Search Engine Advertising

Google Grants – AdWords For Free?

Google Grants is the AdWords-Edition for Non-Profit-Organisations initiated by Google.

NPOs willing to advertize on the internet can apply for this program that offers a grant of 10.000$ a month for AdWords. To check whether your charity organization is eligible for the program we recommend to carefully check the admission standards on the Google Grants webpage which can vary for every country.

In Switzerland the main requirements include the proven tax exemption for the organization and a statement of the organization’s purpose for the common public interest.

An existing AdWords account can not be transformed into a Google Grants account as billing information may not be submitted to the account and also the currency must be set to US-Dollar. NPOs can apply directly online on the Google Grants webpage.

Although the budget of 10.000$ a month seems dreamlike, there are some drawbacks to consider. The maximum bid for a click (max. CPC) is limited to 2$ and the daily budget can not exceed 329$. Ads must be keyword-targeted and can only appear on Google search result pages.  (Read our tips for Google Grants)

Beispiel Anzeige Intergeneration

The Non-Profit-Organisation has to proof their sincere involvement by logging into the AdWords account every 30 days and every 90 days by implementing changes. This is also valid for Google Grants accounts managed by agencies.

One of the biggest drawbacks of Google Grants is the restriction for ads to show exclusively on the Google search result pages. Especially NPOs could actually benefit from the display network as their thematically specific keywords have low search volume. Generally it can be said that ads on the display network work well for raising awareness and attention for project or topics. For NPOs who wish to advertize on the Google display network it is recommended to set up a seperate AdWords account, where they can also submit higher CPC-bidding.

Nonetheless, NPOs should not miss out on the chance to apply for the Google Grants program. Search queries for example like “causes for asthma” could be answered with ads for the organization “Lungenliga” and link to pages with information and answers.

Beispiel NPO Anzeigen

It is true that NPOs are competing against paying competitors but apart from just advertizing they also gain some non monetary advantages out of AdWords like numerous statistics that can give an insight to the information needs of the target group or input for the keyword optimization of landing pages.