Is the Ad Grant right for my non-profit? · Google wants to show users content that is relevant to their search query. Irrelevant content is confusing and frustrating for users. For

Is the Ad Grant right formy non-profit?

Learn how to get more visibility, moredonations, and more supporters of your cause.

idGrants Guaranteed grants for eligible non-profits

What’s inside?

Introduction What are the benefits of an ad grant?

Would you rather be a billboard in a barren desert or one in Times Square? What is AdWords?

Examples of nonprofit ads How it all works

Organic search vs. paid search What is PPC? Why keywords matter Position is important Think of an auction, sort of

What is the Ad Grant? How it works

Things to keep in mind It doesn’t stop at the ad

Example Increase your traffic Putting it all together

About idGrants


Introduction So, you have a nonprofit organization what is your mission? Filling food banks? Helping the homeless? Improving the literacy rate? Preventing domestic abuse? Whatever your mission is, we know it’s to help make the world a better place. But, do you know how to position yourself to bring in more donors, supporters, and volunteers? Do you know how to make countless people aware of your group? If not, read on, because in this white paper, you will learn about an exciting opportunity that is exclusive for 501(c)(3) organizations!

What are the benefits of an ad grant? Get your nonprofit found, connect with supporters across the web and make a real difference.

Would you rather be a billboard in a barren desert or one in Times Square? A Google Ad Grant is a fantastic way to market your nonprofit. Your organization’s ads will get millions of views and tens of thousands of clicks. People will come to know about your mission and the good work you’re doing to help change the world. Without advertising, your website might as well be in a barren desert where no one will see it or you can take advantage of an ad grant and be placed in Times Square for the world to see. Read more to understand how it all works.

1 Is an ad grant right for my nonprofit? www.idGrants.com

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What is AdWords? AdWords is Google’s advertising service available on Google and it’s advertising network. The AdWords program enables businesses to set a budget, display their ads on Google, and only pay when a Google user clicks on the business’s ads. Have you ever seen those ads that appear at the top or side of your screen? (highlighted in white in this image) Those are AdWords ads that a company paid for so that people will notice their business whenever they're searching Google.

Examples of non-profit ads Here are four examples of nonprofit ads we ran on Google:




How it all works Google wants to show users content that is relevant to their search query. Irrelevant content is confusing and frustrating for users. For example, if a person goes to Google and types in “mountain view hotels in New Zealand”, they expect to see links and ads for New Zealand hotels. If Colorado ski lodge content comes up in the search results instead, then the user is unhappy. Like all businesses, Google wants the users to have a good experience, so they will only show content that is relevant to the search criteria.




Organic search vs. paid search There are two ways an organization can be found on Google.

1. Organic search. When someone is searching general words or phrases, a nonprofit can include those general words or phrases in their meta data information, their website content, or their blog. For example, a nonprofit, like Red Cross, may appear in the organic search results when a user types the words “blood drive” into the Google search engine.

2. Advertising, using Google AdWords. AdWords moves your organization to the top of

the search results. This means when someone types in a search phrase such as, “local blood banks”, a nonprofit will appear at the top of the search results, in the form of an ad. Ads are placed so they stand out from organic search results. See image below.




What is PPC? PPC stands for “Pay Per Click”. Most advertisers literally “pay” every time a user clicks on one of their ads. AdWords is the most popular type of PPC advertising. Think of it like this: advertisers are paying for people to visit their site instead of just hoping people find their site organically.

PPC ads have a little yellow “Ad” image next to them. Below is an AdWords ad.

This is an organic search result.




