As a way of giving back to the community Google runs a program called ‘Google Ad Grants‘. This program gives charitable organisations up to $10,000 per month in Adwords advertising to promote their charity on Google.co.nz.
Charities Advertising on Google.co.nz
This initiative is a great way for charities to drive traffic to their website and generate conversions in the form of donations, volunteer signups or to spread the word about their mission.
To qualify for this grant your organisation must have a functioning website and be registered with the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs under the Charities Act 2005. If you are a government entity or organisation, a hospital or medical group, or a school or university you unfortunately will not qualify but for any other charities this opportunity is something you should not overlook.
The Ad Grant programme enables the charity to build and run their own Google Adwords account (or have an agency manage it) which is similar to any other advertisers but with the following conditions:
- A daily budget set to $329 USD, which is equivalent to about $10,000 per month
- A maximum cost-per-click (CPC) limit of $2.00 USD
- Can only run keyword-targeted campaigns
- Can only appear on Google.co.nz
- Can only run text ads
- Can only promote mission-based ads and keywords
Because of the cost per click limit of $2.00 and the fact that most charities would bid on similar keywords, one of the hardest parts of the grant is actually spending the $10,000 monthly ad spend. The strategy with a Google Grants account is to maximise the click through rate as much as possible as any budget unspent for the month is not carried on until next month.
As with all marketing campaigns, if you are looking into getting a Google Grant account, the ROI needs to be optimised to get the most out of the opportunity. Using landing pages, professionals to optimise the campaigns and other techniques to improve the results are recommended.
To apply for a Google Grant for your organisation visit the following link: http://www.google.co.nz/grants/apply.html
