Posted by Jessica, Google Grants Team
Before the year comes to a close, we wanted to share some of our proudest 2008 moments with you and wish your organization a safe and joyous holiday season.

We're growing up! In April, we celebrated our fifth birthday with over 4,000 non-profit organizations, 700 Googler volunteers and more than 20 countries worldwide. Thinking back to when the program launched in 2003, with only a few organizations and a vision of extending the power of AdWords to the non-profit community, it sure does feel like we've come a long way.

Another piece of our program's initial goal was the ability to offer AdWords grants worldwide. To that end, we worked hard this year to launch Google Grants in eight new countries and territories -- China, Israel, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Argentina, Mexico, Austria and Belgium.

We then spent a good part of the year implementing the technology at our fingertips by launching the Google Grants Blog and Help Forum, enabling us to better share our webinar series, tracking tips, success stories and other helpful information on a broader scale with grantees and the greater non-profit community.

Just a short while later in October, we also unveiled our new website. We're hoping this new site, with its improved navigation and dynamic content, will help us tie together the technology, information and community resources we're striving to develop for the benefit of your organizations.

It's been a busy year, with more excitement to come in the next 12 months. We're looking forward to kicking back with a a hot mug of cocoa to reflect on the year's accomplishments and begin cooking up more program improvements for you and your organization in 2009.

Cheers to the new year!

Posted by Jessica, Google Grants Team
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The holidays bring much joy, but this year, they may also bring uncertainty for those feeling the affects of this economic downturn. Wallets are a little tighter this year, so it's important to remember that there are other ways to ‘give’ without getting a large credit card bill come January.
The holidays bring much joy, but this year, they may also bring uncertainty for those feeling the affects of this economic downturn. Wallets are a little tighter this year, so it's important to remember that there are other ways to ‘give’ without getting a large credit card bill come January.

For me, working with Google Grants gives me the chance to see firsthand that many organizations, like yours, are doing great things for our world by giving attention to those in need. Each day, you encourage people to give what they can to help those less fortunate, which is an ideal that many of us remember during the holidays, but something you all act upon year round.

I have been a volunteer with the Google Grants program since October 2007, helping with application reviews, activating grantee accounts and alerting organizations of their acceptance into the Google Grants program. Beyond the Grants program, I have volunteered in a local elementary school's first grade classroom to help promote workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy. Last Christmas, I volunteered along side other Googlers wrapping and sorting gifts for underprivileged children, and will do the same this year. During my time as a student at Vanderbilt University, I volunteered weekly in a preschool classroom in a low-income area of Nashville, TN. All of these activities were valuable and rewarding experiences that didn't come with a hefty bill, but rather, enabled me to give something back to the organization, their constituents and the community.

Based on my experiences, this was proof that the gift of time can be a meaningful and valuable one.

Working with Google Grants gives me the opportunity to see that one thing has remained the same despite the economic downturn: People are still helping people. People are still doing great things. All of you are working hard to make the world a better place, and that is the true spirit of the season.

Posted by Betsy, Mountain View Google TV Ads Team & Google Grants Volunteer
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Our resource round-up for December includes tips for staying in touch with donors, open registration information for NTEN's next conference, an invite to join our new discussion group, ways to use YouTube for different initiatives, a list of 12 fundraising strategies created specifically for times of recession and more.
Our resource round-up for December includes tips for staying in touch with donors, open registration information for NTEN's next conference, an invite to join our new discussion group, ways to use YouTube for different initiatives, a list of 12 fundraising strategies created specifically for times of recession and more.


If you come across resources that would be useful to the greater non-profit community, feel free to post it to the appropriate topic in our Help Group so that everyone can benefit. If there are some resources you'd like to see featured in these round-ups, let us know. If you'd like to review previous round-ups, just click here and read through previous month's round-ups or search for "resource round-up" from the search box at the top of the page.

Posted by Jessica, Google Grants Team
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Gather your website goals and recent learnings and let's walk through how to use Google Website Optimiser to test changes to your site.

Step 1.
The first step is to sign into your ...
Gather your website goals and recent learnings and let's walk through how to use Google Website Optimiser to test changes to your site.

Step 1.
The first step is to sign into your Google AdWords account. Once signed in you should see a link for Website Optimiser in the primary menu.


Step 2.
Next you will see an introductory page to Google Website Optimiser. Click on the get started button.


Step 3.
Next you will be asked to select a location and timezone, select whatever applies to your region.


Step 4.
You will need to agree to the terms and conditions for Google Website Optimiser.


Step 5.
You will now be presented with the Experiment List page. This page shows you all the experiments you are running or have previously run. Since this is the first time you have used Google Website Optimiser there isn't anything running yet.

Congratulations, you now have access to Google Website Optimiser tool.

That concludes part 3 of the series. In the next part we will cover implementing Website Optimiser and show you some examples of installing it on different types of websites (including those using content management systems). Stay tuned.

Posted by Gavin, Dublin AdWords Team
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Posted by Handy Annie, The Google Grants Team

The Google Grants team would like to cordially invite you to the opening of our new Google Grants Help Forum. 


We hope that by now you've found the Google Grants Help Group to be an outlet to ask questions and share tips with other nonprofits. We've been listening to your feedback about features you'd like to see in the Help Group, and we're excited to announce that we're moving from Google Groups to a brand new platform.

As of today, we've moved the the new Forum next door to the Google Grants Help Center.  In this new platform we have some extra things we hope you'll really like: a system of levels to reward your contributions to the Forum, and profiles where you can put a picture next to your name. You can subscribe to the Forum (or to individual discussions) by RSS feed. You can post a question and receive your answer by email. You can even vote on which response best answers the question and mark a best answer to a question you asked. 