Why keywords matter What makes an advertiser’s ads appear on Google? Ads will appear when users type in a search query that is relevant to them. For example, if a person types in, “blue patio furniture” in the Google search bar, Google will show ads that are advertising blue patio furniture for sale. In the AdWords account, advertisers create a list of phrases, known as keywords, that they think users will type into the Google search engine. These are phrases the advertisers want to trigger their ads to display. If an advertiser wants their ad about “blue patio furniture” displayed on Google, they will include the following types of keywords on their keyword list:

blue patio furniture patio furniture that is blue blue table for patio patio sets in blue blue outdoor furniture

A good advertiser will come up with many, many more variations and keywords to use. The more types of keywords that cause the ad to appear, the better chance they will reach a broad range of people. Just as people speak differently, they search differently.

Position is important Most people, roughly 85%, click on the listings that appear in the first few positions in the search results. Consequently, there is serious competition between advertisers to attain high positions. The positioning is determined not only by price paid per click but also by ad quality, landing page quality, and a variety of technical factors. This is why nonexperts have a hard time using AdWords effectively. Placement matters. Think about it: how deeply do you search Google? Do you go beyond the first or even the second page of search results? If people do not find what they are looking for on the first or second page, they will either stop looking or change their search query. Google often displays hundreds or thousands of search result pages. How useful is your ad if it doesn’t get displayed until the 3rd, 5th, 11th, or 38th, page of Google? The first page of Google search results is where you need to be.




Think of an auction, sort of AdWords is similar to an auction, except the highest bidder doesn’t always get the item that is up for grabs. There are other factors that come to play. To be the highest ranked ad in the search results, Google’s algorithm looks at more than just the prices of the keywords that caused the ads to appear. The overall quality of the AdWords account is scrutinized. For instance, are you using good, quality keywords? Are your ads relevant? Do your ads contain the keyword phrase that was searched? Is your ad formatted right? Additionally, Google examines your ad’s landing pages: Does the landing page contain relevant content? Does it have good keywords on the page? Is the page clear, and does it relate to your group’s mission? Google takes all of these factors into account before it decides which advertiser deserves the number one spot on the search results page. Play along with the following scenario: Let’s say that two advertisers are competing for the top placement on Google. Both businesses are promoting their study abroad programs:

Advertiser #1 pays $12 for the keyword, “study abroad in Spain”. Advertiser #2 pays $8 for the same exact keyword.

Advertiser #1’s landing page is unclear, and word “Spain” isn’t on the page at all. Advertiser #2’s landing page has a clear calltoaction, and the phrase “study abroad in Spain” is on the page.

Who will earn the top spot on Google? Advertiser #2. You see, in this instance, the higher bidder, Advertiser #1, did not get the top ranked ad spot because they did not meet Google’s requirements. Although they paid more for the keyword, Advertiser #2 will get the top placement on Google, and thus, more visits to it’s landing page and website.




What is the Ad Grant? Google is the Times Square of advertising space. It is truly prime real estate that garners millions of views every single day. On average, Google processes over 40,000 search queries every second, over 3.5 billion searches per day, and 1.2 trillion searches per year, worldwide! The Ad Grant is a cost effective way for your organization to be a part of the trillion of searches each year. Google offers a grant to eligible 501(c)(3) organizations valued at up to $120,000 a year. The grant is used to advertise on Google, making more people aware of their fundraising campaigns, donation campaigns, and more online. Additionally, the grant is available in mass quantities, meaning most organizations who apply for the grant can receive it; it is not as competitive as other grants are.

How it works For normal AdWords use (without the Grant), advertisers need to set a budget, carefully choose their keywords, and constantly adjust their daily spend based on how things are progressing. With the Ad Grant, nonprofits must follow Google’s Grant requirements:

Daily budget is $329

All keywords cannot exceed a $2 bid amount

Utilize Search Display only ads can only have text (they cannot run image ads, video

ads, or display their ads on Google’s affiliates’ sites).

Ads must be relevant to the nonprofit’s mission this one is easy! Just make sure your

ads are promoting things relevant to the work your group is doing.




Things to keep in mind

1. You are one of many advertisers. If your nonprofit attempts to apply, setup, and manage an AdWords Account on their own: you’re competing against trained specialists

who are experienced and do this for multiple clients.

