MichaelODriscoll

The Google Ad Grant Program is an iniative designed to support certified non-profit organizations with the costs of digital advertising. For non-profits that qualify, Google will give you $120,000 a year ($10,000 / month) in free search marketing. Sounds pretty good, right? Well, that’s because it is. But with anything, there is some fine print.

First things first, you do need to be a qualifying non-profit organization. In Canada, this means you will need to register with TechSoup Canada. Before going through that process, it’s best to ensure you’ll be able to actually use the Ad Grants program. Google only accepts those who meet the following criteria:

• Organizations must be currently registered with TechSoup Canada, TechSoup Global’s regional arm.
• Organizations must be: (1) charities; (2) tax exempt non-profit organizations operating on a nonprofit basis for the public benefit; (3) federal not-for-profit corporations; or (4) provincial non-profits.

Additionally, if you are a government entity or organization, a hospital or healthcare organization (charitable extensions of either are acceptable), or are a school, University, or Academic Instutition, you do not qualify for the Ad Grants program.

Once you’ve successfully registered with TechSoup you can now register with them for the Ad Grants program (TechSoup acts as the administrative body for the Google Grant program). This process can be challenging. The list of requirement is long but necessary. You can find the full list of requirements here. The most important thing here is to remember when registering to use a google account that you will be using for the non-profit. Once you set this up, it is very difficult to change the original account. The turnaround time for this step is varied. The quickest will take at least 14 days. For most who are registering, plan for a minimum of 1 month for set up.

Thirdly, after registration is completed you need to ensure your website is running well and up to date. The qualifications are extensive, but in short, websites must:

• Be owned by the nonprofit registered for the grant
• Be high quality. This includes being secured by HTTPS
• Not appear to be commercial in nature
• Must not run intrusive ads, or use Google AdSense

Finally, you are set up. Once you’ve reached this stage, it’s time to set up your ads and start your search engine marketing campaign. Once you’re campaigns are running there are some requirements to remain in the program, but these are fairly easy to attain. Generally speaking, you are required to use the program to its fullest potential by tweaking campaigns each month, ensuring you are accomplishing conversions, and staying within reasonable metrics of success.

-M