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Leveraging Google Ad Grants for Brand Awareness: 4 Tips

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Raising brand awareness online can seem challenging at first. The internet is full of a million distractions and competitors, so your organization needs to stand out to the people who matter most: your supporters.

That’s where Google Ad Grants come in.

Google Ad Grants give eligible nonprofits up to $10,000 in ad credit each month. With these ad credits, your nonprofit can place targeted ads in search engine results about topics relevant to your work. Think of how easily you could meet your fundraising goals if you could double or triple the number of visitors to your website!

The key to raising brand awareness is to make sure that your brand is being seen. You can master Google Ads to get clicks online with a little time and practice, and anyone can learn the basics in a few short minutes. To increase your brand awareness with the Google Ad Grant, you should:

  • Design a branded website.
  • Identify high-priority conversions.
  • Create targeted ad campaigns.
  • Meet your supporters’ needs.

We will explore a few tips that anyone can use to gain an edge with their brand awareness online, starting with the center of it all: your website.

Design a branded website.

Your website is the most influential piece of your branding strategy. Remember, a poorly designed or under-used website can say just as much about a brand as an expert one.

An effective and well-maintained website is the headquarters of  your nonprofit’s online success and how well the Google Ad Grant will work. Here are a few things to examine to improve the quality of your website’s branding and functionality:

  • Your mission statement should be featured prominently. Your mission statement is like your nonprofit’s heartbeat. It inspires visitors to take action and gives your brand a chance to speak.
  • Choose your images wisely. Images and infographics provide a splash of color and useful information that can stay with a reader long after they have moved to the next website, but be careful about image sizes. An image that’s too large can make your website take a long time to load!
  • Say what you mean and say it well. The text on your site should be engaging to your readers. Think of your website as an always-on spokesperson for your nonprofit’s brand, and write something that gives life and energy to what you do.
  • Make your website accessible to all. Ensuring that your website follows accessibility guidelines, such as being navigable by keyboard alone or using clear fonts and text sizes, are simple steps that may help your website be fully functional to a wider audience.

Having a quality website is also one of the things that Google checks when examining your application for the Google Ad Grant. Put in the time to make your website into your brand’s helpful home on the internet and you will find that more of your visitors decide to stay awhile!

Identify high-priority conversions.

Getting visitors to your site isn’t everything. You also need to make sure that they are interacting with your site in ways that contribute to your cause. This is called a conversion.

A few high-value conversions include:

  • Increasing donations
  • Recruiting volunteers
  • Connecting with local businesses to encourage workplace giving
  • Getting views or downloads of important content
  • Signing up for an email newsletter

Ask yourself:  What does your organization hope to accomplish? What do they want to be known for? Which statistics might help with future grant proposals or program expansions? Ultimately, the conversions you decide to anchor your brand around will form the basis of how you target your ad campaigns with Google Ads.

Create targeted ad campaigns.

When you post an ad with Google, it doesn’t appear in every search on the internet. Google Ads can only place you at the top of the right search results if you know which searches to target, which will likely require a bit of critical thinking and research.

Spend some time thinking about your cause and your brand. What are common internet searches that your ideal audience might make? Use demographic data and from past fundraising or volunteering if you have it to inform your decision. Prospect research can also help you identify your ideal audience.

For example, let’s say you run a  nonprofit that aims to place stray animals in loving homes. If your organization was hoping to find volunteers, you could target phrases like “where to help animals in my area” or “benefits of volunteering with animals.” However, if you’d rather fundraise, you could shift your ads to target phrases like “support local animal rescues” or “how to help stray dogs.”

As you gain more experience in placing targeted ads. you will see what strategies and marketing channels are more effective to reach your ideal audience.. Your supporters have much to offer, but you need to understand them in return.

Meet your supporters’ needs.

Making a difference in your community is a collaboration between you and your supporters. It is important that you consider what they hope to gain through their volunteering or support for you, and meeting those needs will help to solidify your brand in their mind and build trust.

