagement
Goal
Key Conversions
● Percentage of returning users
● Super users: >5 min site sessions
● Super users: 3+ pages visited/session
● Email signups
● Contact form submissions
● Resource downloads
People engage with your resources and grant
you permission to connect with them further.
Create campaigns that match user search intent
with targeted resources.People give you permission to
communicate with them

Action
Goal
Key Conversions
● Pledge/petition signings
● Volunteer signups
● Event/webinar registrations
● Program signups
● Account creations
● Purchases
● One-time and recurring donations
Users take action to support your cause.
Create campaigns that match actionable searches
with conversion-optimized landing pages.
Users take
supportive
action

Change
Goal
Metrics
● Traﬃc increase YoY
● Volunteer signups YoY
● Event/webinar registrations YoY
● Program signups YoY
● Account creations YoY
● Purchases YoY
● One-time and recurring donations YoY
Growth in organizational awareness, communities
served, and year-over-year goals. Leverage
Google Ads to drive Awareness, Engagement,
Action, and then nurture new users towards
committed support.

Web traffic is great, but what really
matters are conversions—people
taking key actions on your website.
What meaningful actions can users
take on your organization’s site?
● Requests for more info
● Resource downloads
● Email signups
● Purchases
● Volunteer applications
● Program applications
● Donations
Set your digital goals for the Ad Grant

Who is Power Poetry?
Power Poetry is the world’s first and largest poetry
community for youth. It is a one-of-a-kind place where young
people can have their voices heard regarding issues that
matter to them.
For Power Poetry, key digital goals include newsletter signups,
New Poet account creations, New Poems added, and
donations.

Campaigns: Broad buckets that
hold your ad groups, set targeting,
goals, and other settings
• Ad Groups: More specific topics
within each campaign, holds
keywords and ads
• Keywords: Tailored to the ad
group, triggers your ads
• Ads: Show up on search results
page
Campaign anatomy

Campaign anatomy

Choose campaign settings
• Geotargeting: Target by country, state, city, or zip code. Only target locations relevant to
your organization’s services and operations.
• Language: Ads must be written in the language you are targeting.
• Ad schedule: Decide which days of the week or times of day ads should show
• Budget: Set daily budgets for each campaign—start budgets at the max daily account
spend ($329 for a $10k account) to assess spending capabilities, and prioritize high spend
campaigns by adjusting budgets over time.

Limited by budget
• Meaning: The campaign gets
enough traffic that, if it had
more budget, it could spend
even more
• This isn’t a bad thing! Just
Google’s way of telling you a
campaign has some untapped
potential

What is an ad group?
• An Ad Group is essentially a bucket of highly-related keywords and ads
• All ads in an ad group are tied to all keywords in an ad group, so organize carefully!
• Below is an example of an ad group from Power Poetry — all ads in this ad group
are relevant to all keywords in this ad group
Keywords Ads

Pick a landing page
• Does it contain the keywords?
• Does it encourage a good
user experience?
• Does it drive meaningful user
action?
• Google looks at the landing
page when assigning quality
score and ad rank

What are Keywords?
• Words and phrases that advertisers plug into
the Google Ads platform
• These reflect the real life Google searches
that advertisers want their ads to show up for
• Power Poetry (an online poetry platform)
might include these keywords in their account,
since they want to reach people who are
interested in poetry and creative writing
• Whenever someone searches any of these
terms, Power Poetry’s ad might appear in the
search engine results page (SERP)

Choosing keywords
Your site is the answer. What is the question?
• Who are you talking to? How do those people
think about these topics? Consider
demographics:
• Age range
• Gender
• Interests
• Think long-tail keywords — the more specific
to your cause, the better!
• What is the goal of your campaign? How does
that affect search intent and messaging?
Provide a cohesive journey from query to
landing page.

Keyword tools
• Ad Grant’s Keyword Planner
• Google Trends
• Your site’s organic keywords —
find via:
• Google Analytics
• Google Search Console
• Your own content + landing pages!

Keyword tools
Consider how seasonal shifts and timely national/global conversations affect the way your
users ask questions online.

How Ads Work
• Advertisers write the text ads that they want to appear in searches for the keywords
they’ve included in their account
• Advertisers have full control over the ad copy, and get to choose which page on their
website people go to when they click on an ad
• Advertisers tell Google which ads they want to appear by including the keywords and ads
in the same ‘ad group’
• Power Poetry might write the following ad for the ‘how to write a poem’ keywords in the
previous slides

Anatomy of an Ad
Headline 2 (30 characters)Headline 1 (30 characters)
Body / Description (Up to 2 90-character
sentences)
Display URL

Sitelink Extensions
• Sitelink extensions are additional links that appear below your text ad
• These can direct users to multiple pages on your website + increase the size of
your ad, which can help with CTR!
• Google’s policies now states that Grant accounts must use these — enable at
least 2 sitelink extensions in your account
• There is an option to build sitelinks at the campaign level, but we recommend
skipping this and customizing for each ad group (link, headline, description)

A/B testing ad copy
• Each ad group must contain at
least 2 ads
• But Google recommends 3!
• This also makes for a clean A/B
test — let users tell you which
ad is better
• Test one element at a time for
clear data — headlines,
descriptions, CTAs, URL

Analyze + Optimize
● Which campaigns, ad groups, and/or keywords drive traffic with
● Low bounce rate
● High conversion rate
● Long average session duration
● What messaging receives a higher CTR?
● Which landing pages convert at higher rates?
Do more of what works, and ditch what doesn’t.

Build → Measure → Learn

Ad Grant Math

Keep in touch
rachel@wholewhale.com
Thank you!
@WholeWhale
wholewhale.com

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