For charities, the $10,000/month Google Ad Grants scheme (let’s call it the Grant for short) is a great opportunity, particularly for smaller organisations with limited budgets, to expand their reach and raise awareness for their cause. However, the Grant comes with specific limitations that must be understood to utilise it effectively. This blog will explore the best strategies for leveraging the Grant and highlight areas where its impact might be limited.
Common areas where the Grant falls short
Donation campaigns (competitive searches)
As versatile as Ad Grants can be, they fall short when competing in a competitive search space against paid accounts, because they’re fundamentally designed to only compete against other Grants.
When charities receive a Google Ad Grants account, the instinct is often to focus on driving donations. With $10,000 in advertising, it seems logical to use the Grant to create fundraising campaigns to push donations. After all, spending $10,000 on donation campaigns should bring in plenty of donations, right? But this approach often underdelivers. The competitive nature of paid search means that keywords related to this type of activity are highly contested, with larger charities spending heavily to secure top positions on search results pages.
Google Ad Grants ads are penalised beneath paid search ads, so where a topic is competitive, Grants won’t be seen. Even in theory, bidding a higher amount (by utilising mechanisms that can stretch the official bid above the $2 limit, such as using ‘optimise to conversions’. As a result, Grant-funded ads often struggle to gain visibility, especially for donation campaigns, and often fail to spend at all.
Given these challenges, it’s advisable to avoid dedicating your Grant budget solely to donation campaigns. While there’s no harm in running them to capture occasional traffic, the time and effort could be more effectively allocated elsewhere.
Charity-specific events and activities (overly niche content)
Ad Grants are effective for general charity events – for targeting keywords like ‘charity sponsored swims’. But if the event is especially popular (London Marathon, for example) there will be paid advertisers bidding and thus your Ad Grant efforts will be lost among the competition. Conversely, if the event is niche, be sure to avoid targeting niche keywords that nobody will search for.
Similarly to donation keywords, charity challenge events often face stiff competition and can struggle to perform well under the Grant. However, promoting niche content with little to no searches will also lead to poor results. Ads for charity-specific challenge events and activities are an example of these that we see in Ad Grants.
It’s key to remember that Google Ads operates on a keyword-based system; your ads only appear when people search for relevant terms. This means that if there isn’t already awareness of your event, your ads won’t get much traction. Promoting Brand events and niche activities via the Grant can be challenging without support from other channels.
It’s also important to consider where people will search for your content. A great example is podcasts, as people are more likely to search on the platform that they listen on, rather than a Google search. Therefore, using your Grant to promote a podcast will likely not be the most optimal channel as searches for this content will be low.
Best ways to use a Grant
Understanding the marketing funnel
If driving donations isn’t the most effective use of the Grant, then what is? The key lies in understanding the unique role of the Google Ad Grants within the marketing funnel and your average user journey. While paid accounts are excellent for converting users who are ready to donate or take action (bottom of the funnel), Grants are better suited for users in the awareness or consideration stages (top of the funnel).
Think of the Grant as a tool for reaching cold users searching in your specialist area and nurturing potential supporters. A Grant can be a great way to introduce people to your organisation and be the first touch point. Instead of focusing on immediate donations, use it to encourage people to join your mailing list or sign up for a newsletter.
This engagement approach might not be as effective at soliciting an immediate donation, but will help with raising awareness and help bring users into a journey with your organisation that could result in a donation further down the road.
This approach is becoming increasingly important as we move toward a future without third-party cookies (we now strongly advise using server side tracking), where direct connections with your audience will be even more valuable.
Leveraging content to build awareness
The first point of contact is crucial in the user’s journey with your charity, and it’s up to the organisation to guide them through to eventual donation or participation. The Google Ad Grants are particularly effective when used to promote niche, less competitive content that can drive traffic to your site. Informative content—such as blogs, educational resources, and informational articles—tends to perform well under the Grant because it faces less keyword competition than conversion-focused pages.
Paid accounts typically prioritise ads that drive specific actions—purchases, donations, volunteer sign-ups, etc – whereas the Grant shines with informational content. By targeting keywords that answer common questions related to your cause, you can position your ads at the top of search results, attracting more visitors to your site. One benefit of a Grant is that you can go much broader with keywords, which can help you reach traffic that might be missed by more focused exact keywords that paid accounts are using.
While the likelihood of someone reading a blog on your site and immediately donating is small, the traffic generated is still valuable. Increased visibility helps build awareness of your cause and familiarity with your brand. Over time, as people become more familiar with your organisation, your brand’s reputation grows, making potential donors more likely to choose you when they’re ready to give.
Supporting your beneficiaries
In addition to driving traffic, Google Ad Grants can be used to support your beneficiaries by providing them with valuable information, such as helplines or educational resources. These efforts may not result in immediate donations, but they can build long-term relationships. A beneficiary or their family may choose to donate, participate in a fundraiser, or volunteer in the future because your organisation helped them in a time of need.
Conclusion
There are exceptions to every rule, but in general, while Google Ad Grants offer charities an opportunity to expand their reach, their limitations require a thoughtful approach to fully leverage their potential. Rather than focusing solely on donation campaigns, which often face stiff competition, charities can maximise the impact of the Grant by using it to build awareness and nurture potential supporters through educational and niche content. By positioning the Grant as a tool for the early stages of the marketing funnel, organisations can increase visibility, support their beneficiaries, and create lasting connections that could lead to future engagement and donations.
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