Google Grants for nonprofits is a program that allows not for profit organisations up to $10,000USD per month to spend on Google search advertising.
Who is eligible to receive the google grant for non-profits?
All not for profit organisations are eligible to receive the Google search grant.
In Australia, there are three different types of organisations eligible. These include
- Those who are deductible gift recipients endorsed by the ATO
- Charities registered with the ACNC or
- Income tax exempt not for profit organisations as defined by the ATO
In the United States, organisations that are recognised by the IRS as tax-exempt or in other words 501(c)(3) organisations.
Check this link to see the eligibility requirements by the country to see if your organisation is eligible.
Just a quick note, that government entities hospitals and healthcare organisations and school academic institutions or universities are not eligible for Google search grants.
How To get the Google Grant for nonprofits?
In order to get the Google search grant, there are three key steps that your organisation will need to complete.
- First, your organisation will need to register with techsoup.org or the governing body that determines the eligibility of not for profits in your country.
- Once you register with TechSoup you will get a validation token which will be used in the next step.
- Next, you will need to enrol in Google for Nonprofits see the link here in order to access Google for nonprofits.
- Make sure that when you’re registering for Google for nonprofits and techsoup.org that you are using the same organisation email address. this makes things a bit easier when you start advertising for others to access your account.
- This process can take a few weeks to complete. Once you’ve been approved you will receive an email. There will be a link in this email that will send you to the Google for nonprofits homepage.
- Lastly, once you’ve been approved for Google for nonprofits you’ll navigate to the home page. The homepage link will be in the email you received in the last step. You’ll then navigate to the Google ad grants section. You’ll then click on get started to begin activating your Google search grant.
- This step will take you through an ad grant eligibility form, which will ask you questions about your organisation.
- Second, you will submit your activation request for review. This will generally take around three days.
How to keep your Google Grant for Nonprofits.
Compliance Rule #1 No Single Word Keywords
Way to go and great job on successfully getting your Google search grant activated. Google has specified particular compliance rules that your Google search grant account must adhere to. If your account is non-compliant for two months in a row your ad grant will be taken away from your organisation. So it’s really important to make sure that your add grant stays compliant.
In your add grant account, you will be utilising keywords in order to target users that are typing in those keywords in the search box. One of the main compliance rules is that you may not use keywords that are one single word. An example of a single word keyword could be something like donate or volunteer. So these sort of keywords are too broad and you are not allowed to target these in your grant account.
Your goal here is to find long-tail keywords which are keywords that include multiple words in order to remain compliant in your account. Instead of a donate keyword a much better keyword for your add grant account would be charitable donation to green sea turtles. This keyword string is much more specific and will drive highly relevant clicks to your website.
Compliance Rule #2 At Least 5% Click Through Rate
The second main compliance rule has to do with the clickthrough rate. Click-through rate is the rate at which people who see your advertisement actually click on it and visit your website. In your ad grant account, you must have at least a 5% clickthrough rate. This means that of all the eyeballs that see your advertisement at least 5% of those people need to click through to your website.
You can also set up rules in your ad grant account that will run each month to pause any keywords that have a clickthrough rate of less than 5%. This is a time-saving trick in order to remain compliant without manually pausing keywords.
Compliance Rule #3 Conversion Tracking Set-Up
The third compliance rule has to deal with conversion tracking. Conversion tracking is the act of setting up actions that we want the user to take on our website. An example might be a user clicking on the donate now button on your website and donating $100. This is a valuable action for your organisation to measure your results. So a requirement of your Google ad grant is that you have website actions or conversions set up. The easiest way to do this is to set up goals in Google Analytics.
You also must drive at least one website conversion or event per month.
Compliance Rule #4 Conversion Based Bid Strategy
The fourth compliance rule has to do with the bid strategy for each of your campaigns. A bid strategy is the way we tell Google to deliver our campaigns. Google requires that we use a conversion-based bid strategy in our Google search grant accounts. These bid strategies include maximise conversions, maximise conversion value, target CPA, or target ROAS. I would highly recommend sticking with maximise conversions.
if you remember from the fourth compliance rule we set up our conversions or events on our website already. So this bid strategy is going to attempt to maximise those events or conversions. This means we are telling Google to deliver our advertisements to those users that are most likely to complete an event.
Compliance Rule #5 Specific Campaign Settings
The last compliance rule has to do with campaign settings. Google requires that your campaigns target a specific location. This just means that you can’t target the entire world and you need to specify either country, state or postcode.
Secondly, Google requires that each campaign has at least two adgroups and at least two sitelink extensions live. Adgroups simply refer to the way that we split out our keywords. You will likely have a lot more adgroups than just two, so this is just something to keep in mind. Sitelink extensions are clickable links that will appear below your advertisement on the results page. You’ve likely seen these already you’ve just not known the exact name for them.
With your ad grant account, I recommend having at least four sitelink extensions at least four call out extensions and one call extension.
Necessary to know but not included in the above list is the grant program survey. Once a year, your organisation will be required to fill out a grant program survey. Google will email your organisation with this survey. You should get plenty of time from once Google sends the email to when you’re required to complete this survey. So there’s no need to stress about potentially missing this bit.
Get Your Free Compliance Checklist Below & Make Sure Not To Lose Your Ad Grant!
In Summary
Google search grant program is an incredible opportunity that allows all not for profit organisations up to $10,000 in search advertising per month.
There are three main steps that your organisation will need to follow in order to sign up and activate your Google search grant account. this could take around three months so I would highly recommend taking this project on during your off-season.
Lastly, we chatted through the five main compliance rules that Google has set for your ad grant account.
Get Your Ad Grant Today!
Are you keen to get a Google search grant for your organisation?
If you answered yes click here to access my free workshop that will give you the tools you need to apply for your Google search grant account.
are you a not for profit that would like to level up your current ad grant account?
if you answered yes click here to access the Google ad grant accelerator course. this course runs for six weeks and it will teach you everything you need to know about your Google search grant. I will also be coaching you through keyword research creating and uploading campaigns and setting up compliance rules. the course generally runs every month so feel free to reach out to save your spot in the next round.