Google Grants Blog

Share your Google Grants story

2009-11-10T09:22:00.000-08:00

We've recently featured some Google Grantees' stories here on the blog, and your positive response makes it clear that you want to hear more about what fellow non-profits are doing to make the most of their Google Grants.

Great idea!

In an effort to offer a shared resource of grantee testimonials, case studies, and best practices to all readers, we'd like to invite you to share your organization's story with us via our new webform.

Of course, if you'd rather just share your story with us, The Google Grants Team, that's OK, too. You can make this choice on the form. But in the future, we're planning to make a greater variety of grantee stories available to the wider non-profit audience, so if you're willing to share your story with others, you can choose to include your story as a Google Grants Testimonial, and it will become a part of this new resource for Google grantees and other non-profits.

We'd love to hear stories about the methods and strategies you employ to make Google Grants work for your organization, as well as any other techniques you've picked up that could help other organizations working with AdWords and Google products.

We look forward to reading about your unique experiences and offering your sage advice to other organizations for the benefit of their causes.

Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team

A major change in the Google Grants process

2009-11-03T22:36:00.001-08:00

We have exciting news for prospective Google Grants applicants: once you're accepted, you will be able to build your own AdWords account instead of having to wait for us to build one for you!

Why are we doing this?

We have been working on ways to increase our program's efficiency, the level of grantee engagement, and the quality of scalable support we provide so that we can serve more non-profits. We started by creating the Account Creation Guide and the Ongoing Management Guide as well as making improvements to our online Help Center.

Now that we have built the tools you will need to succeed, we are inviting you all to roll up your sleeves and build an AdWords account that will best meet your organization's needs.

Will this be faster?

You bet it will! Previously, your application would have first gone to one queue to be reviewed and then to another queue to be built. Now, you will be notified as soon as your application has been reviewed. This will give you more control over how long it takes from there. If you want, you can build your own account within a couple of days of being notified and then submit it to us for review. Likewise, you can take more time if needed. Meanwhile, we can review accounts that have been built by grantees in less time than it would have taken us to build them ourselves. Which means that this new process should be much faster for you. Not only that, but once you have reviewed the necessary guides and your account is up and running, you will be better prepared to actively manage your account to make the most of your advertising opportunity!

How will this work?

Below is the process for a Google Grants applicant under our new system:

A non-profit visits our website, learns about the program and applies via our online application.
Their application is then reviewed in the order received. How long this takes will fluctuate given the number of applications we get.
If the application is accepted, the non-profit is invited to review the Account Creation Guide (ACG) and build their AdWords account. Each newly accepted grantee can do this at their own pace.
Once a non-profit is done building their AdWords account, they will submit it for review via the web-form provided to them in their acceptance email.
Their AdWords account will then be reviewed by a volunteer at Google. Again, all accounts are reviewed in the order they are received.
If the account passes review, it is activated and the non-profit is then invited to review the Ongoing Management Guide (OMG) and begin actively managing their account.
If the account does not pass the review process, the non-profit will be given further guidance and asked to re-submit once they had made the necessary changes to their account.

We hope you are as excited as we are about the improvements taking place within the Google Grants program. We are happy to be providing you all with a faster process and greater flexibility in the design of your accounts!

Posted by German Freiwald, The Google Grants Team

How non-profit organizations go Google

2009-10-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

Each day, thousands of companies, schools and organizations go Google by switching to Google Apps to manage the way they communicate and collaborate, eliminating the traditional cost and frustration associated with IT. While IT infrastructure can be hard work for any organization, these costs and frustrations are often especially overwhelming for non-profit organizations with limited resources – which is why we offer Google Apps for registered 501(c)3s in addition to our solutions for schools and for-profit businesses.

Google Apps for Non-profits includes email (with integrated IM, voice, and video chat), Google Calendar, and online document and site creation, letting entire non-profit organizations share information and ideas more easily. Organizations with up to 3,000 users qualify for the free version of Education Edition, and non-profit organizations with more than 3,000 users are eligible for Google Apps Premier Edition at a 40% discount ($30/user/year).