We hope you'll come take a look, and we hope you'll stay a while, sign into your Google Account, and ask and answer questions.

Posted by Handy Annie, The Google Grants Team
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Thinking back to our last post in this series , we walked through a few goals you might consider for your organisation's site. Whether you're considering testing your site to increase donations or awareness, there are a variety of configurations for Google Website Optimiser to help you achieve your goals.
Thinking back to our last post in this series , we walked through a few goals you might consider for your organisation's site. Whether you're considering testing your site to increase donations or awareness, there are a variety of configurations for Google Website Optimiser to help you achieve your goals.

Google Website Optimiser can be configured to allow you to make radical or subtle changes to your website.

Q. So how do I know what to change and how radical should the changes be?

A. Every website is different, however if your conversion rates are relatively low, for example less than 1%, you could probably benefit from more radical changes. If your conversion rates are higher, perhaps 5-10%, you should probably start with more subtle changes.

Q. Does Google Website Optimiser suggest changes for me to make?

A. No, Google Website Optimiser takes variations provided by you and tests different combinations of all these variations for you. For example, you might try two variations of your headline and three variations of images of your offerings, and Website Optimiser will create the six possible combinations. At the end of your test, you'll see reports for each combination. Also each variation is given a score based on how much it impacted your conversion rate.

Q. Why should I use Google Website Optimiser, can't I just make changes to my website and see if conversion rates improve?

A. Google Website Optimiser saves you the effort of manually recording and reporting on what changes have the biggest impact. You also get to test several design changes simultaneously. This is particularly beneficial if you are running advertising campaigns and targeting visitors through paid search such as Google AdWords. There is also the possibility that your "improvements" may actually lower conversion rates. When you use a tool like Google Website Optimiser, you be able to see if your changes are actually helping your site.

Two Ways to Start Testing

1.) A/B testing - Test two different versions of a single page on your website. Perhaps you want to try a two-column layout as opposed to a three-column layout as you feel it's a less cluttered design. Or maybe you want to see if moving your call to action items above the fold (the visible area of the screen before a user has to scroll down the page) to see if it has a stronger impact on conversions? Or maybe you want to try a whole new colour scheme?

Page Version A


Page Version B

Note: Version B has no image and the donate button has been moved.

A/B testing can be a little more involved because you will need to create two different versions of the pages you wish to test. However, if you already have a new page created, as part of a site redesign perhaps, setting up an A/B test is very quick. If you do decide to create a new page with a new layout, remember to test that the new version works as expected across other web browsers.

2.) Multivariate testing - Using the same webpage, you can try variations of different sections of your page. For each section (i.e. headline, call to action button, product image, etc.) Google Website Optimiser lets you test different variations. For example you could use new wording in your page headline or test two different call to action buttons.

As you can see from the image above. You can test things like which button works best, which headline is important, and what image on your page works best.

One of the best things about using Google Website Optimiser and is that you do not need to create any additional pages for your website. Google Website Optimiser automatically inserts variations to the page as specified by you and records the conversion rate for each variation on your site.

Further Example:
You create a webpage but want to test a new headline, two different call to action buttons and two slightly different images. So on one page you have three areas that can be changed.

Total Combinations = 2 headlines x 3 call to action buttons x 2 images = 12 web pages you would have to create.

However using Google Website Optimiser you only need to make changes to 1 page on your website.

Google Website Optimiser Features
One of the best features is that Google Website Optimiser measures which changes and elements on your pages are making the biggest difference and which combination of all these elements is working the best for you in terms of conversion.


The above report shows which changes to your page have the biggest impact on conversion rates.

Section 2 shows that variation 2 has a 11.9% improvement in conversion rate over the original design and variation 1 has a 0.26% improved conversion rate over the original. The tool also indicates that variation 2 has a 99.8% chance of beating the original version.

Section 3 shows that variation 1 had the biggest impact with 15.2% increase in conversion rate. Given the data collected by Google Website Optimiser it is confident that this has the best chance to beat the original version. Variation 3 and 2 also showed improvements over the original design. There is a strong chance that all variations will beat the original design and this is indicated in the column chance to beat all.

Section 1 shows that the original version performed better than variation 1. The red shows a drop in conversion of -3.71%. The original shows a gray bar to indicate no improvement.

Although not shown in the table above, you can view the best combination of all 3 sections to see the ideal conversion page. You may be surprised by the results!

In the next part of the series, we'll go over how you can start using Google Website Optimiser for your organisation. Take some time before, "Part 3: How do I use Google Website Optimiser," to walk through the different configurations for Google Website Optimiser and get to know the tool before deciding which is right for your organisation's website goals.


Posted by Gavin, Dublin AdWords Team
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Learnings
  • Quality of visitors from the Google Grants AdWords is higher, with ads showing more pageviews per visitor versus organic (non-ad) traffic
  • Test new initiatives and content by setting up adgroups with few targeted keywords and tracking response via Analytics
National Public Radio has been an active participant in the Google Grants program for some time. During their participation in the program, they've developed some best practices and learnings that we thought would be helpful for other grantees, as well as other nonprofits using AdWords and Google Analytics outside of the Google Grants program.

We hope that you'll consider these tidbits as you manage your organization's marketing campaigns, whether you're involved in the Grants program or are running your campaigns separately.

