Google Ad Grants for 501c3 Non Profits

Google Ad Grants is a service provided by google, where eligible entities can benefit from advertising them or their service through Google Ad Words. The best part is that all the advertising comes for free. The advertisement cost is provided by Google in the form of a grant. This is why the service is called Google Ad Grant Program.

We all know how effective it is to advertise through Google AdWords. Google is the king of the internet so, it is the only place where you can get the most relevant exposure for your ads. Advertising through Google Ad Words, if designed correctly, can work wonders for any organisation. This is where the real benefit lies for the organizations that get Google Ad Grant.

The Ad Grant service is already very popular with non-profits as it is already working with more than19000 non-profits globally. The benefits that it provides, makes the application and selection process all the more competitive. There are a stringent set of guidelines laid down by google that have to be met by any organization in order to be eligible for Google Ad Grants.

Guidelines of Ad Grants Program:
Google has laid down a set of guidelines for the ads to be placed under the Ad Grant program. Anyone advertising through this program will have to strictly adhere to the undermentioned guidelines:

1. The ads have to be in the form of ‘text ad’ only. This means that you cannot include any form of video, images or animation in your advertisement. The ad has to be strictly text based.
2. The ads have to be built around certain keywords that your ad campaign is going to target. Free tools like Google Keyword Planner can be used to figure out low competition keywords and your ads can target those keywords.
3. Maximum CPC allowed in this program is $2. This cannot be exceeded under any circumstances. So, this condition should also be kept in mind while choosing your focus keyword.
4. Google provides $10000 monthly ($120000 annually) in the form of advertising budget. One should not confuse it with real cash. This fund is available in the form of Google Adword advertising budget. Well, in terms of advertising, this amount is really good, even when you are advertising on Google. This amount of advertising can bring significant benefits to your organization.
5. Daily advertising budget under this program cannot exceed $329. This budget is sufficient to create enough engagement for your organization and its goals.
6. Another important thing to remember is the positioning of the ads on google search result pages. The ads placed under the Ad Grant program will be displayed below the paid advertisements on google pages.
7. Another important guideline is that the entity which has been provided with the funds under Google Ad Grant, must ensure activity and innovativeness in its advertisements. The programmers behind the advertising campaigns of the organization, must log into their Ad Words account at least once every month. They should also make some changes in their advertisement campaigns and ad setup every three months.

Eligibility Requirements under the Google Ad Grant Program:
Any non-profit that wishes to avail the benefits of the Ad Grant program has to fulfil certain pre-determined eligibility criteria as laid down by Google. The eligibility requirements are as follows:

1. The organization has to hold a valid 501c3 certification. This certifies the charity status of the organization.
2. It must have a live website. The website must have relevant content that matches with the actual work the non-profit organization does. It should also display all the currently active schemes, the office addresses, contact details and a clear vision statement of the non-profit entity.
3. The non-profit has to agree to the Google Ad Grant Terms and Conditions while signing up for the program. By signing up, the entity agrees to use the advertising grant as per the regulations and policy terms as laid down by Google.
4. There are certain organizations that are not eligible for the Ad Grant program eg. Government Organizations, Hospitals, Schools, Academic Institutions or Universities are not eligible under Google Ad Grant. However, the philanthropic division of educational institutions can avail the benefits of advertising under this scheme.

What is a 501c3 organization?
A particular organization is said to be 501c3, when it is involved in charity programs and its status has been approved by the Internal Revenue Service. Such an organization is also exempt from its tax liabilities arising from its fund raising operations that are directed towards its charity related activities. The span of charitable activities is huge and it encompasses a host of activities that are directed towards the general welfare of the public or a particular section of the society. They can range from educational to sports, religious to scientific, literature to testing etc.

501c3 organizations are primarily of three types: Public charity, Private Foundation and Private Operating Foundation. They all have their own specific management structure, active charity programs status and revenue generation method. A 501c3 organization is under a heavy set of regulations, mostly because of its tax status. Its operations cannot be directed towards generating any monetary benefits for the individual members of the management, employee or any private individual. Similarly, in the event of a shut down the corporate assets cannot be distributed among the members. Even the income generated by the website, should go towards financing the programs being run by the organization.