USA Water Polo is one non-profit organization that has made the switch to Google Apps and was able to provide their 35,000 staff, volunteers, and players with improved email and advanced collaboration tools while re-allocating costs toward funding for their players, teams and members. Chris Ramsey, CEO of US Water Polo says: "With Google Apps for Non-profits we are able to provide a really high quality product at an incredible value, and this empowers us to run our own network without the cost and upkeep synonymous with a dedicated IT department." They have since moved away from their previous faulty mail system plagued by spam and server limitations and instead have found a cost-effective way to keep everyone in their global organization on a central network where they can share calendars and documents.

With over two million businesses using Google Apps, this is a great opportunity for non-profits to harness the power of cloud computing to improve the way they work, while cutting costs. Learn more about how to go Google for your non-profit organization.

Get timely updates on Google Apps and Google's other workplace solutions on the Google Enterprise Blog.

Miriam Schneider, Google Apps for Non-profits Team

Workshop Grantee Best Practices: Kidpower

2009-10-27T13:34:00.000-07:00

The final speaker to highlight from the Google Grants Workshop series is Irene van der Zande from Kidpower. Local to the Bay Area, Kidpower teaches children, teens, and adults of various abilities how to stay safe, act wisely, and believe in themselves. Checkout Irene's experience in the Google Grants program below:

Initially the account was just used for special events, but we have since started to align our account with our business goals. We currently using it to increase readership of our eNewsletter. Next we will use it to drive traffic to our training materials and donations pages.
Finding time and resources are initial roadblocks, but restructuring internally will address this issue.
Aligning campaigns with each organizational goal will take us to exactly where we want to be.
Tip: Dedicate specific time for someone to manage the account if you can't dedicate a full-time person.

Thanks again to our Workshop panel participants for sharing their experiences and tips! You can learn more about Irene's experience and view the full panel discussion from the Google Grants Workshop on our YouTube channel.

Posted by AnnMarie Hill, The Google Grants Team

OMG, it's the OMG!

2009-10-22T15:39:00.000-07:00

Last March, we announced that we would be requiring all US grantees to actively manage their accounts. In a couple of months we will be extending this requirement to all of our grantees worldwide. To help grantees better learn how to manage their accounts, we are happy to announce that we have created an Ongoing Management Guide (OMG).

Let's take quick look at what the OMG includes:

Account Overview:
In this section, grantees are given a quick tour of their account. This may be especially helpful for current account administrators who did not initially build their account themselves.

Basic Management:
In this section, grantees are shown how to schedule automatic reports and how to make use of the data in those reports as quickly and easily as possible. Account management has never been easier!

Intermediate Management:
This section is for grantees that would like to evaluate the success of their campaigns based on specific online goals (for example, which keyword is fueling the greatest number of newsletter signups). Here, youʼll learn how to implement AdWords Conversion Tracking, which enables you to identify which keywords and ads are leading to the valuable actions taken on your site.

Advanced Management:
This section is for grantees who are considering using Google Analytics. If youʼre looking for further insight into how users find and interact with your site, you may want to consider implementing Google Analytics. Weʼve included a quiz in this section to help you decide if Google Analytics is for you.

We hope each of you download your own copy of the OMG today!

Posted by German Freiwald, The Google Grants Team

Climate Change in Google Earth

2009-10-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

Google recently released the first in a series of Google Earth tours called Climate Change in Google Earth in the lead up to the UN Conference of Parties 15 meeting in Copenhagen in December. The first tour released, Confronting Climate Change narrated by Al Gore, presents scientific data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change alongside temperature rise models, precipitation change, water stress, food scarcity, sea level rise, and much more. In the first of this series of tours, learn about the mitigation techniques and adaptation strategies people around the world are confronting.