Best practices for AdWords and Analytics



  • Centralize marketing efforts to remain consistent across all messaging. (Example: If you solicit donations for a holiday pledge drive via mail, you can include your website address in that direct mail piece as well as have mirrored pledge drive language on the website.)


Learnings
  • Quality of visitors from the Google Grants AdWords is higher, with ads showing more pageviews per visitor versus organic (non-ad) traffic
  • Test new initiatives and content by setting up adgroups with few targeted keywords and tracking response via Analytics

National Public Radio (NPR) is a privately supported, not-for-profit membership organization that produces and distributes noncommercial news, talk, and entertainment programming. NPR has been a participant in the Google Grants program since 2003 and uses Google Analytics in conjunction with other analytics tools to track visitor data for its sites.

If you have your own best practices or learnings that you'd like to share with other grantees and nonprofits, we encourage you to strike up a conversation with other members in the Discussion Group and possibly submit your testimonial to our team.


Posted by Jessica, Google Grants Team
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Last week we shared a few strategies for your holiday campaigns and this week we wanted to give you a few optimization tips that you can implement today with your individual holiday strategies.
Last week we shared a few strategies for your holiday campaigns and this week we wanted to give you a few optimization tips that you can implement today with your individual holiday strategies.

Regardless of your goals, here are three tips about optimizing your Grants account for the holiday season.

Clean Up Keywords

Your New Year’s resolution doesn’t have to wait until January. As you look back at the year, don’t forget to check in on your keywords and eliminate what’s not working. Then you can also focus on what’s working best.

One of the first steps in keyword optimization is to clean up keywords. To remove keywords, I recommend checking out keywords with a low clickthrough rate (CTR) but a high cost. These keywords usually decrease your overall performance. Then try pausing any keywords with a CTR of less than 1.0%, since these keywords are only bringing a few clicks.

Review Keywords to Maximize Traffic

The holiday season is a good time to highlight specials and to drive additional traffic that is online during these months. Review your current keywords and think of additional terms. This will enable your ads to reach as much qualified traffic as possible.

Just like when you paused keywords, you may use CTR as an indicator of a high-performing keyword. Look for keywords that have CTRs above than 1%; this is a great starting point for expansion. Then you may want to use the Keyword Tool to find related keywords to add to an ad group.

Another option is to add other relevant keywords with a holiday focus. Since many people are looking to make holiday donations during this time of year, you may want to add donation-specific keywords that still relate to your organization.

Ad Text

To improve your ad’s performance, try to make each one as relevant to your keyword list as possible. Think about how this time of year relates to your marketing. If an aspect of your org receives increased attention around the holiday season, try to find a way to touch on that in your ad text. This can help drive more traffic to your site as well as get your message across to users who come across your ad.

These tips are great for this time of year, but you can continue to use them in every season. Cleaning up keywords, adding new ones, and revising your ad text help maintain your account’s high-performance.


Posted by Taylor, AdWords Team
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From time to time we receive questions about the $1.00 CPC limit within the Google Grants program. Today we are hoping to make this limit, and the reasoning behind the limit, a little more transparent.

From time to time we receive questions about the $1.00 CPC limit within the Google Grants program. Today we are hoping to make this limit, and the reasoning behind the limit, a little more transparent.


What is the limit?

Google Grants accounts have a $1.00 maximum CPC bid. The $1.00 maximum bid is non-negotiable and should be sufficient for most keywords if you are maintaining a high enough click through rate (CTR). High CTRs are usually obtained by choosing highly relevant keywords in conjunction with closely related and engaging ads.



Why do we have the limit? Can I bid more?

All Google Grants accounts have their bids capped at one dollar ensuring a level playing field for all of the nonprofits in our program. Under no circumstances can this limit be raised, nor is it possible to supplement the $1.00 bid with your own funds in a Google Grants account. The only alternative to using a $1.00 bid is to open a paid AdWords account. For this reason we recommend that Google Grants recipients work to maintain high quality scores and also utilize less common/competitive keywords, which are more relevant to your organization.



Why are some of my keywords not generating any traffic?

If you see that your keywords are not performing well or not showing with a $1.00 CPC, it is likely that one of two things has happened:

1. The most common reason that grants recipients will obtain a poor quality score is due to a low click through rate (CTR) and other quality score factors.

Essentially, the Google algorithms are designed to show only the most relevant information for each search done on Google. This is because there is a limited amount of space on the search results page and the goal is to provide the user with the best and quickest search experience possible. If a certain keyword/ad combination is not performing well it will earn a low quality score and will rarely show ads.


2. Alternatively, you may be bidding on highly competitive keywords and finding that other advertisers' ads are outperforming your ads. This can happen if you have selected keywords that are very common such as "volunteer" or "donate." Likely, there are thousands of nonprofits that would like to show ads for those terms and only 10-12 ad slots on the first page of Google's search results. Therefore, all other factors being equal, only the top 10-12 best performing ads with the highest quality scores will show.



How can give my keywords the best opportunity to succeed within this limit?

Optimization is the best way to increase your keyword's performance without increasing your CPC. To learn how to optimize your account, see the Optimization Tips page in our Help Center. If optimization does not help, you may also want to choose less competitive, more specific keywords for your account.



Posted by German, Google Grants Team
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Each month, a group of Googlers gathers in the Ann Arbor office for bagels at breakfast time and pizza at dinner time. We don't come for the food; we're there to build Google Grants AdWords accounts.

In Ann Arbor, our team's common goal is to help businesses create and manage advertising accounts that reach new customers. We're thrilled to use our online advertising expertise to help non-profit organizations like yours attract new volunteers, increase donations, serve more clients, and spread your messages. After an application has been reviewed and approved, Google Grants volunteers study your mission, the audiences you want to reach, and your website to write ads and choose keywords that enhance your goals and appeal to your target audience.

