Drive charity campaign donations with Google Ad Grants for charities

Google Ad Grants provide over £7,500 per month of free Google Ads advertising to eligible Not For Profit organisations. The adverts will appear on relevant Google search result pages and can boost organisations’ visibility to their key audiences. The programme is designed to help people connect with causes to make a greater impact on the world.

Read our guide to understanding Google Ad Grants for charities

Access Workspace for Charities was created to improve engagement, visibility and productivity for organisations such as yours. Our cloud-based feature-rich charity software includes Digital Advertising, Website, CRM and Payment Processing solutions, and allows each solution to operate on its own, or as a connected part of the full suite. 

With such features including Learning Management, Collaboration and Analytics, you have the tools at your disposal to make swift, informed decisions to improve productivity. Anyone in your organisation with permission can self serve to get the accurate reports that they require - placing less of a strain on the core fundraising team. 

Our Access Customer Success Portal is the place to find answers to all your questions, either through our knowledge base, product focused events or by asking our active community. You can access online product support from a community of users and delve into our knowledge base. Find articles, videos and answers for know-how whenever you need it – and long after implementation. And with the option of around the clock support from charity database specialists, you can have peace of mind that an expert is always available.

"Just wanted to thank you very much for your kindness in overseeing my query… Excellent customer service."

Whilst the benefits of having a Google Ad Grants account are clear, there are of course concerns that board members and other decision-makers may raise when you are looking at pursuing a Google Ad Grant. 

Gaining a Google Ad Grants account can be both time consuming and challenging, which can be made all the more difficult if your application is refused. Even if these applications are approved, it can take months to get the green light. 

If you are approved for a Google Ad Grant, your activities must also follow Google’s ongoing program policies. If organisations do not adhere to these policies, they risk their grant being suspended or revoked. Google are always reviewing and improving their rules around the way Ad Grants can be used for charities, which can make it difficult for organisations to stay abreast of the latest guidelines. 

Keeping on top of account management can also be laborious and difficult. Once approved, members of staff will require both the time and skills to manage the grant. The former is required to successfully maintain the account, as failing to log into your account at least once a month can lead to losing the grant altogether.

It’s clear that there are strong benefits to charities using this grant and the focus must then be on how to effectively manage the grant to secure that return on investment. 

Robust and organised management of your Ad grant can be key to allaying the majority of concerns commonly raised by board members when exploring pursuing a Google Ad grant. 

If the organisation has the available time and necessary basic skills in-house, Google provides a number of resources to help charities to establish a plan of action to apply for and utilise their ad grants.

Access Charity Ad Grants is capable of connecting with other Not For Profit Access solutions including Access Charity CRM, Access Charity Websites, and Access Paysuite. These solutions can form a full suite as part of ‘Access Workspace for Charities’ or operate as an independent solution.  

As an Access customer, you will have the choice of whether you wish to connect Access Charity Ad Grants with our other solutions. While these solutions work effectively on an individual basis, if connected, you can gain a more complete vision of your organisation’s processes which allows for informed decisions to be made from the outset. 

In addition to concerns regarding time, the skills required to maximise the benefit of the grant, along with financial implications, can also cause considerations. Questions to ask include:

• Are there the skills in-house to craft succinct, persuasive text ads?
• Do we choose keywords and phrases that attract the right audiences
• Will our staff be confident in using analytics to identify where ads are succeeding or where the strategy might need adjusting?
• Are we likely to be charged for going over our grant amount?
• In utilising the grant could we incur unexpected expenses that negate the value of the grant itself?
• All of this ultimately comes down to one overriding question.
• Will there be sufficient return on investment to justify any additional outlay in resources?

Find out more about our Google Ad Grant management service!

Once you have undergone the onboarding process and had a consultation with one of our experts for us to understand your Not For Profit and it’s requirements, we will be in a position to manage your account. This can be broken down into the following: 

 Google Ad Grants application – If you require assistance with applying for a Google Ad Grants account, we will firstly review your application status and support you through the application process. Regardless of whether you have had a previous application rejected, we are on hand to provide the key information required to ensure that you meet the criteria set out by Google. Alternatively, we are happy to take this process entirely out of your hands and provide you with updates throughout the course of the application. 

