Finding the Keyword Sweet Spot for your Google Grants

Google Grants is a pretty terrific program for 501(c)3 nonprofits. If you’re not familiar with it, Google offers $10,000 per month in free search ads to qualified nonprofits. It’s easy to apply, and if used properly, it can give a nice boost to your online goals. I’ve seen organizations use Google Grants to build their email lists, for instance, with great success. But while the Grants program is quite similar to using a paid Adwords account, there are certain limitations that require a different strategy than you’d use for paid ads. That can make it tricky to figure out what will perform best for your Grants account.

With a “normal” Adwords account, your success is based largely on your budget and the competition for your keywords. (It’s also based on the quality of your content – but that’s a topic for another post.) If you’re advertising on a popular topic using a very general keyword, like “donate,” you’re going to get a lot of competition from other non-profits. To beat that competition, you have two choices:

  1. Get more specific. If you can advertise instead on, say, “donate to save octopuses,” you’ll have less competition and lower costs – assuming people are searching for “donate to save octopuses,” which they may not be.
  2. Beat their bids. Adwords operates on a bidding system. All other things being equal, if your competitors are willing to pay $5 per click for a keyword like “donate,” but it’ll pay off for you to bid $6 per click, you’ll get your ad in front of more people.

But bidding more isn’t an option with Google Grants. All Grants accounts are capped at $2 per click, regardless of the going price of the keyword. That’s how Google can afford to give away so much free advertising: they’re offering what advertisers call “remnant space,” less desirable ad space that they might not sell otherwise. That’s your gain, because you’re getting it for free, but it means you need to get creative about how to use it.

There’s a sweet spot that you want to aim for with your keywords: topics that are very relevant to your organization and your content, which other non-profits and for-profits aren’t advertising on – but that people are searching for on Google.

If no one’s searching for it, it doesn’t matter how great your ad is. And if too many advertisers are bidding on the term, you’ll get out-bid and pushed down in the search results. No one will see your ad. So look for topics that are interesting to people, and uniquely you.

Google Grants: the keyword sweet spot

Get creative. If no one’s specifically searching for places to donate to protect octopuses, you can still lure in visitors with your page of “cool octopus facts” and then suggest that they donate – or more beneficially, recruit them to join your email list, where you can cultivate them over time to become donors.

The process of finding the keyword sweet spot can be hit or miss, and the best way to succeed is to experiment a lot. You might be surprised what people search on, or what’s in low demand among advertisers. Brainstorm topics that distinguish you from other nonprofits and businesses, and check Google’s keyword research tool to see if people are searching for them.

Start small, with a lot of small ad groups built around a range of topics. See how they perform:

  • What’s within your $2/click cap, but gets no views? Not enough people are searching for it.
  • What gets views, but no clicks? Your content may not be relevant enough.
  • What gets lots of views and clicks for less than $2/click? That’s the sweet spot.

When you find those sweet spots, do everything you can to optimize for them. They’ll be the foundation for your success with Google Grants.

 

Do you need help with Google Grants? I often talk to organizations that have never found time to apply for Google Grants, or else they have a Grants account that’s languishing from lack of attention. A Grants account that’s not doing anything for you is a big missed opportunity. That’s why I’m offering new clients 15% off all Google Grants startup and maintenance packages for the month of May 2017. Want help kicking your account into gear? Let’s talk!