With a background in the non-profit sector and as an advocate of public service, I was one of the first Google Grants volunteers in the Ann Arbor office. Over the past two years, I've drawn out my colleagues' passion for philanthropy as well and recruited a team of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers. And I'm proud to say that our office, though modest in size, is robust in its contributions.

Over bagels and pizza, our community of volunteers applies our AdWords knowledge to craft just the right ad text to catch the eye of a prospective youth mentor or of a mom looking to adopt a new family pet. And as we do this, we marvel at and are humbled by the wonderful work that you do every day to serve your communities. It's that work, not the tasty treats, that keep us coming back for more.
Each month, a group of Googlers gathers in the Ann Arbor office for bagels at breakfast time and pizza at dinner time. We don't come for the food; we're there to build Google Grants AdWords accounts.

In Ann Arbor, our team's common goal is to help businesses create and manage advertising accounts that reach new customers. We're thrilled to use our online advertising expertise to help non-profit organizations like yours attract new volunteers, increase donations, serve more clients, and spread your messages. After an application has been reviewed and approved, Google Grants volunteers study your mission, the audiences you want to reach, and your website to write ads and choose keywords that enhance your goals and appeal to your target audience.

With a background in the non-profit sector and as an advocate of public service, I was one of the first Google Grants volunteers in the Ann Arbor office. Over the past two years, I've drawn out my colleagues' passion for philanthropy as well and recruited a team of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers. And I'm proud to say that our office, though modest in size, is robust in its contributions.

Over bagels and pizza, our community of volunteers applies our AdWords knowledge to craft just the right ad text to catch the eye of a prospective youth mentor or of a mom looking to adopt a new family pet. And as we do this, we marvel at and are humbled by the wonderful work that you do every day to serve your communities. It's that work, not the tasty treats, that keep us coming back for more.


Posted by Lindsay, Ann Arbor AdWords Team
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With the holidays fast approaching, now is a great time to maximize your Google Grants account to take advantage of the season. Whether you're looking for funding from individuals contributing end-of-year donations or want to promote your organization's holiday programs or merchandise, you should customize your campaigns to meet these goals.
With the holidays fast approaching, now is a great time to maximize your Google Grants account to take advantage of the season. Whether you're looking for funding from individuals contributing end-of-year donations or want to promote your organization's holiday programs or merchandise, you should customize your campaigns to meet these goals.

Here are a few strategies to consider when optimizing your campaigns for the holiday season:

Build new campaigns
Create a brand new campaign with custom, holiday-specific ads and keywords. Be sure to set end dates for your holiday campaigns so that they run only when they're relevant.

Refresh existing campaigns
Customize an existing campaign by adding a custom ad to your existing ad text(s). This can help you test the effectiveness of seasonal ads for your organization.

Target all campaigns
Whether creating a new campaign or adding to an existing campaign, be sure to make your holiday ads and keywords as specific and relevant as possible. Use multi-word keywords that connect your organization's work with the holiday season. For example; 'children's holiday giving', 'holiday clothing drive', or 'Thanksgiving food drive'.

Many grantees have had success writing customized ad text and keywords focused on end-of-year giving, holiday programs (including holiday meals or drives), or holiday items for sale, so we recommend that you test these strategies for your own account. More tips will follow next week in Part 2 of this series.

Be sure to share your learnings and any new best practices in the Google Grants Help Group.

Posted by Kristie, Google Grants Team
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As a non-profit, your website may be the first and last point of contact people have with your organisation. So how do you ensure you are getting the right message across? More importantly how can you improve your website so that it meets it intended purpose more effectively?
As a non-profit, your website may be the first and last point of contact people have with your organisation. So how do you ensure you are getting the right message across? More importantly how can you improve your website so that it meets it intended purpose more effectively?

Let's say you want to see an increase in donations each month through your website.

How can you improve these goal conversion rates ?
How do you know what to change on your website?

We'll answer these questions, as well as get into the specifics of Google Website Optimiser over the course of this series.

To begin, let's go over exactly what the Website Optimiser is.

The Google Website Optimiser

Google's website optimiser allows you to effectively measure and test different versions of your website. By making small changes to your websites copy, headline, imagery or even design you can see what changes to your website have the biggest impact on your end goals.

One of the best things about the Google Website Optimiser is that its absolutely free.

Think about the goals you have for your organization's website and how you might rework your website to better achieve those goals. In particular think of the path a user would generally follow to reach your goal page(s).

Is the process clear and straight forward? Are there any areas which could be less ambiguous? Do you and your colleagues agree with how the website is set up? Perhaps you have varying opinions? You can test these opinions and let your website users decide how your pages should be structured.

For anyone who has ever had heated discussions with their colleagues / webmaster / boss about web page layout, design or content the Google Website Optimiser might be able to help you end those heated discussions, by letting the user decide what is best.

Coming back to goals, so what do we mean by goals and goal pages?

Some non-profit organisation website goals might include:

- Receiving donations
- Increased awareness / downloads of information booklets
- Increased attendance at events / conferences
- Increased subscriptions to your organisations newsletter

Take some time to think about the goals you have for your website and how you'd like to see it improve. We'll continue this series with Part 2: Configuring Website Optimiser for Nonprofits, and you'll see how you can configure Website Optimiser for your goals.

