Are you a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization? If you are, you may be missing out on free advertising money from Google. Many charitable organizations’ budgets are running low due to cut backs on donations from the public. One of the victims of these cut-backs is PPC advertising.What many non-profits fail to realize is that the Google Grants program allows organizations to claim up to $10,000 a month in free advertising. In addition, if you spend up to the limit on a regular basis, you may be eligible to increase this to $40,000.*
I know what you are thinking…What’s the catch? Why are they giving this money away?
Firstly, I believe Google is actually trying to do a good deed. They want to be a philanthropic company that gives back to the community. However, there are several limitations to using this account. They are:
- You can only use phrases with a cost per click (CPC) of less than a dollar
- You can only send traffic to one domain
- You are not able to use ad copy that promotes anything other than your core charity e.g. if you have a thrift store that sells books, you cannot promote that
- Google will not provide account reps, so experience is needed to manage these accounts
While these limitations are not severe, they do limit the amount of advertising that can be done through this program. According to Google, organizations involved in this program, on average spend just over $300/month. So effectively, they are losing $9,700. The reason I say they are losing it is that they are not allowed to rollover any unspent money into the next month. That is why it is imperative that to use this program, you partner with people experienced in Adwords, and in Google Grants.
So, are you a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization that could use some free money? Let us know and we can help you spend it effectively.
*This is subject to change
Photo credit: AMagill (Flickr)
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
What a neat program.
I hope that it really is as mentioned here, in that Google is trying to give advertising for free.
I know that Google made the investment into YouTube, as not to loose market share, because even though Google Video is better quality, Goggle was unfortunately lagging. Their investment has still not paid off, but they don’t seem to care because they are making so much already in online advertising.
On problem I have in general with Google is their constant drive to move everything online. I appreciate their vision but there needs to be a healthy medium or interface between the personal vs online approach.
One problem with being exclusively online is it can be problematic in certain circumstances. For example, when Georgia was invaded by Russia, Russia took out their communications first.
That crippled the Georgian army, which was well noted in the media. What was less noted was that Georgia’s business is run almost completely online instead of through traditional phone lines etc through the use of SKYPE and similar programs. Their business was incredibly crippled until the war was over.
Imagine what would happen here if our business communications were cut for several days. The economic repercussions would be catastrophic.
In summary, kudos to Google for giving free advertising to 501 (c) (3), but I urge Google to not rush everything to be exclusively online. There are emerging products to solve that problem like Clickety Split.
This sounds like a really good plan. I hope it all works out.
This was very informational. I already am a “google” lover so hearing that Google is using their name to help in free advertising is not really a surprise to me. I find it refreshing that there are still companies out there that are bringing this availability of free advertising to the common man or to the public.
Although I am a “google” lover that doesn’t mean that I like the fact of everything or most things being online. The internet is a valuable resource but there are many people out there that don’t have the access to it. I find that slower transitions are better than fast transitions for people tend to not like sudden changes. Google is extremely great and I figure that no matter what everything will turn out well.
Great idea. Especially with the world as it is today. Good investment.
I love Google and I think it is a really cool idea. I am glad to hear that someone is trying to change things a bit. Ever since this world has gone a bit crazy. That is a really great idea though.
The parameters of the Google Grant program do not seem so inhibitive that it could not be factored into a useful component of non-profit advertising. As it is in most aspects of life, putting all the eggs in one basket isn’t wise, nor advisable. It makes sense to use a partner to maximize effectiveness. No strings seem to be attached, so it looks as if it would be worth a try.
Hi Chris,
Thanks for your comment, while i think the Georgia situation is interesting, I don’t think it is relevant in this case.
Perhaps there is another blog post there.
If this program is just for non profit organizeations then why are people selling it all over the net like the can use it for any program.so are all those people advertising that they can get you free google adwords is a scam?
please let me know if i can get some free advertising threw google adwords at ollyboly1@hotmail.com
Tony