You know how it can be in the charity sphere, November arrives and you’re still not ready to launch into those festive campaign ideas that have been floating around for months. Whether it’s selling tickets to an event, or filling up marathon places, there’s a lot to be and not much time to do it in!
Google Ads Grants can help! With upwards of £8,000 per month, available to use to advertise your charity digitally, the programme can ensure your message is reaching the right audience, at the time when it counts the most.
Relatively quick to set up, these campaigns can be tailored to your charity’s needs and so regardless of your festive goals, you can start running ads to help achieve them in no time – just like Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust!
Thanks to the help of Google Ads Grants, over the festive period, we were able to push over 7,000 people to the specially created landing page for the campaign itself and increase donations during the month of December.
The Challenge
Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust came to us just before their busiest time of year. They wanted to support a Direct Response TV (DRTV) advert, which encouraged people to donate to their ‘Help Your Hospital’ campaign. The campaign funds resources, equipment and support for Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. People could donate through the website or via text using the phrase ‘Addenbrooke’s toy’ which would contribute gifts for sick children spending the festive season in hospital.
However, they had recently created a new website that was not optimised to show in the organic search results when someone Googled the phrase ‘Addenbrooke’s toy’. This made it difficult for donors who saw the ad to find them.
The Solution
By incorporating the phrase into their fundraising campaign, we were able to gain visibility at the top of the search engine results for Addenbrooke’s at a critical time of fundraising. Additionally, we ran some awareness campaigns for their other initiatives, coupled with an overall recruitment campaign. These additional campaigns helped regular donors find the charity and raise awareness of their new website towards new and existing supporters.
We were also able to assist in the creation and running of some paid ads using the DRTV advert across Google’s display network, helping to further expand the reach of the campaign and funnel people into the donor stream.
The Impact
We were able to push over 7,000 people to the specially created landing page for the campaign itself and increase donations during the month of December. These funds are used to support children at Addenbrooke’s Hospital over the festive period through toys, medicine and equipment for the hospital.
Additionally, we are still promoting donations via the main website and to various other campaigns, which will continue to support the hospital with research, new facilities and even new departments.
Beyond Xmas
While the Google Ad Grant is perfect for increasing engagement over Xmas, once applied for, it keeps rolling as long as you use it, so it can keep helping you achieve your goals, well into the new year. Moving away from the toy appeal, Addenbrooke’s focussed their efforts on raising funds throughout the year, using keywords such as ‘Cambridge Half Marathon’ and ‘Dragon Boat Race’ to fill up their charity’s places in the events, which in turn, brings in funds from sponsorships.
Get your ads out in front of the right audience today, and see what they can achieve for your charity!