Tropical deforestation is one of the largest emitters of carbon dioxide, and much of this is from burning down rainforests for agriculture or cattle grazing. In the next tours released as part of the series, the World Wildlife Fund and Conservation International have created Google Earth tours from two unique areas in the world where they have successfully helped local communities avoid deforestation or start reforestation projects -- in Borneo and Madagascar. Meanwhile, Greenpeace worked together with large multinational corporations in the food industry to initiate a mutually agreed-upon ban on soybean plantations, one of the primary causes of Amazon deforestation.

View the tours at www.google.com/cop15. Get involved at youtube.com/cop15.

Posted by Tanya Keen, Google Earth Outreach Team

Workshop Grantee Best Practices: National Public Radio

2009-10-13T08:54:00.000-07:00

As we've done for the past several weeks, today we are highlighting another speaker from our recent Google Grants Workshop. Today, we'll hear best practices and strategies from National Public Radio (NPR), a Google Grants recipient and Google Analytics user that provides non-commercial news and cultural programming. Javaun Moradi, who manages digital media at NPR, shares some tips below which have led to his organization's success with their Google Grant for AdWords advertising. He encourages other non-profits to put these strategies to work for their own organizations.

* Discuss your campaign goals up front (increased donations, volunteer registrations, newsletter subscribers, etc.) and set a measurement plan to track these goals.
* Regularly discuss AdWords with stakeholders in your organization. Coordinate the use of AdWords with other marketing campaigns, special events, and PR.
* Experiment often. This means experimenting within an ad group (changing keywords, ad copy, or bids) to achieve greater efficiency. But don't be complacent optimizing what you already have. Dedicate some time to experimenting with new campaigns and objectives as well.

Javaun also shares this valuable point for new grantees:

* Be sure you have a firm understanding of your organization's business before jumping in. To be effective with AdWords, there is a requisite level of knowledge about campaign creation, management, and measurement, which you can learn about in the Google Grants Help Center and other online resources. Without a clear understanding of your business, articulated goals, and a plan to measure your progress, it's much more challenging.

We hope you've found Javaun's insights helpful in thinking about your own Google Grants account. For more from Javaun and our other panelists, watch the recording of the session from the workshop here. You can also check out all of the other recordings from the Google Grants Workshop on our YouTube channel. Finally, feel free to share your own experiences using these and other best practices on the Google Grants User Forum.

Posted by Kristie Ferketich, Google Grants Team

Workshop Grantee Best Practices: Elder Wisdom Circle

2009-10-06T16:33:00.000-07:00

This week's speaker recap from the Google Grants Workshop is courtesy of The Elder Wisdom Circle. The Elder Wisdom Circle is an online inter-generational program connecting young people seeking advice on life with seniors ages 60-100 with wisdom to share. Doug Meckelson, founder of the EWC, had the following to say when asked to share tips and best practices for achieving success in the Google Grants program:

Take time to learn about your account, how it works, what tools are available. When we first started I would log-in multiple times each day to tweak and adjust.
Look at your ads from the visitor point of view: is your ad is enticing them to click? Does the page they land on and the content they see after clicking on your ad make sense? Just having someone click into your site is not the end goal, creating some form of action usually is.
Negative keywords are invaluable. We do not offer any type of medical, tax, legal or investment advice and early on we burned up quite a bit of resources dealing with advice-seekers we could not help.
The message is pretty simple and that is to take the time to understand how things work. In the end this one little tool allowed us to reach the correct audience.

You can also check out all of the other recordings from the Google Grants Workshop on our YouTube channel. Also, feel free to share your own experiences using these and other best practices on the Google Grants User Forum.

Posted by AnnMarie Hill, The Google Grants Team

Your best keyword forward

2009-10-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

When creating an AdWords campaign for your charity, it's very important to organise your account so that there is a distinct relationship and correlation between the keywords you select and the ads that run against them on Google.com. As you build your account, you may generate a large number of keywords that you think people will search for or associate with your organisation.

Once this list has been created, try to put the keywords into groups of around 10 to 30 based on common themes. The numbers aren't really important; it's more important that the keywords are grouped according to on concise themes, product offerings, etc. and aren't overly generic or broad in their meaning.

