You’ve applied and qualified for the Google Ad Grant, you are receiving your $10,000 a month in-kind advertising for your non-profit, and you have strategized on the best way to ensure that you get donors and volunteers for your organization. Now it is time to use part of your monthly advertising budget to brand. Branding is very important because it helps build trust in the community that you are serving. As you brand—and your non-profit becomes a pillar in the community—raising funds and planning events will be much easier once everyone knows who you are, that you can be trusted, and that you are here to stay.
Here are two of the best ways that you can use Google AdWords to brand your non-profit organization.
Using Search Terms to Brand for Your Non-Profit:
Branding on Products
Be creative with your branding—really get your non-profit’s name out there. If you help with the homeless, run ads when people shop for clothes and food—these are things they need and there is a good chance you can get some low CPC ads and really make an emotional impact on consumers when they weren’t expecting it. You can be very creative with your messaging and Call to Actions.
If you work for an animal shelter, target those shopping for cat carriers, dog toys, and other pet supplies. If you work for an environmental organization, target keywords around solar-powered backpacks and green energy. There are ways that you can target your organization to those that would be more likely to support you based on the items they are searching for and buying.
The advantage that advertising on the internet has over print advertising is that you can target based on more than just location, you can target based on interests too.
Branding on Local People, Places, or Things
If you are a local non-profit, take advantage of local celebrities or local attractions. If there are search terms that have a lot of volume in your area, but they don’t cost a lot, you can get your name out very inexpensively while targeting people wanting to know more about the community in general.
If a lot of people search for a museum or a restaurant near your non-profit, target that brand and let people know that you can be found right around the corner.
Using Competitors to Brand for Your Non-Profit
While you may not have the mindset that you and the other non-profits within your niche are competitors, you are essentially competing for the same pool of donations. One way that you can brand is to target keywords and show ads when people search for the names of your competitors’ organizations. This way, before a searcher even gets to the first organic listing, they will see your brand and associate you with them—this way that know that there are other options within the niche.
Chances are if you have a catchy enough ad, you can steal what would have been their click and get their donations and volunteers. Even if they don’t click on your ad, they’ve seen your brand and later on, they may remember it.
Using AdWords and Advanced Techniques to Brand
Whether you just run regular text ads based on competitor names or you choose to do a remarketing campaign for your non-profit, there are many ways that you can better optimize your Google Ad Grant and improve your branding with Google AdWords.
