Are you a charity in Cambridge?

Google offers a range of programmes and services to charities via its Google for Nonprofits programme. One of the best of these is the Google Ad Grant, which offers around £7,400 to £8,000 of free advertising on Google's search engine each month. That's an advertising budget of around £100,000 per year.

If you're based in Cambridge and are unsure whether your organisation is eligible for a Google Ad Grant or unsure about the application process, keep on reading…

Why is there a Google Ad Grant?

The Google Ad Grant is a scheme that helps charities raise awareness of their cause and grow their supporter base. Google offers charities the opportunity to advertise on Google for free via the Ad Grant, helping organisations with things like:

Raising awareness of their organisation and charitable cause.
Promoting fundraising appeals.
Finding new volunteers.
Driving donations.
Encouraging people to sign-up to events.
Building a following of supporters.

How much is the Google Ad Grant?

Around £7,400 to £8,000 per month, or around £100,000 per year. This is a monthly budget, not a one-off free trial or a pot of ad spend that will run out at some point. As long as the account follows Google's rules, charities can continue to receive this amount every single month.

Who can apply for the Google Ad Grant?

To be eligible for the Google Ad Grant your organisation must meet the following criteria:

Be a charity that's registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, OSCR in Scotland, or the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland.
Have a high-quality website that makes it clear what your charity does.
Not be a government organisation, hospital, healthcare organisation, school, university, or other academic institution.

To apply for the Ad Grant your organisation will first need to join Google for Nonprofits and get verified. You'll need to get verified by Goodstack to prove to Google that you're a charity.

How to apply for a Google Ad Grant

Step 1: Apply for Google for Nonprofits

Your organisation must be verified and enrolled with Google for Nonprofits in order to apply for the Ad Grant. To get started, apply for validation with Google's UK validation partner Goodstack to verify your organisation's charitable status. Once you've received your Goodstack token, take it to google.com/nonprofits and apply to join. You'll be added to Google for Nonprofits within a few business days.

Step 2: Apply for a Google Ad Grant

Once you're a Google for Nonprofits member you'll be able to apply for a Google Ad Grant from the portal. You'll need to set-up a Google Ads account without billing details and apply for the Ad Grant against this.

Step 3: Get verified

Your organisation's charitable status will be verified and your application for a Google Ad Grant will be reviewed. Once approved, Google will activate your grant. The whole process can take two to four weeks.

Things to know about setting-up your Ad Grant account

When you receive your Google Ad Grant, it's important to make sure that your Google Ads account is compliant with Google's rules. Some of these requirements include:

Having an account that's been set-up as a Google for Nonprofits Ad Grants account, not a standard, paid-for Google Ads account.
Using a campaign type eligible for the Google Ad Grant. These are Search campaigns and Performance Max campaigns with Search/Maps placement selected. Other campaign types, such as YouTube, Shopping, and Display campaigns aren't eligible for the Ad Grant.
Achieving at least a 5% average monthly click-through rate for Search campaigns. If an Ad Grants account doesn't reach the required benchmark for two consecutive months Google may deactivate the account and send a warning. Performance Max campaigns don't have a monthly CTR requirement.
Using conversion tracking. Conversion tracking lets you find out what happens after someone interacts with your ad. You can use Google Ads conversion tracking or GA4 conversion tracking. Charities must track conversions for actions that are meaningful to them, such as form-fills, newsletter signups, purchases, downloads, phone calls, etc. Ad Grant accounts need to get at least one tracked conversion each month otherwise Google may suspend them.

Using an account that meets Ad Grant account structure requirements, including:

Has at least one Search or Performance Max campaign with Search/Maps placement only that's ready to start serving ads
Has sitelink assets with a minimum of two sitelinks required
Is geo-targeted
Has keywords with a Quality Score of 3 or higher
Uses a Smart Bidding strategy (accounts created on or after April 2019 only), such as:
Target ROAS
Target CPA
Maximise Conversions

This last point only applies to accounts created on or after April 2019 and does not apply to Smart Campaigns.

