Quick Guide to Google Grants: Google AdWords for Nonprofits In this guide you’ll find everything you need to know about the Google Grant Program, Google’s AdWords program for nonprofit organizations, from how to qualify to ad guidelines. What Is Google Ad Grants? The Google Ad Grants Program gives nonprofits the chance to advertise on Google AdWords at no cost to the nonprofit. This program gives qualified organizations $10,000 per month in AdWords spend to be used to promote their missions and initiatives on Google.com.

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By Kelsey Halloran
December 18, 2013
Posted In: AdWords Tips
Comments: 1
Quick Guide to Google Grants: Google AdWords for
Nonprofits
In this guide you’ll find everything you need to know about the Google Grant Program, Google’s
AdWords program for nonprofit organizations, from how to qualify to ad guidelines.
What Is Google Ad Grants?
The Google Ad Grants Program gives nonprofits the chance to advertise on Google AdWords at no cost
to the nonprofit. This program gives qualified organizations $10,000 per month in AdWords spend to
be used to promote their missions and initiatives on Google.com. To qualify, companies must go
through the application process, and to keep the grant they must follow the program details.
If you work at a non-profit, you like the sound of this. Before you apply, check to ensure
your nonprofile is eligible. Here are the qualifications:
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2. Hold current and valid charity status (for example, in the US you must have a current
501(c)(3) status)
Acknowledge and agree to Google Grant’s required certifications regarding how to
receive and use donations obtained from the grant (we will go into more detail)
Have a website that is both functioning and provides adequate detail on your
nonprofit
Governmental entities and organizations
Hospitals and medical groups
Schools, childcare centers, academic institutions and universities (philanthropic arms of
educational organizations are eligible).
All the ads in your account must link to the nonprofit URL that was approved in your application
process.
Be proactive in your AdWords management by logging in to the account monthly. If a nonprofit
advertiser who has a Google Grant does not log into their AdWords account, the account is subject
to being paused without notification.
The ads you are promoting must reflect the mission of your nonprofit. You can advertise to sell
products as long as 100% of the proceeds are going to support your program.
The ads you create cannot point to pages that are used to primarily send visitors to other websites.
To be eligible for Google Grants an organization must:
The following organizations are not eligible for Google Grants:
Please note, Google does have a similar program for educational institutions
(http://www.google.com/edu/).
How To Maintain Eligibility For Your Google Ad Grant
Once you’ve scored a Google grant, the tricky part is maintaining it. So, how do you maintain eligibility?
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3. Your ads cannot offer financial products, such as mortgages or credit cards. Your ads also cannot
be asking for donations in the form of large goods such as cars, boats or property donations.
Keywords related to this activity are also not allowed.
Your website cannot display ads from Google AdSense or other affiliate advertising links while
participating in Google Grants.
Google states that any violation of these guidelines are subject to removal from the program. They also
reserve the right to supplement or amend these eligibility guidelines at any time.
Google Grant Program Details
Now that we’ve gotten through the nitty-gritty of what your status needs to be and what you can and
cannot do, let’s dive into the details.
Google Grant recipients receive free AdWords advertising, but only to display their ads on Google.com.
If you have been selected to receive a Google Grant you will build and manage your own AdWords
account similar to paying advertisers. What this means is that you will have control over your AdWords
account and Google will not be managing it for you.
There are some restrictions …
First, your daily budget will need to be set at $329 ($10,000 per month) and you cannot have keywords
with a Max CPC over $2.00. Plus, your ads can only appear on Google.com – you cannot use Search
Partners and since you can only be on Google.com with text ads, you are not eligible for the Display
Network either.
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4. So, with these restrictions it might be a little more difficult to manage a PPC account. The biggest part of
Google Grants is the money, and if you don’t use it, you lose it. Because of this, some of you will have a
hard time finding a way to spend the $10,000 per month. If you’re struggling to spend your dough, here
are some basic optimization recommendations.
Negative Keywords
Don’t go overboard with negative keywords; you need to spend this money. Yes, you’re going to want to
block traffic that is nowhere near relevant to your site/organization, but you’re not measuring on ROI
or even ROAS in the same manner as you would for an account where you are putting in your own
marketing dollars. You’re still going to want to set negatives to block out completely irrelevant traffic;
for example if you were looking for musical instrument donations and had a “Flute” ad group, you
would want to set “Champagne” as a negative. You should also be looking at your query information to
see not only what queries are triggering your ads, but to monitor for irrelevant traffic. I would also say
that if you’re a nonprofit looking for monetary donations, you should also be including keywords
looking for volunteers, making people aware of your services, and asking for non-monetary donations
as well. While I understand the purpose and point of a campaign to be collecting monetary donations,
you are going to need to find more keywords to get more traffic and find ways to spend the money. Since
you aren’t measuring your ROI as strictly, you can do this. Remember, this is free ad spend!
Keyword Selection
In terms of keywords selection, be sure to pick relevant terms and match types (we’ll get into in a little
bit). I know you are going to be anxious to not only spend the money, but make sure you stay
competitive. While it is hard to compete using a keyword that is usually a $6 CPC when you can only
have a $2 Max CPC, this means you’re going to have to get creative, using longer tail keywords and going
a little outside of the box to find searchers. Again, even go for other keywords associated with your
business to help bring in more traffic. (Think about the example above, instead of just monetary
donations talk about volunteer opportunities as well.)
Keyword Match Types
Be sure you don’t restrict your match types too much. Again, you need to spend this budget, and in a way
that is going to benefit your organization. Broad match types are going to bring you a lot of impressions
and potential clicks. This will also allow for you to be open to more searches. If for instance you’re a
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5. and potential clicks. This will also allow for you to be open to more searches. If for instance you’re a
nonprofit looking to only receive donations though your paid search efforts you might find that you are
receiving traffic of people who are looking for assistance from your nonprofit. Is this a bad thing? No, it
might not be exactly who you are marketing to, but it is also spreading awareness of the organization.
You are still going to find keywords that you’re going to want to be on phrase and exact match on, use
them, but make sure they are keywords that can handle the max CPC of $2 limit and still be competitive.
Don’t Abandon Best Practices
Working with clients who are using Google Grants is interesting because you need to take a pretty
different approach to managing the account compared to one with actual marketing dollars. I know I
spoke a lot about making sure you are spending the budget, but I have seen clients who need to cut back,
so please remember that you still want to be smart and have a solid account structure. As always, keep
PPC best practices in mind when structuring your ad groups and ads.
Good luck getting your Google Grant!
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6. reply
Wednesday December 18, 2013
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Robert Coats (not verified) Said:
And for those nonprofits that run into issues or are looking for help, Google has the Google Ad Grants Help
Forum where you can get all your questions answered.
As the Top Contributor of Google's Ad Grants Help Forum, I can share that the #1 issue I see most often with account
set up is that the Grantee did not follow the instructions as outlined in the Grants Account Creation Guide. Setting up
an AdWords account for use with the Ad Grants program is a bit different than a regular AdWords account set up, but
as long as you follow the guide it is pretty straight forward.
Robert
Google Ad Grants Top Contributor | Add me to your Google+ Circles
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