 Ad campaign management – Based on the information provided to us during the onboarding process, we will firstly advise you of best practices when setting up tracking actions to measure your conversion goals. Once you are happy with our proposal, our experts will perform in-depth keyword research before uploading to your account and ensure it is compliant with all Google Ad Grant programmes. After you have reviewed and approved the campaign, we will then perform final checks on your account before setting it live. 

In terms of campaign management, we are happy to manage every aspect of your ad campaigns including: 

• Long and short-tail keyword research
• Bidding strategies
• Copywriting
• Actioning negative keywords
• KPI setting and reporting

 Performance Reports and post campaign support – Our experts are available to keep you informed post-campaign. We are on hand to provide you with monthly summary reports in relation to the KPIs that accurately measure your campaigns’ performance, which can include: 

• Impressions
• Click-through rate (CTR)
• Conversion rate
• Cost per conversion
• Quality score

This enables us to acknowledge your successes, while also identifying what actions should be taken to improve any future campaigns. In addition, we offer quarterly calls to talk through your monthly reports to help strategise your campaign plans.

You may be in a scenario where you have submitted a successful Google Ad Grants application and been granted an account. However, you have opted to rely on the expertise of a third party to manage your ad campaigns and ensure that you meet the Ad Grants policies while gaining a substantial ROI.  

For this to be possible, you must grant your third party access to your Google Ads account. Once this has been granted, the new user will have full visibility of your Google Ad Grants account data including campaigns and keywords. In addition, they will have the ability to edit these campaigns and add new ones. You should note that the new user must have a Google Account with a verified email address which can either be gmail or a corporate email that has an existing Google account.   

You can grant access with the following steps:  

1. Sign in to your Google Ad Grants account
2. Click the ‘Tools’ icon, followed by ‘Account Access’ located in the ‘Configuration’ section
3. Click ‘More’
4. Enter the email address of the user you wish to add
5. Click ‘Send Invitation’
6. Once the notification has been accepted, you will receive a notification

The duration of the onboarding process can depend on which of our implementation packages you opt for. These packages are broken down into ‘FlightPath A’ and ‘FlightPath B’. Although both deliver the implementation of Access Charity Ad Grants for your Not For Profit organisation, FlightPath B offers additional strategy consultation with one of our specialists to deliver highly tailored campaigns. 

See a breakdown of each package below which outlines the key steps along with their respective approximate timeframes.  

FlightPath A 

Welcome call preparation - Time allocated to review your website and form. 

Welcome call & introduction to Workspace (1 day) – An initial welcome call to discuss project timeframes, roles and responsibilities, and next steps. 

Application review (10 days) - A review of your application status and advise on the grant application process. 

Set up tracking actions (same day) - Advise on best practices when implementing tracking actions on your website. 

Account build (15 days) – Based on the information you have provided, we will build your account by performing in-depth keyword research and create a campaign. This will be uploaded to your account, while adhering to Google Ad Grants programmes. 

Pre-go live checks (5 days) - Perform final checks on your account before setting it as live. 

Make account live (2 days) - Time allocated to facilitate your account going live. 

Post go-live review (5 days) - Internal task to check your account before handing over to the Support Team. 

Handover to Support (same day) – Introduced to the Managed Service Team, who will provide post-campaign support through performance reports. 

Approximate total duration – 38 days 

 

FlightPath B 

Welcome call preparation - Time allocated to review your website and form. 

Welcome call, introduction to Workspace & campaign strategy discussion (1 day) – An initial welcome call to discuss project timeframes, roles and responsibilities, and next steps including campaign strategy. 

Application review (10 days) - A review of your application status and advise on the grant application process. 

Campaign strategy proposal (5 days) - Create campaign strategy document. 

Set up tracking actions (same day) - Advise on best practices when implementing tracking actions on your website. 

Account build (15 days) - Based on the information you have provided, we will build your account by performing in-depth keyword research and create a campaign. This will be uploaded to your account, while adhering to Google Ad Grants programmes. 

Pre-go live checks (5 days) - Perform final checks on your account before setting it as live. 

Make account live (2 days) - Time allocated to facilitate your account going live. 

Post go-live review (5 days) - Internal task to check your account before handing over to the Support Team. 

Handover to Support (2 days) - Introduced to the Managed Service Team, who will provide post-campaign support through performance reports. 

Approximate total duration – 45 days