Meanwhile, our Seminars for Success program just announced a new series, Website Optimiser Seminars for Success. So, if you're interested in full day, in-person seminars providing hands-on training on Website Optimiser, this may be useful for you. More information can be found on the Seminars for Success site, www.google.com/awseminars.


Posted by Gavin, Dublin AdWords Team
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In a recent webinar, we found out that there are a growing number of grantees and non-profits using Google Analytics to make the most of their AdWords accounts.

This is great news! It means that more of you are able to see what works best for your particular organization's website and what changes you can make to your marketing initiatives to further your org's mission.
In a recent webinar, we found out that there are a growing number of grantees and non-profits using Google Analytics to make the most of their AdWords accounts.

This is great news! It means that more of you are able to see what works best for your particular organization's website and what changes you can make to your marketing initiatives to further your org's mission.

Something we also discovered in this webinar was that there are a couple of questions common to a majority of Analytics users. So, to get everyone on the same page, we wanted to share those questions and their answers.


How do I link my AdWords account to my Analytics account?

If you already have an analytics account, just follow these steps to link your AdWords account to your Analytics account.

1. Log in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com
2. Click the Analytics tab
3. In the "Steps to get Google Analytics" box, click "I already have a Google Analytics account" (at the bottom of the page)
4. From the Existing Google Analytics Account drop-down list, select your Analytics account number which will start with UA-_________
5. Click "Link Account"

Why are numbers in Google Analytics and AdWords sometimes different?

There are a variety of reasons why numbers in your AdWords reports might look different than your numbers in Analytics. The two most common reasons for this discrepancy are the difference between the terms you're comparing and the filters active in your AdWords account.

First, make sure that you're comparing equivalent items. Google AdWords tracks clicks, while Google Analytics tracks visits. If a user clicks on your ad twice in half an hour without closing his or her browser, this will be registered by Analytics as one visit to your site, even if the user left your site and then returned shortly after. In AdWords, this would be registered as two clicks.

Also, AdWords automatically filters certain clicks from your reports, while Analytics will report on the resulting visits to your website. If someone is repeatedly clicking on your ads, AdWords considers this click spam and doesn’t show it in reports or charge you for the clicks, but Analytics will show these visits in your reports.

If you want to know more about the differences between how data is shown in AdWords vs Analytics, check out this article for details.

We hope you found these answers helpful for managing your own analytics account and we encourage you to bring up similarly vexing questions with the members in the Google Grants Help Group.

Posted by Jessica, Google Grants Team
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At Google, we know that non-profits often have big, creative ideas, but may need a little support to turn those ideas into action. Various programs at Google are designed to help -- whether through free advertising with ...
At Google, we know that non-profits often have big, creative ideas, but may need a little support to turn those ideas into action. Various programs at Google are designed to help -- whether through free advertising with Google Grants, free online donation processing with Google Checkout, or by providing a way to geographically tell a group's story with Google Earth Outreach.

On Friday, 10/31, Google.org and Google Earth Outreach further supported this last idea by creating a small grants program that will provide non-profits with the knowledge and resources they need to take advantage of powerful and exciting online mapping tools. In addition to helping non-profit organizations like yours operate more effectively, well designed maps can also convey the importance of your cause in a visual, compelling way and give individuals from around the world a chance to experience the work you do.

Organizations can now apply online for a "Geo Challenge Grant," valued between US$5,000 and US$100,000, to help make your mapping ideas a reality.

Read more about this new program on the Google.org blog and the Geo Challenge Grants website. If you get involved in this program, we welcome you to share your story in the Google Grants Help Group, so that other non-profits can learn from your experiences.

Posted by Kristie, Google Grants Team
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Posted by Jessica, Google Grants Team
Our resource round-up for November features third party perspective on making the most of your Grant, an example of a new grantee working with an agency and information about the AdWords Seminars for Success happening through the end of the year.
If you come across resources that would be useful to the greater non-profit community, feel free to post it to the appropriate topic in our Help Group so that everyone can benefit. If there are some resources you'd like to see featured in these round-ups, let us know. If you'd like to review previous round-ups, just click here and read through previous month's round-ups or search for "resource round-up" from the search box at the top of the page.


Posted by Jessica, Google Grants Team
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Nationwide, belts are tightening. And in Michigan — home of the auto industry — belts are on just about the tightest holes.

As a way to support the local community, we’ve developed a program in our Ann Arbor office called AdWords in the Curriculum. In the course, Michigan high school and college students learn the ins and outs of Google AdWords. We hope graduates of the course, armed with a new set of skills, will go forth and help Michigan’s companies succeed in a global, technology-based economy.

Nationwide, belts are tightening. And in Michigan — home of the auto industry — belts are on just about the tightest holes.

As a way to support the local community, we’ve developed a program in our Ann Arbor office called AdWords in the Curriculum. In the course, Michigan high school and college students learn the ins and outs of Google AdWords. We hope graduates of the course, armed with a new set of skills, will go forth and help Michigan’s companies succeed in a global, technology-based economy.

“What does this all have to do with me?” you may be asking.

In AdWords in the Curriculum, students are assigned local Google Grantees. They work together to apply the students’ new knowledge and implement strategies.

But because most of you don’t necessarily have time to take a class and spend a lot of time experimenting with AdWords accounts, we thought we’d set you up with regular check-ins from the AdWords in the Curriculum students. We want to share their learnings, so that we can all make the most of their newfound experience, and spend advertising dollars wisely.

We'll be rounding up their learnings on a monthly basis here on the blog, so we hope you'll check back in to see what's new in the world of AdWords for non-profits.

To tide you over until the first official check-in, we'll leave you with a quick tip from one AdWords in the Curriculum alumni: Know your audience.