Your keywords will trigger your ad on Google. Therefore, once you have a tightly-themed group of keywords, you should write around 3 to 4 ad variations that reflect the theme of the ad group. This ensures that when someone enters one of your keywords as a search query on Google.com, your ad that's related to the keyword(s) the user entered will be eligible to appear. This is the ideal situation, because if your ad satisfies the need of the person who performed the search, they'll be in turn, more likely to click on your ad and then visit your site, which is the ultimate goal of your campaign.

Repeat this process of creating ad text and relevant keyword groups until you've covered all the key areas of your site. It is also vital that you send people to the the most relevant part of your site via your destination URL. For example, if your ad and the keyword that triggered it is about giving donations, you should direct users to the page within your website about how to contribute donations.

If you have any trouble generating keywords, you can try the keyword tool to find new ideas.

Some key points to note are:

Keep ad groups small and tightly themed.
Choose keywords and ads that match and follow a single theme.
Send traffic to the appropriate part of the site that matches the ad group theme.
Use the keyword tool to generate related keyword ideas.

Posted by Barney Durrant, London Sales Team

Pre-Campaign Strategy In the Pre-Season

2009-09-30T13:59:00.000-07:00

Just three weeks ago, schools resumed session and AdWords in the Curriculum embarked on a new semester. With a portfolio including a Google Grantee's site, mission statement and contact information, students are faced with the familiar question invoked by any assignment: where to begin?

The holiday season at the end of the calendar year is well known as the busiest time for both charitable donations to non-profits and sales for profit companies. Identifying strategic goals in September will lead to better outcomes in an end-of-year assessment of marketing success.

The most important place to start for any Google Grants recipient is deciding on campaign goals -- not keywords. What should the advertising accomplish? How will it improve your organization's exposure, and what audience are you trying to reach?

Starting a campaign without answering these important initial questions can lead to a hodgepodge of keywords, ad groups and ad texts that attempt to cram an entire mission into unstructured campaigns, potentially ineffective ads, and longer term struggles with determining whether the campaign is working.

After a set of goals are established, the next step is to determine a success metric to track. Is there a particular page that would be valuable for users to reach? Or is there an online conversion such as a donation, purchase or information request that you'd like to achieve? Determining success metrics will help non-profits determine whether the campaign is bearing fruit, or if it needs further refinement. This is especially relevant for campaigns that will run during the busy holiday season when you want to ensure your advertising is as effective as possible.

When creating your first AdWords campaign, also consider using the recommended steps available on the the 'Solutions for your advertising campaign' page to help generate ideas.

The work of both becoming experts in the AdWords program and helping with Google Grants recipients manage accounts and meet their goals is now underway for AdWords in the Curriculum students. Stay tuned for an end-of-semester update that will spotlight high performing AdWords in the Curriculum accounts for local non-profits in Michigan.

Posted by Anita Varma, Google Ann Arbor

Workshop Grantee Best Practices: Direct Relief International

2009-09-29T10:16:00.000-07:00

In this week's speaker recap from last month's workshop, we highlight Direct Relief International, a long-time Google Grants participant. Alison Joyce, Online Communications Manager at Direct Relief International, joined our grantee panel to share her organization's experiences using their Google Grant over the years.

Here are several helpful strategies Alison offers to fellow grantees:

* Identify your organization's goals for your Google Grant early on, but also be flexible in adjusting your goals over time. For example, Direct Relief International was initially only focused on awareness with their grant, but later expanded their goals to program outreach and donation solicitation.

* Realize that the more time you put into your account, the more you get out of it! Be active with your account, blocking off time in your calendar each week (even 30 minutes) to refine keywords and improve ads with low CTRs.

* Don't be afraid to delete poor-performing keywords and ads, as they will drag your account down. Less is more here, as you improve your site traffic.

