5 Tips To Get More Out Of Your Google Ads Grant Account

Google Ads can be a powerful tool for non-profit organizations to reach their goals and increase their impact. For many charities, their Google Grant account is one of the key digital marketing channels to promote their mission. However, as with any freebie, a Google Grant account comes with limitations and requires some knowledge to make it work properly for you.

Here are 5 easy tips for using the full potential of your Google Grant account and improving performance:

1) Set Up (Accurate) Conversion Tracking

Conversion tracking is one of the most important factors to make your Search campaigns work well and spend more of the available Grant budget. With conversion tracking, you can measure results, get performance insights and strategically optimise your campaigns.

Make sure to set up conversion goals that matter to your organisation and marketing goals. Google automatically creates some conversion actions such as ‘map location’ or ‘engagements’ but they are rather generic and not insightful for many organisations. It’s important to have your own conversion actions set up to measure what’s relevant in your individual situation.

With these foundations in place, you can use automated bid strategies like ‘maximise conversions’ or ‘Target CPA’ (CPA = cost per acquisition). Typically, campaigns with these bid strategies spend more of their daily budget and achieve better performance. They also aren’t restricted by the 2USD bid cap per keyword like non-automated bid strategies such as Manual CPC.

2) Use The New Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is Google’s brand new measurement tool and replaces the old Universal Analytics (UA) from 1st July 2023. If you haven’t transitioned from UA to GA4 yet, now is the time to do so! And if you’re still confused about all the discussions around GA4, here is a helpful little summary.

UA will stop collecting data from July which includes any conversion actions you may have set up and been using to optimise your Google Ads campaigns. Conversion actions need to be set up in GA4 and imported into Google Ads. This will keep your conversion-focused bid strategies going and allows you to make use of the sophisticated and optimised tracking features in GA4.

3) Follow Ad Copy Best Practices & Use Ad Extensions

Good ad copy writing isn’t only for the user but also improves your overall ad quality and increases the chance that your ad is shown at all. Google rates each ad with an ad strength score ranging from ‘poor’ to ‘average’, ‘good’ and ‘excellent’. Aim for either ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ by following these steps:

• Provide as many headline and description options as possible when creating a new ad variation.

• Include the main keyword of the ad group in one of the headlines (for example, if your main keyword is “Breast Cancer Donation” then include it in the headline options).

• Include at least one call-to-action (CTA), for example, ‘Find out more’ or ‘Donate today’.

• Use your brand’s unique tone of voice and ensure the ad copy matches the tone of voice on your website.

• Use as many ad extensions/assets as possible. They provide relevant extra information about your organisation but also take up space and make your ad appear larger.

4) Review And Optimise Your Landing Pages

Your landing pages have a significant impact on your campaigns’ performance, so you want to pick a relevant page that provides the information or service that your ad promises. Or even better: design landing pages specifically for the goal of your Google Ads campaigns.

Include a CTA (call-to-action) to direct visitors to take the action you want them to take, for example, fill out a lead form, sign up for a newsletter or make a donation.

In addition to solving the user’s problem, a good landing page contributes to your ad’s overall quality resulting in more clicks and a lower CPC (cost-per-click). Each keyword is given a Quality Score which is a number between 1-10 calculated based on expected CTR (click-through rate), ad relevance and landing page experience.

Keywords with a Quality Score of 6 or above are shown more frequently and at a lower CPC, so experimenting with different landing pages is definitely worth it (also, keep in mind that keywords with a Quality Score of 1 or 2 infringe Ad Grant Policy).

5) Regularly Review & Update Your Campaigns, Ads, Keywords

Google Ad campaigns aren’t a ‘set and forget’ but need ongoing reviews and optimisation to maximise performance. There are nearly endless options to test ad copy, keywords and landing pages to find out what your audience best responds to.

What worked well last year doesn’t necessarily work well this year and your campaigns will naturally be impacted by trends, seasons and many other factors.

One of Google’s policy requirements for Grant accounts is to login and make changes at least every 90 days, but that’s a long time. We recommend checking your campaigns weekly to review performance and make adjustments where necessary - after all, receiving 10,000 USD for free each month to promote the cause you care about is pretty awesome!

If you’re looking to further grow your Grant account to share your charities’ mission, send us a message and we’d love to have a chat!