Google Ads Grant for Mississippi Nonprofits
*Updated October 9, 2020
As we expand along the Gulf Coast, Mississippi stands out as a hub for nonprofits. Over 6% of all jobs in Mississippi are in nonprofit organizations.
Like any other business, nonprofits need dynamic advertising to reach their audiences and spread their message. However, many Mississippi nonprofits and beyond find themselves with the need to market their services and message without any substantial budget.
How Do Google Ads Grants for Mississippi Nonprofits Work?
Nonprofit organizations are crucial agents for change in Mississippi and other respective communities. That is why Google created the Google Adwords Grant program for nonprofits. These grants help nonprofits to advertise their services and programs online without having the burden of paying for it. This program can be extremely beneficial for both large and small nonprofits. The advantages are impressive. Google provides 501(c)(3) with a daily budget of $329 or $10,000 per month for nonprofits to run ads on search engine results.
Google makes the application process simple for nonprofits. A nonprofit must meet the following requirements in order to qualify for a grant:
- Registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) (notable exceptions include: government entities or organizations, hospital or health organizations, schools, childcare centers, academic institutions or universities).
- Acknowledge and agree to Google’s required certifications regarding nondiscrimination and donation receipt and use.
- Have a live website with substantial content.
Sounds great, right?
Well there are a few caveats:
1. You Can Only Run Text Ads
Google offers a multitude of different ad formats for advertisers. Text ads, image ads, video ads, and animated ads to be exact. By having these different formats, you are given more chances to advertise for different sites. Also by having different formats, you are given the opportunity to showcase different incentives or promotional aspects of your nonprofits. However, when you sign up for the Google Grant for Nonprofits program, you are limited to only running text ads that appear at the top of search result pages.
2. You Must Have Keyword-Targeted Ads
Once you begin your campaign, you’ll have to compile keyword lists in order for your account to be verified and for your ads to be shown for relevant searches. Sounds easy, but this is where it gets hard.
3. Your Maximum CPC is $2.00
That’s right, you can only spend $2.00 per keyword. That might sounds like a fair CPC but it can be difficult to get as much search impression share with that cost per click. Depending on the level of competition surrounding your business or industry, it can be difficult to compete regularly and get the traffic you need to your site.
4. Only on Search Results Pages
You can only run your ads on the search results pages, meaning the ads that appear on the top of organic results. While this is one of the most common ways to use Google Adwords, there are platforms for you to show your ads through the Google advertising programs. Google offers Display Networking advertising in which you can show your ads on many different kinds of sites, often with interactive, video, image or rich media ads. This gives your ads a chance to be seen by different users and for those users to see your ads in a different, possibly more attention-grabbing way.
Now, seems like it would be hard to get anything through the Google Grant program. But there are some tricks you can employ to help you maneuver around these restrictions
1. Dynamic Search Ads
So the rules say that you can only use $2.00 per keyword and that you can only run search ads using your Google Grant. Well if you have a large amount of keywords, do you have the time and energy and know-how to create ads for each one of those keywords? If you do, congratulations. If not, using dynamic search ads can significantly cut down on ad creation time. Dynamic search ads use pre-selected pages on your website and then create headlines for your ads that is relevant to what the user searches and what information is found on your page. This can be especially helpful if you are a nonprofit that is trying to sell a large inventory of products.
2. Match Types
One of the biggest challenges in Google Ads Grant is the $2.00 maximum bid for all your keywords. Depending on the competition regarding your industry or business, gaining traffic with this requirement can be difficult for some. It certainly requires an understanding of the different features of Google Ads. One of those features is match types. There are 4 kinds of match types within Ads: broad, broad match modifier, phrase and exact. With each kind of match type, the estimated bids change. However, be careful, if you aren’t sure how match types operate, you could decrease your traffic or begin capturing superfluous clicks.
3. Extensions
Since you can only search ads when using a Google Grant, it does decrease the range and creativity factors of your advertisements. However, you can get creative and utilize the many features Google Ads offers. Search ads currently only give you a limited amount of characters and space to promote your nonprofit. However, when you employ the different kinds of extensions such as location, phone, callout, sitelinks, and snippets you can add in so much more information about your business or organization.
4. Search Term Reports
While you can only run keyword targeted ads when using the Google Grant for Nonprofits, it is of the utmost importance with any Ads campaign, that the keywords you target are bringing in relevant traffic. A great way to figure this out is to use one of the best Google Ads features in my opinion: search term reports. Search term reports allow you to see what a user searched for prior to clicking on your ads. If you notice that traffic is not converting, these reports can provide valuable insights into optimizations that need to be made.
So now you know more about the Google grants for nonprofits program. It can be extremely helpful and beneficial to many different organizations but the best way to get the most from the program is to understand how it works and plan a strategy that will help you succeed.
To manage a successful Google Adwords grant for nonprofits account, your organization will need to dedicate attention and research into your AdWords campaign, which is time consuming and extremely complex. By having a team of experts help your nonprofit take advantage of the full $10,000 grant, the benefit to your organization will reach its full potential. Our agency can assist with constant monitoring and testing and provide crucial expertise from our team on how to most effectively utilize your Google grant for Mississippi nonprofits. We will help you take advantage of the $10,000 grant and achieve real results while you focus on running your nonprofit organization.
So get in touch with Online Optimism today and get started increasing the business to your nonprofit!