* Integrate your AdWords account into your overall communications planning, as this will push you to make time for it and have a sense of accountability for its performance. Treat it as a resource you are paying for.

* Incorporate other free Google for Non-Profit products into your online strategy: integrate Google Analytics and Google Checkout with AdWords and use other products like Google Maps and YouTube to further your mission.

For more best practices, you can watch Alison and the entire grantee panel here. You can also view all of the recordings from the workshop on the Google Grants YouTube channel. Over the next three weeks, we'll share more best practices from the other grantees on the panel. We hope that you benefit from the sharing of these strategies and that they help to make your Google Grant even more successful for your organization. See you next week!

Posted by Kristie Ferketich, Google Grants Team

How to Turn the Use of Negative Keywords to a Positive

2009-09-24T10:14:00.000-07:00

WHY ARE NEGATIVE KEYWORDS GOOD FOR YOUR CAMPAIGNS?

Negative keywords can have a positive impact on your campaigns because they help you filter out irrelevant searches. When you include negative keywords, you're essentially requesting that the system does not show your ads against search queries containing those words. For example, if your organization works to prevent animal cruelty, you might want to add the keyword, adoption (-adoption) as a negative term. Why? Because you don't want your ads to show on queries such as "animal adoption" since you are not providing animal adoption services.

WHERE CAN I FIND NEGATIVE KEYWORDS TO ADD?

The Keyword Tool automatically gives you suggestions for negative terms, and the Search Query Performance report is another great way to find relevant negatives. The report shows all the various search queries that triggered your ads and generated a click. By reviewing these terms, you can identify any irrelevant keywords that trigger your ad and include them as negative keywords.

HOW DO I ADD NEGATIVE KEYWORDS?

Adding negatives is easy. You can manually add negative keywords to your keyword lists at both the ad group and campaign level. Simple add the irrelevant terms by placing a negative sign (–) before the word in your keyword list. Keep in mind that you can also add negatives as different match types. Here's how different negative match types work:

Negative Broad match: keyword (no punctuation)
Allows your ad not to show for searches on similar phrases and relevant variations of the term. For example, if you add -"adoption," your ad will not show for animal adoption, pet adoptions, animal adopted.

Negative Phrase match: -"keyword"
Allows your ad to not show for searches that match the exact phrase and terms that have the phrase in it for example if you add -"animal adoption" will not show for "animal adoption California."

Negative Exact match: -[keyword]

Allows your ad to not show for searches that match the exact phrase exclusively.

By adding negative terms to your AdWords account, you ensure that you're spending your Google Grant only on relevant clicks and improving your account's overall performance. Here's a great video on Negative Keywords that provides more tips.

Posted by Sherry Zarabi, AdWords Team

Workshop Grantee Best Practices: Energy Action Coalition

2009-09-22T16:04:00.000-07:00

This week's speaker recap from our recent workshop shines the spotlight on Energy Action Coalition, a non-profit organization using multiple Google for Non-Profit products. At the event, attendees heard Danny Marx, Internet Manager at Energy Action Coalition, share his experiences working with free Google products including YouTube, Google Apps, Google Sites and more.

Here are some best practices that Danny shared:

* Consider creating YouTube videos as a way to train volunteers
* Keep decentralized efforts in your organization coordinated with powerful tools like Google Apps
* Stay current on news in your space with Google Reader and Google Alerts
* Use Google's mobile tools to keep your information current, especially if you're out in the field
* Understand that the benefits of adopting Google tools often outweigh the temporary challenges of transitioning to them
* Be creative in using Google for Non-Profit tools in general; think about how they might help solve your organization's challenges

You can view Danny's entire presentation, including several amazing YouTube videos from his organization, here. Danny's slides are also available here. To watch other videos from the Google Grants Workshop, visit our YouTube channel. We'll see you next Tuesday with more best practices from another non-profit using Google products.

Posted by Kristie Ferketich, Google Grants Team

Does your Spanish org want to be more Google Search-friendly?

