IgA Nephropathy Foundation
Driving IgAN awareness through the Ad Grant
About the Client
The IgA Nephropathy Foundation is a nonprofit organization committed to finding a cure for IgA Nephropathy (IgAN), a rare autoimmune kidney disease that affects the filtering units of the kidneys. Founded by patients and driven by the patient voice, the Foundation works to improve the quality of life for individuals living with IgAN through research, education, and patient support.
What began as a personal journey for a family seeking answers has grown into a nationwide movement of patients, caregivers, clinicians, and researchers. The Foundation’s mission centers on funding critical research, increasing disease awareness, and providing support resources that empower patients to take control of their care and connect with a broader community.
With a deep focus on advocacy and collaboration, the IgA Nephropathy Foundation has become a cornerstone for those impacted by this chronic illness.
The Challenge
The IgA Nephropathy Foundation had been using the Google Ad Grant for five years but struggled to gain visibility and leverage spend. An estimated 329 out of every 1 million Americans are currently diagnosed with IgAN. And as a rare disease nonprofit with a niche target audience—patients living with IgA Nephropathy and their families—they faced an uphill battle in reaching the right people through traditional search campaigns.
Their primary goals were to increase awareness of IgA Nephropathy and grow their membership base to support IGAN Hope, their patient registry. However, Google’s stringent policies on advertising related to health conditions often restricted their messaging, making it difficult to promote educational resources and connect with diagnosed patients.
Despite their long-standing use of the Grant, the Foundation’s campaigns lacked the structure and strategy needed to drive meaningful engagement. They were looking for a partner who understood both the complexities of the Google Ad Grant and the nuances of healthcare advertising to help them break through and reach the community that depends on them.
The Results
Ad Grant spend
+$9,637.60
Clicks
+1,616
Conversions
+1,687
After partnering with Getting Attention, the IgA Nephropathy Foundation saw immediate improvements in the reach and performance of their Google Ad Grant account. We launched a mix of campaign types—including Responsive Search Ads (RSA), Dynamic Search Ads (DSA), and Performance Max—but quickly found that the RSA and Performance Max combination drove the most meaningful results.
Previously, the Foundation had no conversion tracking or goals in place, which caused the account to underperform and risked falling out of compliance with Ad Grant policies. We implemented a variety of conversion actions to begin optimizing their engagement funnel and help Google learn which user actions led to deeper engagement. As a result, visitors began downloading key resources from the website—a strong early indicator of future donations.
Awareness campaigns outperformed expectations, driven in part by the Foundation’s well-built and informative website. This allowed us to reach people more likely to convert over time, even as we trained the account toward harder-to-reach conversion goals.
Within the first month, the client was pleased to see the account approaching the full $10,000 Grant spend—a sign of high-quality traffic and campaign momentum. We saw a significant spike in clicks, especially after overcoming early keyword limitations related to the disease space. Through our strategies, IgAN Foundation can reach more and more patients and provide them the resources they and their family need to overcome this disease.
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