What is Google Ads Grants?

You likely have a favourite not for profit organisation, whether it’s a huge one like Macmillan or a smaller regional one like Windyways Animal Shelter, they usually have a special place in our hearts for one reason or another.

Charities and not for profits need to be able to compete in the same markets as commercial outlets to gain the same levels of success and with the ever growing digital sphere, they need to keep up and have visibility online.

Where many lack the budgets or specialist staff needed to develop a strong online presence, Google Ads Grants can help!

What Are Google Ad Grants?

Google Ads Grants offers up to £8,750 a month in free Google advertising for charities who sign up, which works out to around £105,000 a year or £288 a day!

These grants were designed by Google to help nonprofits to flourish online running PPC ads to drive targeted traffic to their sites, just as any other business might, to generate leads, raise funds or encourage engagement.

You’ve likely seen some of the ads yourselves! They appear when you search on Google under the commercial ads at the top of the page.

And whether you realize it or not, you’ve probably seen some of these ads online; they show up beneath paid-for ads when you do a Google search.

Of course, there are rules and criteria that a charity must abide to in order to maintain the grant, which we will discuss below.

Applying for Google Ads Grants

From high profile nonprofits like Samaritans, to smaller charities like We Care Animal Rescue, Google Ads Grants have helped hundreds of charities improve their online presence.

Samaritans for example, used Google Ads Grants to generate over £34,000 in donations for their helpline and drove 1,700 donation sign ups in a year.

Using free tools like Google Analytics and Tag Manager allowed Samaritans to measure the impact of their ads and trace the donations back to people who had seen or engaged with the ads.

It isn’t just free advertising budget that nonprofits can benefit from, they also have a wealth of digital marketing resources, so if you are brand new to advertising or marketing, Google has you covered!

They have a set of videos that can help you set up and run successful campaigns across platforms and they include topics such as, designing social media strategy, starting and building your campaign and tracking conversions.

How Much Money Does Google Ad Grants Offer?

The Google Ads Grant gives nonprofits £105,000 worth of advertising every year, equalling around £8,750 a month. If you’re tracking donations, purchases, and fees, then Google suggests using a maximizing conversion bidding strategy which optimises automatically for people to complete actions on your site such as donate, sign up for newsletters or subscribe to content.

How to Apply for Google Ad Grants

As with any other grant, there’s an application to fill out. Web Presence can do this on your behalf, or you can do it yourself.

Applying for the grant involves the following steps:

• Check eligibility
• Sign up for a Google nonprofits account
• Activate your Google Grants account

Checking Eligibility

The Google Ads grants are only open to eligible non-profits. This means your organization must:

• • Be in one of the 50 eligible countries. You can find a list of them online.
  • Sign up for Google Nonprofits.
  • Accept Google’s certifications, which cover non-discrimination and donation receipt/use
  • Have an established website that meets Google’s Ad Grants standards, including HTTPS security
  • Complete the activation process

Sign Up for Google Non Profits

To sign up to Google for Nonprofits you’ll need to:

• • 1. Register with Charitydigitalexchange.org. which is a nonprofit that offers a variety of tech resources. It’s free to join, and all you need to do is complete a short application.
    2. Request a Google for Nonprofits account by clicking ‘Get Started.’ Then, fill out the requested information, and wait for Google’s verification email.

Activate and Create Your Google Ad Grants Account

To activate your Google Ad Grants account, you’ll need to first fill out the eligibility form which can be found when you log into ‘Google for Nonprofit’ account under the Google Ads Grants heading.

Select the ‘Activate’ option and then tell  Google more about your organization and confirm your entitlement to a grant.

Written by:

Astra Newton | Head of Advertising