Google Ads can be useful for non-profit organizations, especially for generating donations.
Many nonprofits are limited to one Google Grants account. Usually, they worry about not having the necessary budget.
But this is a mistake, a mistake that can be stopped now.
Here are some lessons you can apply to your own nonprofit based on the advertising journey of one of our nonprofit clients.
Why Google Grants Alone Doesn’t Cut It
Like many nonprofits, this client started with a Google Grants account.
If your nonprofit is doing well with a Google Grants account, that’s great.
But you may find that Google Grants will only get you so far.
Program restrictions often make it difficult to spend a significant portion of the grant budget.
This was the case for this client. With only the Google Grants program, they struggled to gain a foothold in a market crowded with pharmaceutical advertisers and larger nonprofits.
They needed a different strategy. So they agreed to set up a paid (ie “regular”) Google Ads account.
This turned out to be a great decision.
We’ve recently spent $5,000-$7,000 per month on Google Search Text Ads and get $10,000-$12,000 in donations in return, which we couldn’t achieve with a Google Grants account.
Lesson: If you don’t have success with Google Grants (and even if you do), consider a concurrent paid Google Ads program.
The limits of any approach
Our customer is delighted with this return, and so are we. But neither of us wanted to stop there.
We tried to build on this strategy by devoting even more budget to Google text ads. But we couldn’t get a return commensurate with the higher budget. Therefore, a new approach had to be found.
Lesson: Putting more budget into your current approach, no matter how successful, isn’t always the answer. Chances are you’ll max out at some point.
Look at existing content, especially video
We looked for a new strategy and that’s when our client’s YouTube channel caught our attention.
Our client already had a lot of video content. These videos convey your organization’s value more powerfully than any text ad. So we decided to try video ads.
The results were impressive, especially around the year-end donation.
Last year, we increased ad spend to $15,000 during this period, allocating a portion of the additional budget to video ads. We earned over $70,000 in donations.
With this kind of performance, we encouraged the client to consistently invest in video advertising throughout the year to generate more donations throughout the year.
Lesson: Look at the resources you already have. If you’ve been consistently creating video content for new and existing members over the years, you may already have what you need for a low-cost, high-impact video campaign.
Dig deeper: 7 important YouTube ad lessons you need to learn
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Donations are not the only goal
These videos aren’t generating donations, and that’s okay. These campaigns they are growing brand awareness, which will help ensure the nonprofit raises donations and continues its good work in the future.
And the great news is that these campaigns don’t always require a huge budget.
For example, for just a $300 video boost campaign, we got up to 100,000 impressions and 19,000 video views. These are important figures!
Lesson: Not every ad dollar has to be tied to a donation dollar. While donations are the ultimate goal, brand awareness also has value. Consider creating an “always on” awareness program with success metrics tied to brand lift.
Benefit from unexpected clicks
With our advertising program underway, we noticed an interesting trend.
Sometimes we receive donations from people who search for the name of another organization in the same charity space. These people searched for the competitor’s name and decided to donate after viewing our client’s content and videos and learning more about them.
Why do we benefit from these competitor searches? We’re not sure, but we can speculate:
As far as we know, the competitor does not advertise on Google outside of their Google Grants account. Experience has taught us that Google puts paid advertisers ahead of Google Grants advertisers. (In fact, a Google rep once told us so.) Having a paid account can give us an edge here. This competitor may need to do more to build brand awareness and trust. If they did, people might be more determined to specifically seek them out instead of donating to our client.
Lesson: Having a paid Google Ads account can give you an edge when competing with Google Grants accounts.
Stay the course
Naturally, our client has been thrilled with its success and is motivated to keep trying new themes and ideas.
We’re big believers in testing, so we love your enthusiasm. But at the same time, you need to give things time to work; otherwise, it will become increasingly difficult to determine what works and what doesn’t.
Lesson: Maintain concentration and consistency. If you try everything at once, you risk muddying the waters. Take the time you need to accurately assess whether a new topic or approach is a good fit.
Plan the future
Given the positive impact of YouTube advertising campaigns for this non-profit organization, we are already planning our next steps.
We are working on an “always on” YouTube campaign with videos that demonstrate the value of the nonprofit.
We also list other types of videos we’d like to try. For example, videos that:
It features underserved demographic groups. Highlight local support groups and seminars. Answer “What is it?” and “How?” questions Cover stories about the positive impact of the nonprofit’s activities. Describe personal stories of members (ie similar to customer testimonials). It describes exactly how the donations are used. Includes a question and answer, such as an “Ask an Expert” series.
Lesson: If your existing videos are performing well, consider creating and testing videos on different topics and see how they work.
Google Ads isn’t just for for-profit businesses
Google Ads doesn’t get the attention it deserves from nonprofits, which is a shame.
Because just like for-profit businesses, Google Ads can also help nonprofits achieve their goals and increase brand awareness.
And that’s great when it means more money for a good cause.
The views expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
