Google Ads for Charities: How To Setup An Effective Campaign

A Google Ads campaign for charities is created in a similar way to other campaign types for other industries, however there are some differences.

One of the main differences is that Google accounts for non-profits benefit from a monthly grant which is offered those organisations that qualify.

 

The grant is £7000 per month and is to be used towards promoting your charity’s causes and recruiting volunteers and donors through the ads.

 

There are also other rules that you should comply with such as:

 

• have at least two active ad groups per campaign
• Have at least two unique active text ads per ad group
• Add at least two sitelink ad extensions
• Maintain at least 5% click through rate (CTR) each month

 

If these requirements are not met then your account may be deactivated and then you will have to bring it to compliance and then request for it to be reinstated. To get started go to Google Ads grants to apply for the grant.

I’ve included below some instructions on how a Google Ads campaign can be setup for charities.

 

Campaign objective

Whether you want to get sales or leads, a Google Ads campaign for charities makes that possible. The objective you choose will help to define the features that are available to you and the type of campaign that you can run to reach your audience.

 

Campaign type

At this time you can create and run Search and Smart campaigns but the Search is the best one to run for your charity. It gives you more control over bids, searches, ad text and so on.

 

Budget

One of the major benefits of Google Ads for charities is that Google offers each qualifying non-profit up to £7,000 per month in Search ads budget. Many charities find this sufficient for their advertising efforts and additional Google Ads may be purchased in a separate account.

This helps you drive awareness, attract donations for your organisation and recruit volunteers and more while advertising on Google.

 

Bidding

There are bidding rules that you should follow to keep your account compliant. Your campaign must use one of the available Smart bidding strategies that include Maximise Conversions, Maximise Conversion Value, Target CPA or Target ROAS bidding.

 

 

It’s best to start with Maximise Conversions because it tries to get you as many conversions as possible for your budget.

 

If your campaign does not comply with the Ad Grants bidding policies it will be subject to automatic bid strategy changes.

 

Keywords

Use the keyword tool in your account to research all the search queries that relate to your products or services that people use to search online. You can find the tool in the Tools & Settings section in your account and it’s called the Keyword Planner tool.

 

 

Text ads

Responsive search ads are the best to run in Google Ads for charities because they provide a lot more text space than other Ad types. They give you up to 15 headlines and four description lines, and that’s much more space than other ad types like Expanded, Dynamic, Call-only and Smart ads.

 

Ad schedule

The Ad schedule feature helps you set the times when you want your ads to run – like Monday to Friday for example. Or you can leave the default settings that is set to run your ads on all days and hours.

 

 

And later with more data, you can choose the best days and hours based on how each has performed for you. In the Segments section, you can see reports for how your ads have performed at different times and then change your ad schedules accordingly.

 

 

Where your ads appear

Because you will be running a Search campaign and not a Display or Smart campaign, your ads will appear on Google. And, as people search for your services or products, your ads will appear either in the top positions or the bottom positions below the Organic results.

 

Case Study

The Royal Parks is a London based charity that administers the eight Royal parks. They contacted me about their account which had been suspended because they were not meeting the Google Ad Grant rules. I was able to diagnose and fix the issues and that helped to increase the conversion rate above 5%. Read the full case study.

 

Get in Touch

Are you looking for help to setup a Google Ads campaign. I’ve helped many charities setup targeted campaigns to promote their solutions. Get in touch below to find out more.