Google Ad Grants for Nonprofits: Taxonomy and Ad Groups

In the third installment of excerpts from our Google Ad Grants whitepaper, we’ll look into Google’s taxonomy and ad groups.

You can create a number of different campaigns in your nonprofit’s Google Ad Grants account. The campaigns can be based on the overarching themes from your organization’s website. For example, if your nonprofit deals with poverty, you could create separate campaigns for volunteer opportunities, food donations and holiday toy drives.

Each campaign requires at least one, but preferably several tightly-themed ad groups. These ad groups should be centered on a single theme – so using the example above, you could create at least three different ad groups for the holiday toy drive campaign: cars, dolls and baby gifts.

An example provided by Google of a well-organized Ad Group.

An example provided by Google of a well-organized ad group.

Within each ad group, you will need to include “Ad Text,” the ad copy that people will see on Google.com. Additionally, every ad group requires several keywords – words and phrases that people search for – that will trigger your ad.

Below is a quick summary of how to set up an ad group. For detailed instructions and more tips on Google Ad Grants for nonprofits, download our whitepaper.

Step 1: Click on the campaign that you want to create the new ad group in, and select “New ad group.” This will take you to a new page, where you need to fill in the following fields:

Step 2: Once you’ve set up your new ad group, create the ad text. You can make changes to the text later.

Step 3: Add keywords. You can change the keywords later too. Remember to include common misspellings in your list of keywords.

Step 4: Set the default bid. Remember, you can bid a maximum of $2. Click on “Save the ad group.”

Aim for 15 to 30 keywords in every ad group. If you have more, it’s a sign that the theme of your ad group needs to be more focused.

In the next post in the Google Ad Grants series, we’ll explore successful keyword strategies. If you have any questions, contact us.