ShareIn light of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the organisations we work with have needed to change their ways of working during these unprecedented times. For most of us, working from home has become the norm, and platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams have become the standard way in which we interact with colleagues and clients alike.
For some of my clients, just being able to reach out to their core audience has proved tricky in these testing times. For example, some charities have had to find creative ways of providing advice relating to COVID-19, due to being unable to actually bid on coronavirus related terms or use those terms in ad copy.
However, thanks to receiving a generous grant extension and the green light to bid on the necessary Covid-related terms, one charity was able to share necessary information with a vulnerable audience.
Protecting people from misinformation: an exception to the rule
From a paid media perspective, Google made it clear early on that it did not want people bidding on COVID19 terms. This was to keep the search results clear for GOV.UK and other trusted sites to ensure that the most accurate and relevant information was being served to those who searched for it – and rightly so.
We have all seen how misinformation can spread, and as a result we know that it’s an important concern of which to be wary. Whilst this makes perfect sense in most cases, there were always going to be exceptions to the rule.
In this case, charities looking to get crucial information out to their audience was one such exception.
An email with good news
When I arrived at work this week, I had an email from Google in relation to one of my clients’ Google Grants accounts. To set the scene a little, this client is a charity that provide information and support to older, vulnerable people on a variety of topics.
They have had their Google Ads grant in place for many of years and are on the $40,000 Grants Pro Level scheme.
We spend our full grant budget every month, have excellent engagement and are fully compliant with the program’s requirements. The email I received was to inform me that, for the next 60 days, my client’s grant would be generously increased from $40,000 to $70,000, increasing their daily limit by 75% from $1,315 to $2,301 and that we can now use this to bid on COVID19 terms.
In order to make the most of the increased funds, they recommended the following actions:
- Enable conversion value tracking and use Maximize Conversions.
- Increase campaign level budgets to ensure the correct additional funds.
- Create a specific campaign to capture traffic from users searching for COVID19 keywords.
- Create a Dynamic Search Ads campaign to maximize keyword coverage based on website content in order to get more traffic and conversions.
Conversion value tracking and maximise conversions were already in place in the account and we’ve been taking full advantage of the coverage and relevancy that DSAs provide. Our next priority was to increase daily budgets for our campaigns and start building a COVID19 campaign.
Qualifying for the extension
Google doesn’t clarify the specifics of why we qualified for this grant extension, but we can make a few assumptions.
As stated above, we were already on the pro level of the grant and making full use of this month to month. Aspects such as impression share and click through rates are strong, which may also play a part. Lastly, the fact that this particular charity’s core aim is to provide information and support for vulnerable people makes them a good candidate.
Helping the helpers
Budget management is a key activity in any Google Ads account and especially so when it comes to Google Ad Grants. This budget increase will allow us to uncap campaign budgets for current activity and, most importantly, it will allow us to help our client get relevant, reactive, and important information out to vulnerable people who need it most right now.
You can find out more about how we help charities manage their Google Grants, or if you’d like to speak to a member of the team, call us on 0845 450 2086.