2. Google is everchanging. Google is continually changing its algorithms, and the competitors know this and know how to adjust their campaigns accordingly.

3. A large budget is great, but it takes more than that to be successful. Just because the Ad Grant gives you a large budget, that doesn’t mean you can outcompete the

others who are advertising on Google.

4. You have to know how to achieve quality and how to be clever about it. Good advertisers know what keywords people type into Google, how to incorporate those

keywords into their ads, and how to actually get a click on their ad. 5. Success can be tricky; you must think like a consumer. You need to understand

what makes people want to click on your ad instead of everyone else's. Can you write

compelling content in such a short space? Do you know which keywords are actually

causing the clicks? Are you keeping track of which keywords work and which ones are

bringing the quality of your campaign down?

It doesn’t stop at the ad It isn’t enough that a person sees your ad and gleans information from it (although the exposure is helpful). But it’s even more important that the user is intrigued by the ad enough that he or she clicks on it. A Google ad, when clicked, will take the user to a whole new URL. This URL is referred to as a landing page because it is the page that the user “lands on”. The landing is page is where the user can really find out more about your cause. So what keyword caused your ad to appear on Google? Say you are creating ads for Red Cross, and say the phrase that was searched was “where to donate blood”. After the user clicks your ad, they are probably hoping to see information about where they can donate blood. If they click your ad, and there is no information about donating blood, the user will not have a good experience, and they will look elsewhere.




Example

Here is an example of a what a user searched in Google, and then, the landing page they were taken to after clicking an ad.

The keywords, ad, and landing page all need to have continuity and contain the same phrases and information. How do they all work together? Follow the steps:

1. In the first step, you can see that someone typed in “literacy books” into the search bar on Google.




2. The first result to appear is an ad for a nonprofit called International Literacy Association. When the user clicks on the ad, they get taken to International Literacy Association’s landing page.

3. On that page, the content talks about how their group has exactly the types of books that the user was searching for. You see, much like the keywords that trigger the ad matter, so too does the content that is on the landing page.

4. If a user is interested in these books like the search query suggests he will expect to see relevant content on the landing page. He will expect to see information on books that can facilitate literacy and learning. If the landing page doesn’t contain the information that the ad displays, then the user will be unhappy and/or confused. Most likely, he will then go back to Google, and click on someone else’s ads.

Landing pages aren’t solely used for getting donations. Maybe your group wants to promote an event, or is looking for newsletter sign ups, or wants more volunteers. Whatever your need, just make sure your content has the same subject matter as your ads and keywords. This way, it is more likely that you can get the end result you want!

Increase your traffic The average nonprofit website is often a billboard in the desert that is to say very few people "stumble upon" it. You can have the best and most userfriendly website in the world, but if no one knows your group exists, how can you get noticed? Nonprofits who utilize the Google Ad Grant see an exponential growth in their website visitors. Often, the ads on Google link directly to the 501(c)(3)'s website. Because of this, users can easily browse and search through a nonprofit’s website.




Putting it all together Remember, here are the benefits of utilizing a Google Ad Grant:

Promotion on the world’s number one search engine The ability to advertise your nonprofit’s mission for free Increased traffic to your nonprofit’s website A greater chance of pulling in more donors, volunteers, and supporters The opportunity to make a bigger impact on the world

About idGrants idGrants is devoted to helping nonprofits get the visibility and exposure they deserve. We apply for, utilize, and maintain the Google Ad Grant for our clients, and in return, our clients gain thousands of new supporters, donors, and volunteers. For more information or to see if you’re eligible for the grant, contact us at: http://idgrants.com/contactus/


http://idgrants.com/

http://idgrants.com/contact-us/


Documents

Is the Ad Grant right for my non-profit? · Google wants to show users content that is relevant to their search query. Irrelevant content is confusing and frustrating for users. For