Eastern Michigan University students working with Dawn Farm, a rehab facility, initially targeted drug users looking for help. But when their ads weren't appearing often at all, they soon realized that it's not the addicts themselves looking -- they, of course, don't always realize they need help. Rather, it was loved ones searching, and researching drug effects. So, the students added keywords like 'LSD symptoms' and 'crack effects.' They also wrote ads targeted more toward loved ones, highlighting the informational portions of the site.

Traffic to the site rose by 60 percent.

In this video from Eastern Michigan University's College of Business, an AdWords in the Curriculum professor interviews one of the students about her experience with the Dawn Farms account.


Posted by Eileen, Ann Arbor AdWords Team
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Now that Google Grants is directing users to your website, is there a specific action you’re looking for them to take? For example, is the purpose of your Grants campaign to collect donations? Or perhaps have them sign up for your newsletter? Whatever the action may be, conversion tracking can provide data about your campaign’s effectiveness. And you can get data regarding those actions on your website directly in your Grants accounts.
Now that Google Grants is directing users to your website, is there a specific action you’re looking for them to take? For example, is the purpose of your Grants campaign to collect donations? Or perhaps have them sign up for your newsletter? Whatever the action may be, conversion tracking can provide data about your campaign’s effectiveness. And you can get data regarding those actions on your website directly in your Grants accounts.

If you’re looking to track a specific action on your website, conversion tracking is a great way to do this. Conversion tracking begins when a user clicks on your ad, and then if the user reaches your conversion page (typically a ‘thank you’ page), the conversion will be recorded in your account.


Once you input your account’s conversion tracking code, you’ll notice new columns appear on the Campaign Summary page. These columns will report conversion data. When setting up tracking, you’ll be able to indicate the action you’re tracking as a Purchase, Lead, Signup, Pageview, and Other. Instructions on implementing conversion tracking can be found in the AdWords Help Center and in the Learning Center. One important thing to note is that you’ll have to edit the code on your website to get started, so make sure that your webmaster is available to make these fairly simple changes to your website’s code.

After conversion tracking is set up and you begin to accrue data, you may also want to run a Keyword Performance report and even customize the columns to focus on conversion data. This previous post provides helpful information on running reports.

Ultimately, conversion tracking can help you determine how to most effectively use your Grant. You might find that one ad group drives the majority of your conversions, which could indicate that your Grant could be used more effectively if other ad groups were paused. Also, you may notice that certain keywords drive up your campaign’s cost without resulting in conversions. In this case, you may want to consider pausing those keywords in order to permit the keywords that result in conversions to run more frequently. Whatever your campaign’s purpose may be, conversion tracking may potentially increase your campaign’s success.



Posted by Taylor, AdWords Team
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Posted by Kristie, Google Grants Team
In the final webinar of our 5-part series with NTEN, we discussed evaluating your AdWords performance. Jessica from our team led the session and spoke about the importance of monitoring and evaluating your account to fully maximize it. The majority of the session focused on Google Analytics, a tool that can be extremely helpful in evaluating your performance and identifying how best to optimize your campaigns. A few highlights from this great session:
  • Use AdWords data to monitor keyword and ad activity on a regular basis
  • Installing Google Analytics and linking it to your AdWords account is easy and can provide valuable information
  • Setting goals in Analytics helps you understand how to make your site more successful with your visitors 
  • Analytics reports can help you make informed decisions about your site and marketing initiatives
  • Analytics can help you recognize important trends with your visitors and your site 
The session also covered Google Analytics installation, goal setting, interpreting reports, troubleshooting, and more. Check out the slides from the session here and purchase the audio recording on NTEN's site if you are interested in learning more.

Posted by Kristie, Google Grants Team
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In last week's NTEN webinar, we discussed managing multiple campaigns in your Grants account. One of our knowledgeable Google volunteers, Lisa, shared valuable information on this topic; such as solid account structure, when to use one campaign versus multiple ones ...
In last week's NTEN webinar, we discussed managing multiple campaigns in your Grants account. One of our knowledgeable Google volunteers, Lisa, shared valuable information on this topic; such as solid account structure, when to use one campaign versus multiple ones, setting up new campaigns, managing multiple campaigns, and managing a paid AdWords account with a Grants account. This last point was new information for many of you, as some mistakenly thought that non-profits cannot have both a Grants account and a paid AdWords account. In fact, we have a handful of organizations that have both types.

The majority of the presentation centered on why an organization may want to have multiple AdWords campaigns in their Google Grants AdWords account. For example, you may want to have:

  • Campaigns for different purposes or goals
  • Campaigns for various regions
  • Campaigns targeting different languages
  • Campaigns for various times and days and/or
  • Seasonal campaigns

We discussed details about these types of campaigns, including examples and benefits of multiple campaigns for each reason.

If you missed the session, you can view slides here and also purchase the webinar recording on NTEN's site. The final session in our 5-part series is this Friday, October 17, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Pacific time. We'll focus on evaluating AdWords performance through your Grants account and Google Analytics.

To find out more about the series and register for this final session, please visit NTEN's site. And if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend and you'd like to speak with a Grants representative, visit our booth at the Craigslist Foundation Bootcamp this Saturday, October 18.

Posted by Kristie, Google Grants Team
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Back in April, we introduced you to another great non-profit resource: our YouTube Nonprofit Program. Since then, thousands of you -- from the Smithsonian Museum and the Alliance for Climate Protection ...
Back in April, we introduced you to another great non-profit resource: our YouTube Nonprofit Program. Since then, thousands of you -- from the Smithsonian Museum and the Alliance for Climate Protection to the New York Public Library and the Children's Defense Fund -- have joined the program and started using YouTube to raise awareness about important issues, fundraise for causes, and engage with supporters.

