How to Set up and Activate Google Ad Grants Account for Nonprofits – June 2020 Update

Step 3: Submit Your Account for Review

1. Sign into your Google for Nonprofits account.
2. Click ‘Activate’ under ‘Google Ad Grants’.

This action submits your account for review and you will receive updates over email within 3 business days.

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
2. Select ‘Campaigns’ from the left and click the ‘+’ button to start a new campaign.

3. Select ‘Create a campaign without a goal’s guidance’ in the goal selection section.

4. Select ‘Smart’ option under “Select a campaign type”.

5. Select one of the options available for  “What action do you most want customers to take?”.

6. Click the ‘Continue’ button.

What follows are a series of pages where you have to fill in the information / change settings of your Ad. These are detailed below:

Describe Your Organization

On the “Describe your business” page, you can enter information about your nonprofit organization.

1. Provide your organization’s name under ‘Business name’.
2. Enter the URL of your organization’s website under ‘Business website’.
3. Click the ‘Next’ button.

Select Where to Show Your Ad

Here you select the geographic locations for your ads to show up. These locations should be where users will find your information and services most useful. Your campaigns should be localized as far as possible. Use a separate campaign when targeting an entire country.

1. Click either of the two options ‘Set up a radius around your business’ or ‘Set up specific areas’ on the “Where are your customers?” page.
2. Select locations where your organization’s services are available or where your target audience are.
3. Click the ‘Next’ button.

Define Your Product or Service

This is where you provide detailed information about your product or service. The submissions made here will help Google determine the search phrases to display the ad.

1. Select the language you want to advertise in.
2. Select an appropriate category for your organization, under “What is your business category?‘.
3. Add the products or services of your organization, under “What specific products or services do you want to promote in this ad?“.
4. Click the ‘Next’ button.

Create Your Ad

1. Instructions given on the ‘Let’s write your ad’ page will help you create your first ad.

2. Under ‘Clicks on your ad go to’, enter the landing page URL of the website you want to take your users to.

3. To improve ad performance, Google recommends creating 2-3 ads. Click ‘Write another ad’ to create more ads.

4. Click the ‘Next’ button. (Refrain from adding images on the ‘Add images to your ad (optional)’ page.)

Set Your Budget

1. Next comes the ‘Set your budget’ page where you can enter a daily average budget of 329 USD or less.
2. Click ‘Next’.

This daily average limit applies even if you are running multiple campaigns. You receive $10,000 from Google, which is the maximum you can spend a month. However, most nonprofits find spending this amount challenging. You need to set up conversion tracking to fully utilize Google’s $10,000 ad grant for nonprofits.

Review Your Ad Settings

This page allows you to review and edit your settings.

1. Review the ad you created and make any edits if needed, on the ‘Review your ad settings’ page.
2. Click the ‘Next’ button.

Your ads will be now sent for a review with Google which will be completed in 3 business days after which you will receive an email confirmation. After successful review, your ads will start showing in Google’s search results based on the keywords used in search terms by Google search engine users.

The effectiveness of your ads can be analyzed by setting up conversion tracking. Conversion can be any activity of a visitor on your website like a donation, subscription, or a sign up. 

Setting up ads alone will not be sufficient to gain conversions. Monitoring ad performance and making necessary changes to factors such as bids, location targeting, and keywords are also integral steps towards achieving the desired result for your nonprofit from Google Ad Grants. Do prepare good ad copies, follow instructions, and make use of Ad Grants from Google.