The Scoop On The Google Ad Grant

What is the Google Ad Grant?

You already know what Google is: the biggest web search engine in the world, with an average of 3.5 billion searches per day. What you might not know, is that a huge part of Google’s business model is paid advertising. Businesses pay big bucks to have their ads displayed at the top of Google’s search results. You’ve probably seen one of these paid ads, they look like this: 

You may not have clicked on one, but lots of people do: approximately 200 million a day. You’d think an amazing advertising tool like this would be expensive, way over budget for the average nonprofit, right? Wrong! If you’re a qualified 501c3, Google will grant you $10,000 in advertising dollars every month, at no cost to you. Their grant is called the Google Ad Grant, and it’s one of Google’s best-kept secrets. Keep reading if you want to learn more about this grant and how your organization can apply.

How Does It Work?

With your Google Ad Grant, your nonprofit will be able to advertise as easily as paying businesses. You create an ad in your account, explaining what your nonprofit does, using compelling words to attract people searching on Google. Then, when Google’s millions of visitors are searching the web, your ad will appear in their results and they’ll want to learn about your nonprofit. Once they click to your site, they’ll have a chance to get to know your organization and get involved with your cause. Here’s a basic diagram of how the Google Ad Grant works:

What’s The Catch?

There’s no catch, but there are some rules and stipulations:

1. A daily budget limit of $329 USD, which is equivalent to about $10,000 USD per month

2. A maximum cost-per-click (CPC) limit of $2.00 USD

3. Only include keyword-targeted campaigns

4. Only include text ads that appear on Google search result pages, in positions below the ads of paying advertisers.

To learn more about these rules and what they mean, check out our additional blog post on the Google Ad Grant here.

Ready to Apply?

We knew you would be. The full process looks something like this:

Here’s Google’s application to get started. We’ve also created some extremely helpful resources that can walk you through the process here. And of course, if you have any questions please reach out to us.

Blake Arata