Scale Your NPO’s Online Donations: Facebook Ads & the Google Ad Grant

Your nonprofit can utilize the Google Ad Grant, Facebook Ads, and Instagram Ads to scale online donations. Now, to understand what we mean when we say “scale,” we are referring to a strategy that creates tremendous growth, creating nonlinear outcomes.

According to the recent 2018 Giving Report, over 55% of donors prefer to give online. As online giving continues to grow each year, jumping from 15% in 2015 to 2016 and 23% from 2016 to 2017, it’s important to continue marketing where people’s attention is actually at.

In today’s digital world, our attention is online and on social. It’s on Google, Facebook, and Instagram, so it’s time to take marketing there too.

How to Utilize the Google Ad Grant to Your Advantage

Everybody is constantly searching for something. Regardless of what they are searching for online, the odds that they are conducting their search on Google is very high.

As 3.5 billion (yes, billion with a B!) searches are happening on the Google platform each day, there are subsequently that many people who are looking for solutions to their problems and answers to their questions. This request for information is what we call Search Intent, and it’s the reason why Google Ad Grants can be an immensely powerful tool for your organization.

Through the Google Ad Grant, Google gives nonprofits $10,000 in advertising credit each month to be spent on in-kind Google search ads. That is $120,000 a year that can be leveraged to your organization’s advantage.

With the Google Ad Grant, your nonprofit’s ads can show up at the top of the front page when someone is searching for something related to your mission. Most nonprofits rank on the first page for their brand name, but rarely are on the first page for what we call “non-branded” keywords.

For example, if your organization is focused on suicide prevention, you might want to be at the top of Google for “donate to suicide prevention week.” This way, people who are not searching your exact organization’s name, otherwise known as your branded keyword, can see your ad when they inquire about donating to an overall mission that parallels yours.

Make sense?

The Google Ad Grant honestly drives measurable outcomes. You can expect thousands of new monthly site visitors. With the Ad Grant, you are connecting with people that are mission aligned but might not have ever found your nonprofit otherwise. It’s consistent and scalable, and it’s something that your organization must be looking into.

One of our nonprofit partners, To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA), utilized their Google Ad Grant to raise over $174,000 directly in the past year alone. This inflow of donations has had a huge impact on their work helping those struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide.

During year-end giving in 2017, we saw a 9.8x Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) for our nonprofits. Even during the non-giving season, we ran campaigns with a 3x Return on Ad Spend.

Advertising on the Facebook and Instagram Platforms

There has not been a digital marketing channel so powerful for nonprofits to play with since the original launch of Google Ads. While organizations have to pay to advertise on the Facebook and Instagram platforms, these ads are arguably the best push marketing platform out there for nonprofits to utilize. On top of that, they are still incredibly underpriced and we predict them to be so for the next year or two.

Hyper-targeting through Facebook and Instagram is hands down one of the best strategic approaches. You can create lookalike audiences, or an audience based on your past supporter segments, to compel high potential supporter leads. It’s innovative and extremely hot right now.

During year-end giving in 2017, we saw a 9.8x return on ad spend for our nonprofits. Even during the non-giving season we typically ran campaigns with a 3x return on ad spend.

Digital Marketing Is Affordable, Effective, AND Scalable

Nonprofit marketers are typically pushed to think of low-cost, high-growth channels that can scale online donations while on a time-crunch with limited resources.

We are here to tell you that the Google Ad Grant, Facebook ads, and Instagram ads are some of the most affordable, effective, and scalable channels today. Marketing is a formula consisting of copy creative, your user experience, and targeting. These platforms allow for incredible cost effectiveness and have been proven to scale nonprofits in all types of sectors.

With that being said, it doesn’t mean it will be easy. However, when your nonprofit takes the time to execute your marketing and advertising strategy well, your results will be exceptional.

Is your nonprofit looking to get started with the Google Ad Grant or Facebook ads? Feel free to talk to us about supporting your endeavors. We are here to help!

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Regan Dishon