We still get a lot of questions, however, about how organizations can best leverage YouTube to spread their messages. To help answer those questions, we've created tip sheets specifically for non-profits in mind. Whether you're operating on a shoestring budget, looking to launch a video campaign, or just need some basic pointers, we've got you covered. You can access them from our YouTube Nonprofit Program page.

In addition, we've posted the first in what we hope is a series of YouTube non-profit case studies. Our first video features Tim Fullerton, the Online Communications Manager at Oxfam America, who discusses how Oxfam used YouTube to start a fruitful discussion with Starbucks about fair wages for Ethiopian coffee farmers.



If your organization is using YouTube in a particularly compelling or unique way, please let us know -- our next video could be about your work! And if you're looking for a little more inspiration, you can always visit the YouTube AgentChange channel, which features monthly playlists of our most interesting non-profit content.

Finally, we always welcome feedback. If there are other things you think we could do to help non-profits create meaningful social change through YouTube, please email agentchange@youtube.com.

Posted by Ramya, YouTube Team
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Posted by Jessica, Google Grants Team
As you peruse the Help Center or check out other information about Google Grants, you'll likely notice our new look.

After five years, we're redesigning our website to be more useful for grant recipients and those new to Google Grants. We've made more resources and information easily available, and we've organized it in a more user-friendly way.  Right now we're only testing the new look in the U.S., but we're using this test as a chance to launch the new site to all of our visitors very soon.

We hope you'll take a stroll through the site and experience the changes we're making in an effort to improve your experience with our program. If you see something on the site that you'd like to discuss, visit the Google Grants Help Group and join the conversation.

Posted by Jessica, Google Grants Team
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Our resource round-up for October features Google news, training webinars and a third-party perspective on applying for a Google Grant. 
  • Google's Project 10^100 ("10 to the 100th"): a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible
Our resource round-up for October features Google news, training webinars and a third-party perspective on applying for a Google Grant. 
  • Google's Project 10^100 ("10 to the 100th"): a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible
If you come across resources that would be useful to the greater non-profit community, feel free to post it to the appropriate topic in our Help Group so that everyone can benefit. If there are some resources you'd like to see featured in these round-ups, let us know. If you'd like to review previous round-ups, just search for "Resource round-up" from the search box at the top right of the page.

Posted by Jessica, Google Grants Team
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The most recent webinar in our 5-part series with NTEN focused on optimizing ad text and featured Beth, a Googler who volunteers her time with Grants recipients. Beth presented an overview of the components of and goals for your AdWords ads. We covered simple processes for creating and editing ads and discussed ad serving and performance. Most of the session dove into best practices and proven strategies for ads, which I'll highlight briefly ...
The most recent webinar in our 5-part series with NTEN focused on optimizing ad text and featured Beth, a Googler who volunteers her time with Grants recipients. Beth presented an overview of the components of and goals for your AdWords ads. We covered simple processes for creating and editing ads and discussed ad serving and performance. Most of the session dove into best practices and proven strategies for ads, which I'll highlight briefly:
  • Include keywords in your ads, especially in the headline
  • Use a "call to action" such as 'donate,' 'sign up,' or 'get involved.' It tells people what you want them to do!
  • Include targeted, relevant information about your organization, program, or service
  • Link to the most relevant section of your site, not necessarily to your homepage
  • Create multiple ads for each Ad Group and test what works
Using these best practices, especially testing and monitoring ad performance, can have a huge effect on your AdWords account: drawing in more interested visitors through your ads will likely contribute to more conversions (volunteers, donations, and so on) on your site. If you couldn't attend last Friday's webinar, you can view Beth's slides here and buy the audio recording from NTEN.

We'll be taking a short break from the webinar series this week, with our next installment on Friday, October 10, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Pacific Time. In this session, we'll discuss managing multiple campaigns in your Grants account, why that may be a good option for your organization, and best practices for optimum performance. We'll also cover how to manage both a Grants account and a paid AdWords account, should your organization have the need to run both. Hope you can join us!

To register for or learn more about our 5-part webinar series, please visit NTEN.

Posted by Kristie, Google Grants Team
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In recent posts we've called attention to Grants recipients providing relief during times of crisis around the world. Our goal for these posts is to bring awareness to organizations uniquely suited to provide support when disaster strikes and give you a place to find information and ways to help.
In recent posts we've called attention to Grants recipients providing relief during times of crisis around the world. Our goal for these posts is to bring awareness to organizations uniquely suited to provide support when disaster strikes and give you a place to find information and ways to help.

We'd also like to offer optimization help to those of you whose organizations are seeing an increase in traffic from disasters. Rather than waiting for one to strike, we thought we'd share some tips with you now so you can prepare for future events:


  1. Ready your accounts
    Create a specific campaign for disasters and a specific ad group for the crisis at hand. If your organization provides relief for disasters, create a campaign within your account specifically for disasters. And when you respond to a disaster, create an ad group within your disaster campaign for the current disaster. This kind of organization will make it easier to manage your keywords, ad texts and budgets to best handle the traffic and disseminate information to those in need.