How to Maintain and keep your Ad Grants Account active:
There are certain requirements and conditions that Google wants you to follow in order to maintain your Ad Grants account alive and running. They are as follows:

1. You have to be active with your ads and your Ad Words account. It is required to log into your ad words account at least once a month and make some changes in the ad settings every 3 months.
2. You cannot monetize your website that you are promoting through Ad Grant program. Google strictly prohibits such websites from displaying Google AdSense ads or other affiliate links of any kind. Any profit generation in this way will contradict with the very essence of being a Non-Profit organization.
3. Your ads should link to the very same website (only one domain) that has been approved by Google for the ad grant. You cannot use the funds available under the grant to advertise any other program other than your organization’s main website. Similarly, your ads should also not point to a page that carries links to other websites.
4. Your ads should be relevant to the purpose of your organization. The keywords should be set around the programs and services that your non-profit organization is associated with.
5. Neither can your ads offer financial products, nor can they ask people for donations of any kind.

How Can A Non-Profit Organization Benefit From Google Ad Grant:
Advertising on Google has benefits that no other site or service can offer. Google is the king of the Internet with around 3 billion searches per day. Google is present everywhere and almost everyone uses it. It has access to our desktops and smartphones. It can reach us anytime of the day, while we are in our office, or bedroom, or shopping mall, google has access to us all the time. Advertising on google, therefore becomes all the more relevant, as it will reach its target audience for sure.

However, on the negative side, advertising on Google can be very expensive. Small organizations or non-profit organizations won’t ever have the money to utilize this huge advertising service. This is where the Ad Grant program steps in. Through this program, organizations are able to utilize this massive advertising resource and generate great results for their cause. This is the very reason that many major organizations of the World are advertising on Google through the Ad Grants program eg. Unicef, Kiva etc.

Everyone in the online industry understands that to generate any results from your online endeavours, the most basic necessity is ‘Traffic’. With access to a huge target audience, Non Profits benefit from Google Ad Grant service in many ways. Some of them are as follows:

1. With the huge exposure that google advertising brings on the table, non-profit organizations can benefit greatly in terms of increased number of people who want to get associated with their cause. This in turn translates into, a greater number of donors, volunteers and consumers coming together to further the organization’s cause.
2. Greater exposure also translates into greater awareness among the relevant audience about the existence of your organization. This span of awareness is further broadened by word to mouth publicity. So, in a way this creates a ripple of free publicity of your non-profit.
3. Google Adwords also provides you with one of the most elaborate Insights about your ad campaign. The exposure and engagement received by your advertisement is further broken down in terms of demography, geographical locations, gender and interest. An elaborate insight helps you understand in a better way as to what ad combination is working best, which geographical location and age group is responding the most to your ads. This also helps you track the number of new people signing up to your newsletters or registering as volunteers.

It is therefore, very clear that Google Advertising can bring great benefits for your non-profit in more than one way. However, the restriction of maximum CPC of $2 can sometime acts as a restraint. In more competitive markets, the CPC can be higher, but the maximum CPC ceiling keeps the advertisers away from those markets. This sometimes leads to advertisers not being able to utilize their entire ad grant budget.

Tips to maximize earnings:
Here are a few tips to help advertisers utilize maximum advertising budget allotted to them.

1. Keep effective track of your ads and keywords.  Whenever you spot that a particular combination is not performing well, immediately phase it out and replace it with another combination. Keep doing this till you get a perfect match that converts well.
2. Keep your ads and keywords relevant with the content of the webpage you are sending your visitors to. Play around with short and long keywords while always keeping them relevant with the website.
3. Provide free giveaways. This has proven to be the method that always works. Everybody wants a freebie and you won’t mind giving it away in return for a valuable email id that belongs to a future prospect.
4. Keep your ad interesting and elaborate. New people while viewing your ad should feel tempted to click the ad. At the same time, your ad should give your visitors a clear idea as to what you are representing.

How to Apply for Google Ad Grants Program for Non Profits?
If you feel that your organization meets all the criteria laid down by google for their ad grant program, then you can begin with registering on their website. There will be a simple form initially that will ask for your and your organization’s basic details. Then you will be provided with a TechSoup validation token.  TechSoup verifies whether your entity is actually an NGO or not and submits its report to Google.

After filling all the relevant details, you can submit your application. Giving you approval will totally depend upon Google. They generally provide approval in 10 to 15 days or they may ask you to submit other information as required by them.

Along with that, you also have to separately create an Adwords account. The advertisers need to develop some understanding as to how Google Adwords works before they actually start utilizing their Ad Grants budget.

Conclusion:
To conclude, we can say that Google Ad Grant program can be of great help to any non-profit. Just the sheer amount of free advertising that it offers, can change the fortunes of the organization. It can greatly help the organization increase its reach and influence and gain more supporters to further its cause in the long run.

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