PPC

For those of you who may not have noticed, several weeks ago, Google introduced some pretty strict requirements for Google Grant account holders – the free search advertising program for nonprofits.

One of the biggest changes requires that organizations maintain a minimum five percent click rate on ads across their account for two months in a row over a three-month period. If this threshold isn’t met, Google can suspend the account. This is a pretty big deal because until now the minimum requirement was one percent and pretty easy to achieve.

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Does your nonprofit use Google Adwords to raise donations? Whether a text or banner ad, the creative probably asks for a donation and sends potential supporters directly to a donate form right? Based on my experience this is the wrong approach. Below I explain the technique I recently used for year-end fundraising campaigns to achieve much better results.

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Continuing with my tips on Google Adwords, today I explain what you need to know once you have completed the initial campaign set up process as described in part one. The following pertains to display advertising which shows ads on the millions of websites Google has partnered with through its network.

Targeting
One thing you should be aware of is that there are different targeting options which determine who your ads will,be shown to. You can target websites based on keywords, topics, interests, and demographics. Google then determines which sites to show your ads on based on what you specified. You can also choose individual websites (called placements on Google) where you specify exactly what websites you want your ad to appear on.

The Google display planner can help you determine which sites to target based on a relevant term you enter. For example, if your organization focused on disaster relief, you would enter that term and the display planner would provide a list of keywords, topics, interests and demographics you might consider targeting. Look these over carefully since only you know what’s relevant.

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With year-end fundraising officially over I thought I would share some insights from the various Google Adwords campaigns I manage for my non-profit clients.

There a few things you should know upfront. First, the campaigns were run on Google’s paid advertising platform — not Google Grants.

Also, my tips are based both on my experiences and calls placed to Google Adwords. Many people don’t know this but you can call Google directly at 866-246-6457 and they will answer any questions you have with hardly any wait time.

In part one I explain things to be aware of during the set-up process in order to get optimal results. So let’s get started.

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When trying to identify keywords for your Google Adwords campaign does it sometimes feel like a shot in the dark? Fortunately, Google provides several solutions that can clear up the process so your ads will be found by the right people.