Need help setting-up and optimising your Google Ad Grant? Get in touch with us for more info…

Managing Google Ad Grants – What's Involved?

Recently a client approached us who run a charity relating to a local parkland. They had a Google Ad Grant worth £7,500 per month but their account hadn't been performing as they'd have liked and it's clear that whoever was managing it hadn't had the time or knowledge to get the account up and running properly.

The account was the responsibility of an executive within their team but she had other priorities and this account was just another thing on her already overloaded to-do list.

Should someone within the charity manage Ad Grants?

Ad Grants is an allowance worth around £7,400 to £8,000 per month of Google Search Advertising which charities and non-profits can use to promote their organisation and its campaigns. It can be hugely beneficial for charities and used in lots of different ways, for example:

Driving relevant, targeted traffic to your website to raise awareness of a specific appeal or campaign.
Targeting people living in Cambridge who may be looking for support from a charity.
Raising awareness of upcoming events and fundraisers to encourage participation.
Encouraging people who are searching for non-profit volunteering opportunities in Cambridge to sign up to your organisation.
Raising awareness of seasonal or topical appeals and campaigns without having to dip into marketing budgets.

It's important to consider who would be the right person to manage the account to make sure you get the best possible results and utilise the full grant.

Managing a Google Ad Grants account is more complicated than you may think and there are lots of rules and considerations. Some charities try to manage their account and accidentally break the rules leading to a suspended account.

Accounts can't perform well without structure.

Accounts can be structured in lots of ways depending on the organisation and its goals.

Generally, it's best practice to ensure that campaigns are tightly themed around specific services, goals, target audiences etc.

It's essential that campaigns are structured correctly from the outset to get the best out of Ad Grants.

Accounts that haven't been set up properly could be spending all their budget on irrelevant searches, or not spending all of it because they've been too specific with keyword selection or the ad copy isn't performing well.

There are certain types of keywords that can't be used with Ad Grants accounts. Single words and generic keywords aren't allowed, keywords need to be relevant to the charity. For example: “Charity” isn't allowed but “Cambridge food bank donations” and “donate to Cambridge homeless charity” would be. Broad match keywords are useful to uncover new keyword ideas but negative keywords can be added to stop ads appearing for searches that are too broad.

It's best to avoid Smart Bidding, such as Target CPA or Target ROAS bidding strategies, until an Ad Grants account has a good amount of conversion and click-through data to rely on.

Without enough data it's difficult for Google to work out when to raise bids to win more valuable ad positions.

Once there's some conversion history Smart Bidding can be introduced to ensure budgets are being spent on the highest-value searches.

Note: with Smart Bidding there's no CPC (cost-per-click) cap, whereas manual bidding can be capped with Ad Grants.

Google Ads should link through to relevant pages on your website.

We call these landing pages and ideally, people will be sent to a page that matches what they searched for rather than your charity's home page.

Although it's Ad Grants there are still Google's Quality Score rules to abide by, as slow, poorly designed or difficult-to-understand landing pages will impact how often your ads appear, Ad Grants or not.

Many charities will appoint someone within their team to manage Ad Grants but we'd always recommend that whoever manages Ad Grants has previous experience with Google Ads accounts and Ad Grants specifically. It's an area where a specialist will get the best possible results.

Alternatively, someone who doesn't manage Google Ads on a daily basis would benefit from having an expert set up the account correctly, including conversion tracking, campaigns, keyword lists, ad groups etc., then passing it over for ongoing management.

Poorly managed Ad Grants accounts often see irrelevant keywords selected, lots of searches missed out on, incorrect campaign structure, conversion tracking set up incorrectly etc.

Have you got Ad Grants but aren't sure where to start or who within your team could take responsibility for managing it? Get in touch to discuss.

Cambridge Charities: Claim Up to £100K a Year in Free Google Ads (Most Are Missing Out)