The Google Ad Grant gives you an easy way to speak directly to them. Think of your targeted ads not as marketing, but as the chance to answer a question, and even get to know your donors’ needs in the process.

Here are a few tips for how to meet potential new supporters where they are:

  • Track past ad campaigns to see which ones work. Google Ads tracks extensive data for you. This allows you to explore which ad campaigns are more successful than others and which goals they are helping you to meet.
  • Tailor your messaging to the campaigns that work best.  Successful campaigns indicate that something is resonating with your readers. Try to focus on what made those campaigns effective as you think of future ads.
  • Connect tailored messaging and your brand. Your supporters will show you which messaging works and which doesn’t. Take what you learn beyond Google Ads and use it to help improve your brand’s tone and voice everywhere that you communicate with your supporters.

The takeaway

Seeking change in your community is a team effort. It means taking the time to listen to your supporters and understand their needs and wants. Google Ads provide a way for you to find new supporters and communicate with them both directly and indirectly, providing essential information you need to help your organization thrive.

The size of your organization doesn’t have to limit how many people you can reach or what you can accomplish. Whether you choose to put the Google Ads to work for yourself or seek the help of Google-certified grant management, there is something for everyone in the Google Ad Grant to increase brand awareness.

 

Grant Hensel nonprofit awarenessGrant Hensel is the CEO of Nonprofit Megaphone, an agency focused 100% on Google Grant Management for nonprofits. NPM is honored to manage the Google Grant for 370+ leading nonprofits worldwide and to be an inaugural member of the Google Ad Grant Certified Professionals community.

 

Fundraising Tuesday: 3 Ways to Ask for Monthly Donations

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There’s every reason your nonprofit should ask donors to make monthly donations. Monthly donors:

Give more. As Sarah Fergusson points out, “Many moderate donors make great candidates for your monthly giving program. For instance, a donor who gives $100 per year may not have the capacity to become a major donor who gives upwards of $1,000 annually. However, they might be able to give $10 a month, increasing your nonprofit’s yearly earnings by $20.” Multiply that by a lot of $100 donors and it adds up!

Keep on giving. Monthly donors rarely become lapsed donors. They renew from year to year. According to Network for Good, Monthly giving programs typically enjoy retention rates over 80% after one year and 95% after five years.

Make additional gifts. People who give monthly donations are among your most loyal supporters. So, as Amy Eisenstein says, “Donors give at modest levels for recurring gifts and at much higher levels for special, occasional projects.”

Contribute a huge amount over a lifetime.  Consider this information from monthly giving expert Erica Waasdorp:

Right now, the average recurring donor gives between $24 and $36 a month—that’s $288 to $432 per year! Just think, if they keep giving monthly for 5 years, that’s $1,440 to $2,160. Starting to get really interesting, right?

And that’s not even considering that people who give monthly donations are the most likely group to leave you something in their will!

How Do You Ask for Monthly Donations?

Let’s say you’re convinced that asking donors to give every month is a good thing for your nonprofit–but, you’ve never done it before. How do you begin?

A quick look at my mailbox give us three different ways to ask.

In the postscript

My wife and I support RESPOND, an organization based in Somerville, MA working to end domestic violence. At the end of a fundraising appeal, Jessica Brayden, the CEO of RESPOND, asked us:

P.S. Have you thought about becoming a monthly donor? The sustaining support we received from our monthly donors throughout the Covid-1i pandemic has given us the flexibility to meet the changing and growing needs of survivors. Visit respondinc.org/donate to get started!

What’s great about using this method is that people read postscripts. The P.S. is often the first thing donors look at in your appeal letter–after their own name! So, if you use the P.S. to make it quick and easy to sign up for monthly donations, chances are you will get them.

On a buckslip

You’ve seen those little extra enclosures that some nonprofits tuck into their fundraising appeals, right? The technical term for that piece of paper is a buckslip. It’s called that because historically, it was the size of a dollar bill. No matter what size it is, it can make you big bucks–if you use it to ask for monthly donations.

