The Nonprofit Guide to Managing the Google Ad Grant
Imagine walking into a Las Vegas casino. The bouncer hands you a shiny briefcase. Inside: $10,000. Cash. The bouncer lowers his sunglasses and tells you that the money is yours to spend however you wish, so long as you use it in the casino — and any money you make is yours to keep.
How could you say no?
The Google Ad Grant for nonprofits is akin to the above Vegas fantasy: $10,000 USD of in-kind advertising every month from Google Ads to use on-platform. This little-known, underutilized resource has a high potential value to drive traffic to your website, if used correctly.
We’ve seen plenty of nonprofits max the potential offered by Google, and have spent millions of the house’s dollars in Google Ad Grant campaigns and we can help you too. That’s more donations, more volunteers, more change in the world, on Google’s dime. Of course, that doesn’t make it easy. We will guide and navigate you through the Google Ad Grant, from application to impact.
What is the Google Ad Grant?
The Google Ad Grant is offered through the Google for Nonprofits Program, which tailors signature Google tools like G Suite to the needs (and budgets!) of nonprofits. This includes ads on the Google Search Network, which appear before the organic search results on Google pages. A small green box labeled “Ad” separates these from the unpaid search results.
With this grant, you can spend up to $120,000 in Google’s advertising money over the next year to help you amplify your digital impact (or $480,000 if you were one of the lucky nonprofits to land the GrantsPro grant, no longer being offered). The Google Ad Grant is designed not only to drive traffic to your site, but also high-quality, converting traffic. Google’s goal is to help its grantees build more donations with this free ad space, in part by focusing on the quality of ad traffic over the quantity.
How Does Google Ads Work?
You must request approval from Google to receive Ad Grants. We would be more than happy to speak with you on the phone to see if it would be worth trying and of course we will get you approved for Google Ad Grant. Once you are approved, we will create a campaign for you according to the Google Ad Grant guidelines. The requirements are very strict and one of the biggest reasons to team up with TW Consulting is because you want to avoid losing your Ad Grant status. Nonprofits can lose their eligibility if they do not comply with Google’s regulations. Last but not least, the campaign should not only generate clicks and use up as much of the monthly free $10,000 in advertising budget as possible, but should generate donations as well.
