Growing Your Nonprofit’s Digital Footprint Through Multi-Channel Marketing

How To Increase Brand Equity + Reach With The Google Ad Grant + Paid Advertising 

Marketing as a nonprofit organization in the digital age can seem like an intimidating piece of the business that takes expertise, resources, and a large budget. While planning across multiple platforms can look like the gameboard of Chutes and Ladders, combining your efforts across platforms, whether it’s on Facebook and Instagram, LinkedIn, Google Paid Search, or the Google Display Network can help supercharge your campaigns to increase your brand equity and reach a new audience of supporters. 

It’s Not One-Size-Fits-All

With your Google Ad Grant campaigns up and running, you have a strong foundation to be found when folks search for your organization directly or when they are searching for things related to your mission and cause. If you are looking to increase your reach and engagement with a new or existing audience, consider the following: 

Are there competitors who are utilizing paid media spend and outbidding your Google Ad Grant campaigns? 

Through Google’s Ad Grant program, approved nonprofits receive $10,000 a month in ad spend they can use across a variety of campaigns. If an organization is utilizing paid Google Search ads, they will always show above a Google Ad Grant campaign when focusing on the same keywords and search terms. 

If your competition is putting budget toward a paid Google Search campaign, consider allocating a portion of your marketing budget to focus on your key efforts during high-impact times (e.g. Giving Tuesday) to increase your reach with your potential audience through a paid Google Search campaign. 

What platform is the audience you’re trying to reach engaging with most?

A common myth is that being successful with digital advertising means being on every platform at all times, but is your audience actively participating on every channel? If your nonprofit’s campaign is trying to reach Millennial parents for an upcoming event, for example, running a campaign to attract registrations based on Facebook’s persona targeting to hit parents of a certain age can help get your organization and upcoming event in front of your target audience where they spend most of their digital time. 

What is the goal of the campaign? 

If your nonprofit wants to get the word out about upcoming legislation or increase awareness about your cause, relying solely on Google Search Ads means engaging with an audience who specifically searches for the legislation or cause—rather than creating awareness and engaging with a new audience. 

Utilizing the Google Display Network (GDN) and custom, in-market audience targeting, you can utilize eye-catching graphics and strong messaging to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your site. With the increased traffic, you’ll also quickly build up a strong remarketing list to engage with in the future. 

Are there multiple phases of the campaign to achieve your desired outcome? 

For a larger campaign, relying on one platform or strategy can lead to your organization missing out on achieving your goals and getting a strong return on investment. Let’s say you are launching a new event this year. Creating multiple phases of the campaign can allow for a strong lead-up to the event. 

For example, based on existing donor and supporter profiles, you may have a clear persona you’d like to engage with through an awareness campaign on YouTube to build up excitement before the event registration opens. Additionally, you may want to reactivate lapsed supporters through a retargeting campaign on Facebook and Instagram to increase attendance of the event. 

By mapping out different phases of the campaign, you can ensure that you are maximizing the organization’s reach and brand equity to achieve your desired outcome. 

Conclusion

Ensuring your Google Ad Grant campaigns are running smoothly throughout the year gives your nonprofit a consistent digital presence. By layering in multiple platforms to align with your organizational or campaign-specific goals, it can help leverage a new audience and reactivate previous support to help increase your brand awareness and reach across the digital space. 

It can seem overwhelming to manage efforts across multiple channels, but having a strong game plan and goals for each platform can be a guiding light to a successful digital marketing strategy.

For additional tips on optimizing your Googe Ad Grant, download our free resource, The Ultimate How-To Guide to Google Ad Grants.

Looking for Google Ad Grant Management services? Send us a message here.