Using Google Ad Grants to Drive Traffic to Nonprofit Videos
One of the most valuable marketing tools out there for nonprofits is video. Videos display your nonprofit’s mission in a visual, easily digestible way. However, if you don’t effectively promote your videos, they won’t reach potential supporters.
That’s where the Google Ad Grant program comes in. An equally impactful nonprofit marketing tool, the Google Ad Grant is a free and easy way to promote your video content.
In this guide, we’ll cover the basics of the program, explain how it will benefit your video marketing strategy, and provide best practices for leveraging the grant funding. Whether you’re looking for a new way to promote your nonprofit videos, or you’re a Google Ad Grant participant looking to take your marketing strategy to the next level, read on to learn how you can use both the Google Ad Grant and nonprofit videos to your advantage.
The Google Ad Grant Basics
The Google Ad Grant offers nonprofits $10,000 per month in ad spending that organizations can use to drive traffic to their website and market their cause. As long as you meet the eligibility requirements and adhere to the program’s policies, you’ll receive the ad credits in your account each month, ready for you to bid on relevant keywords and start spreading your mission.
According to Double the Donation, the application process includes the following steps:
- Check your Google Grants eligibility.
- Get verified by TechSoup.
- Create a Google for Nonprofits account.
- Optimize your website.
- Fill out the Google Ad Grant application.
Once you complete your application, it may take up to three business days to get approved. Then, you’re free to create ads that drive traffic to your YouTube channel and web pages that include video.
With the help of the Google Ad Grant, you can expand your videos’ reach. People will see your ads at the top of their search engine results page, prompting them to click through, watch your video, and take the desired action to support your mission.
Why Promote Video With The Google Ad Grant?
While text and images have their place, videos are one of the most engaging forms of nonprofit promotion. Plus, they allow you to share a ton of information about your organization and its mission at once.
Using the Google Ad Grant will ensure that people find and interact with your nonprofit’s videos. The reasons why using the Google Ad Grant and video in tandem is so impactful include:
- Entertainment value. According to Tectonic Video, 72% of people choose to watch videos over text if both are available. One clear explanation for this finding is that videos are simply more entertaining. When people have a choice of reading about a topic or seeing a topic come to life, they choose the latter. You can tease the entertainment value of your videos in your Google Ads to entice people to click through and watch.
- Faster processing time. In addition to people’s preference for videos, they’re also easier for people to process. That means that you can drive potential supporters to take action more quickly and easily with a video than with written text. Thus, keeping your Google Ad copy short and letting the video display important, mission-related information can speed up the conversion process.
- Emotional connections. Watching a story play out on screen can make you feel more connected to a cause and inspire you to take action. With the Google Ad Grant, you can start to elicit those emotions before potential supporters even view your video to increase the chance they’ll click through. For example, an animal shelter’s Google Ad may read “You have the power to save an animal’s life. Watch to learn more about the impact you could make.” Then, the video itself will deepen that emotional connection people have to your cause.
- Shareability. With the power of social media, people can share videos like never before. Producing strong nonprofit videos can entice your supporters to share them with friends and family and amplify your cause. You may even produce a video with viral potential that can spread your mission to a wider audience. Then, you can use Google Ads to capture potential supporters who haven’t seen your video on social media and inspire them to share it as well.
- High conversion rate. Did you know that video marketing can increase conversion rates by 80%? Since videos help people better understand your organization’s work and mission, video content motivates people to become supporters, whether that means donating, volunteering, or advocating for your cause. Plus, the Google Ad Grant can boost this conversion rate even more since it directs people from relevant searches to your videos.
Whether you’re creating an educational video to teach people about your organization’s work or a marketing video to encourage donations, videos are an excellent way to convert viewers into supporters. With the Google Ad Grant, you can harness the impact of these videos and gain even more support.
5 Tips for Promoting Videos with the Google Ad Grant
The Google Ad Grant’s free ad spend combined with engaging videos will propel your nonprofit toward its fundraising and marketing goals.
To ensure you get the most out of these two impactful tools, incorporate the following tips into your video marketing strategy:
- Do extensive keyword research. In order to get your videos in front of the right audience, you need to include the right keywords in your Google Ads. Keywords are words or phrases that accurately describe the content of your video. Conduct keyword research to see which terms yield a high search volume, and add them to your video title and description, as well as to the landing page where your video is hosted. That way, when people search for these terms on Google, your content will appear first.
- Prioritize accessibility. Ensure your videos are accessible to all by adding captions, audio descriptions, colors with deep contrast, and easy-to-read fonts.
- Include a call to action. Calls to action make it clear what you’d like viewers to do after the video comes to an end. While typical calls to action may be “Donate Now!” or “Sign Up to Volunteer,” you can also include calls to action that prompt people to dive deeper into a particular topic. Doing so will help people stay on your site and boost your rankings.
- Track your success. As part of the Google Ad Grant program, you have access to Google Analytics where you can track your ads’ conversions. Additionally, you can measure your video metrics on your video hosting platform. Most platforms tell you the number of views, average view duration, follower or subscriber growth, and click-through rate of your videos. This data will help you determine where you need to adjust your ads and videos for better results.
- Take advantage of the YouTube for Nonprofits program. The Google Ad Grant is just one tool under the Google for Nonprofits umbrella. With your Google for Nonprofits account, you also have access to Youtube for Nonprofits. This program helps nonprofits fundraise on YouTube by allowing you to link directly to your site in videos, offering expert nonprofit content guidance, and giving technical support.
Our final recommendation is to partner with a Google Ad Grant agency and nonprofit video production company. When you work with experts to create impactful videos and manage your Google Ad Grant, you are more likely to achieve your marketing goals.
If you want to ramp up your nonprofit’s marketing strategy, look no further than Google Ad Grants and video. The power of these two nonprofit marketing tools is unstoppable, allowing you to spread your mission and gain lasting support.
