A Free Google Advertising Tool Exclusive to Non-Profits

Non-Profit organizations have always been an inspiration to me. They have always motivated me to leverage my skills and knowledge for not only work but also for giving back to the society, for contributing to a cause and to become a happy person on the whole. Therefore, I dedicate my first blog to the non-profit industry.

As marketers, we are always greedy for 2 things, No. 1 is More marketing budget and No. 2 is Increased MROI (Marketing Return on Investment). I am sure this holds true for Non-Profit marketers as well. In fact, I think the need for a substantial marketing budget is far more prominent for this industry considering its business model. According to a 2008 study by the American Marketing Association and Lipman Hearne, non-profits with budget under $5 Million spend less than $50,000 on their marketing and communication and, of those with operating budgets between $5 million and $20 million, a third still spent less than $50,000. This speaks volumes about the dearth of marketing investment by the non-profit industry.

Non-Profits rely heavily on creating awareness about their cause through their websites. Naturally, digital marketing sounds to be a logical marketing channel to go with to drive more web traffic, receive higher donations and recruit some great volunteers for your cause. But the question arises again “Where is the budget”. If I say that you can now get a monthly Adwords budget of $10,000 for free, how would that sound to you? Now this is no sales promotion tactic and my first blog post is to create awareness about the Google Grants for Non-Profit Organizations.

Google Grants is a donation program that awards free Adwords in-kind advertising worth $120,000 annually to eligible non-profits. This is a great program by Google to help the community in making themselves better visible in the web world.

What you receive as part of the grant?

1. A daily budget set to $329, which is equivalent to about $10,000 per month (Cool right!!)
2. A maximum cost-per-click (CPC) limit of $2 USD
3. Only run keyword-targeted campaigns
4. Only appear on Google search result pages
5. Only run text ads

Here is what you need to be eligible for the grant (It is very, very simple)

1. Have a live website with relevant and good quality content
2. Must hold a current 501(c)(3) status
3. Join the Google for Non-Profits Program (Don’t worry, Its free)

What do you need to maintain your Google Grant eligibility?

1. Link your ads to only one website domain that was approved in your initial grant application
2. Actively manage your AdWords account by logging in once a month and making at least one change to your account every 90 days
3. Your campaigns should match your organization’s programs and services
4. If you’re promoting products or services, 100% of the proceeds must go directly to supporting your program
5. Your ads must not link to pages that are primarily composed of links to other websites
6. Your ads may not offer financial products (like mortgages or credit cards), nor can they request donations of cars, boats, or other property
7. Your site can’t display Google AdSense ads or affiliate advertising links

Many of you are familiar with or even experts in Google Adwords marketing and I would like to highlight how significant Google marketing can be for the growth of your business using this statistic:

According to a 2013 comScore public release, Google enjoyed a 65.2% share of web search volume worldwide, as of December 2012.

This simply means that Google advertising should be a part of your current as well as long term strategy and Google Grants is your answer.

What are the next steps?

I hope your answer is “What are the next steps?” Many of you might be thinking that this might be a difficult grant to receive and that you need a digital marketing specialist to help you do that. If you have an in-house specialist then great but for those of you who don’t, there is no need to worry. It is a very simple application process and very easy to get started once you have received the grant.

In my next blog post, I will be sharing with you a step by step fun guide explaining how to apply for the grant and how to build your first Google Adwords Campaign.

Till then, Happy Marketing 🙂