  2. Prioritize your budget
    Allot the majority of your budget to your disaster campaign when disasters occur. When the majority of your traffic is focused on your disaster relief efforts, shift your account budget to focus mainly on that campaign. You can then pause previous disaster ad groups in the campaign and activate the current disaster ad group to support the increased traffic with the most relevant information. If the rest of your account is drawing too much traffic away from your disaster relief campaign, you can also pause these ad groups/campaigns to give your disaster campaign more traffic.

  3. Build a targeted keyword list
    Create a very precise keyword list for your crisis ad group. You'll want a list that's specific to the disaster at hand and to the support you're providing. Use geo-targeting or geographical terms if relevant, such as "Hurricane Gustav shelters in Houston." Avoid general terms such as "hurricane", "tropical storm" and "disaster," as they won't be as effective as more narrowly targeted terms.

  4. Send users right to the source
    If you're asking for donations or volunteers in your ad text, be sure to link your ads directly to the landing pages where these options are given. Put as few clicks as possible between the user and the information they are seeking.

While we hope you won't have to use them, these tips may help you prepare for possible crises so that you can spend your time helping those in need. To discuss these strategies further, visit our Help Group, and start a discussion about best practices for managing increases in traffic.

Posted by Jessica, Google Grants Team
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In last week's NTEN webinar, AnnMarie and German from our Grants team discussed the heart of AdWords advertising: keywords. We covered basic optimization techniques and why optimization is so crucial to the success of your Grants account. And we shared tips and best practices for creating and maintaining effective keyword lists. The Q&A portion of the session was especially helpful for attendees, who raised tons of great questions.
In last week's NTEN webinar, AnnMarie and German from our Grants team discussed the heart of AdWords advertising: keywords. We covered basic optimization techniques and why optimization is so crucial to the success of your Grants account. And we shared tips and best practices for creating and maintaining effective keyword lists. The Q&A portion of the session was especially helpful for attendees, who raised tons of great questions.

In thinking about this session, I took away these major points:
  • Optimizing is simply modifying your account to improve its performance. Optimizing can take many shapes and can involve just a few minor tweaks or mass changes.
  • Before optimizing, take some time to define your optimization goals - improving account quality, site traffic, conversions (donations, volunteer sign-ups), account manageability, etc.
  • Use these best practices to optimize your keywords: steer clear of very general keywords; include negative keywords; avoid duplication of keywords across Ad Groups; and include all variations and common misspellings of your keywords.
  • Once you've optimized, you're not entirely done! Be sure to monitor performance after two weeks and refine your campaign based on analysis of what is and isn't working.
You can view slides from our webinar here and purchase the recording of the session on NTEN's site. And on Friday, Sept. 26, we'll be discussing ad text and best practices for optimizing ads in your account. Join us from 11am to 12:30pm Pacific if you'd like to learn about this topic in-depth.

To register for or learn more about our webinar series, including the next three sessions, please visit NTEN's site.

Posted by Kristie, Google Grants Team
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Before some non-profits decide if the Google Grants program is right for them, they want to see the impact that the program could have on their organization's reach. We often receive requests for examples of non-profits who have used the program to help further their mission.
Before some non-profits decide if the Google Grants program is right for them, they want to see the impact that the program could have on their organization's reach. We often receive requests for examples of non-profits who have used the program to help further their mission.

Today we're pleased to share with you Direct Relief International's story. With the help of Google Grants, they raised funds to provide relief to people adversely affected by poverty, disaster and civil unrest in more than 140 countries worldwide. As Annie Maxwell, COO for Direct Relief, put it, "In our 60-year history, there are five events that have really affected us, and our relationship with Google is one of them. It’s been incredible to take this leap in online visibility, for Direct Relief to move forward as an organization and develop sophisticated advertising in such a short period.”

To learn more about Direct Relief's experience with Google Grants, download their story. For more details on the Google Grants program, visit our homepage. 

Posted by German, The Google Grants Team
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As you may have read, we're holding a 5-part webinar series during this month and next with the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN). In this series, we'll discuss Google Grants and how to maximize its effectiveness for your organization. This past Thursday, we held the first session, which focused on setting yourself up for success with ...
As you may have read, we're holding a 5-part webinar series during this month and next with the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN). In this series, we'll discuss Google Grants and how to maximize its effectiveness for your organization. This past Thursday, we held the first session, which focused on setting yourself up for success with AdWords and the details of the Grants program.

We wanted to share some lessons from the first session:
  • Grants can help qualifying organizations achieve their missions through free ads on Google.com
  • Grants AdWords accounts must be managed by an active contact at your organization
  • Details on the program and eligibility are all online
  • Learning AdWords is key to ensuring your account is effective – and we have resources to help you!
If you missed the session, you can still view the slides we covered. And a recording of the session is available for purchase on the NTEN website.

Feel free to check out NTEN's site for more information about this ongoing series and to sign up if you're interested in joining us. You can still register for the whole series and access a free recording of the first session.

Next Friday, September 19, we'll hold the second session of the series, which will cover best practices for optimizing keywords in AdWords. Hope you join us then.

Posted by Kristie, Google Grants Team
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From time to time we'll be aggregating resources we think are useful to you as a non-profit, whether you're involved with Google Grants or not.

These resources will be anything from links to online articles to ...
From time to time we'll be aggregating resources we think are useful to you as a non-profit, whether you're involved with Google Grants or not.

These resources will be anything from links to online articles to PDF guides to upcoming webinar announcements—anything that might be helpful to you as you manage your non-profit and work toward your mission.

For our first round-up, we've collected items from around the web, including:


If you come across a resource that would be useful to the greater non-profit community, feel free to post it to the appropriate topic in our Help Group so that everyone can benefit from your find.

Posted by Jessica, Google Grants Team
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