That’s what Greater Boston PFLAG did. The buckslip they enclosed with their fundraising appeal is 8″ x 5″, it’s entitled OTHER WAYS TO GIVE, and it includes too many things to my mind: Employer Matching Gifts, Bequests, IRA Charitable Rollover, to name a few. But crucially, it tells me:

Monthly Giving

Your monthly gift to Greater Boston PFLAG provides reliable support for our year-round work to create a safe, inclusive, welcoming society for LGBTQ+ people. Check the relevant box on reverse side to give monthly. You can cancel at any time.

In a separate appeal

Does your nonprofit have long-time, loyal supporters? The kind you know will give every year, or twice a year, without fail? These are people who care about your mission. They may be actually looking for more ways to support what you do!

A special appeal letter may be just the right approach to ask these dedicated supporters to start giving monthly donations.

Planned Parenthood took just that approach to ask my wife and me to become monthly donors. Look at what they did:

  • Used an unusual size envelope (so it wouldn’t look like regular mail)
  • Printed this message on the front of the envelope: “Your Exclusive Invitation Enclosed”
  • Explained the program in a letter that called us “supporters who have demonstrated an extraordinary commitment.” (Gee, they noticed!)
  • Included a separate note from the President and CEO
  • Branded every piece of paper with the words “Monthly Giving Program”–even the reply envelope!

If a donor is giving for the first time, or the second, it’s possible you might want to take a softer approach. The postscript or the buckslip might introduce them to the idea (and some people will accept that introduction right away).

However, if you know that Rona and Dennis Fischman (or a donor on your list) stands with you, has your back, and is in it for the long haul, you should ask them directly to start giving monthly donations. By asking, you are recognizing–and deepening–the special relationship they already have with your nonprofit.

Fundraising Tuesday: Will Your Nonprofit be Golden in December?

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December is a crucial month for your nonprofit. As Double the Donation points out, “30% of annual giving happens in December, with about 10% of all annual donations coming in the last three days of the year.”

What happens in December could make or break your nonprofit's budget. But what you do right now, starting today, can make your December golden. Share on X

Here are the ten steps you need to take SOON to ensure a successful end-of-year fundraising campaign this December.

  1. Thank your loyal donors. Ideally, you would have been doing this all year long! But if the last time your donors heard you express your gratitude was a week after they gave, last December, the single most important thing you can do is to send a letter or email thanking them again, and showing the impact they made by giving.
  2. Go over your donor data. Remove any duplicates from your list. Check for any addresses that have changed, or anyone on your list who has died. Make sure that you are calling them by the name they prefer.
  3. Get to know your donors better. Spend a little time doing online research about a sample of your list. Call some of them. Do a survey. Find out what they care about at your organization and outside of your organization. That way, you’ll know what moves them!
  4. Segment your list. You’ll want to talk with renewal donors differently from prospects, and to people who care about (for example) your youth theater program because they care about theater differently from the one who primarily car about youth. Make sure you can find those different segments in your database or CRM.
  5. Collect stories. Once you know what your donors care about, find one person or family who faces great challenges in exactly that part of life. Tell their story, vividly, leaving off at the point where the donor can make the difference. (And give the donor the chance to be a hero of the story!)
  6. Collect photos. They’re one of the first things that donors look at when they get your letter in the mail. A photo on the envelope may tip the donor into actually opening it, and a photo inside may decide them to read it instead of throwing it into the recycling bin.
  7. Use your newsletters and social media to put donors in a giving mood. love lettersYour social media posts in October and November should should sound like to the donor. Success stories belong here. When you send the appeal letter, it should call the donor to immediate action.
  8. Write the ideal appeal letter. Direct mail still works the best at stimulating donations. If you have email addresses and no postal addresses for some of your donors, then send the ideal email appeal–but work on getting their U.S. mailing addresses for next year!
  9. Follow up your appeal. A letter in the mail will have even more impact if you use phone calls or email (or text messages, if you have permission) to remind donors how much they matter.
  10. Get ready to send the ideal thank-you letter within 48 hours of receiving the donation. That’s how you start this December to make next December golden!

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