2009-09-16T14:05:00.000-07:00

Attention all Spanish language NGOs: Would you like to receive advice about your website for Google Search?

The Spanish Webmaster Blog is looking for websites that might be good candidates for participation in an upcoming Site Clinic. These sites will be analyzed, and through a blog post write-up, receive tips and suggestions for improving accessibility and becoming more Google-friendly.

If you're interested in submitting your site for evaluation, visit the the original blog post for all the details about this Site Clinic and send us your site via the available form. The open submission period is between 9/15/09 and 10/15/09, and then three to five sites from the first 200 applicants will be selected.

Don't miss this opportunity - submit your site today!

Posted by Esperaza Navas, Search Quality Team

Workshop Grantee Best Practices: DoSomething.org

2009-09-15T16:13:00.000-07:00

As you may have read in a previous post, we recently held a Google Grants Workshop on the Mountain View campus. At this 2-day event, several grantees spoke about their experiences using Google Grants and shared best practices for online advertising that have helped lead their organizations to success. Each Tuesday for the next several weeks, we'll share some of those best practices and tips here on the blog. We hope you enjoy reading about the strategies other grantees have put into action and consider implementing some of them in your own Google Grants AdWords account. Feel free to share your own experiences using these and other best practices on the Google Grants User Forum.

The first grantee we'll highlight is DoSomething.org. George Weiner, CTO of DoSomething.org, explained some of the strategies his organization uses to get the most of their Google Grants account. Here are some of the takeaways from his talk.

High-Level Best Practices:
* Top non-profit mistake is asking for donations too soon; be sure to inform the user first
* Constantly refine your ads and keywords, see what works, then refine again
* Keep your users top of mind when creating ads and developing keywords
* Use Google Trends to find seasonal patterns that relate to your organization

Keyword Best Practices:
* To identify effective keywords, look at your site map and test terms to see if they stick
* Don't forget the long-tail keywords; common misspellings can drive significant targeted traffic

Ad Text Best Practices:
* Use your main keywords in your ad copy
* Create multiple ads and test, test, test!
* Link each ad to a relevant landing page on your site, not just to your home page

You can view the entire case study that George shared at the workshop here. You can also check out all of the other recordings from the Google Grants Workshop on our YouTube channel. We'll be be back next Tuesday with another grantee spotlight. See you then!

Posted by Kristie Ferketich, Google Grants Team

Resource round-up for September

2009-09-09T10:02:00.000-07:00

This month's resource round-up for September includes a handy summary of tips for the new AdWords interface, a reminder to vote on the HHS' Flu PSA contest on YouTube, a live radio segment featuring a few grantees and their use of Google Grants to run their non-profits, and a new SEM series highlighting FAQs about Google Grants.

AdWords sums up the new interface
If you haven't gotten up to speed on the new AdWords interface yet, now's your chance to get all your information in one place via the New Interface label on the Inside AdWords blog. Here, the AdWords team shares their favorite posts in the series.

Vote for the best Swine Flu PSA by 9/16
Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) "Flu PSA" Contest on YouTube is underway through 9/16/06, with the 10 finalists competing for a $2500 prize and to have their PSA featured on national television. More information about the background of this project can be found in this clip from Good Morning America.

Grantees on the radio
Save a Smile Foundation, CancerQuest and Owens Foundation for Wildlife Conservation join Atlanta Business Radio to talk about their experiences starting, developing and running non-profit organizations, including some discussion of their experiences with Google Grants.

FAQs for non-profits applying to Google Grants
A San Francisco SEM (search engine marketer) starts a blog post series to answer some of the frequently asked questions they receive about Google Grants.

If you come across resources that would be useful to the greater non-profit community, feel free to post it to the appropriate topic in our discussion group so that everyone can benefit. If you'd like to review previous round-ups, just click here and read through previous months' round-ups or search for "resource round-up" from the search box at the top of the page.

Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team

Google Grants Workshop Recap and Videos

2009-09-02T14:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all of you who expressed interest in attending the Google Grants Workshop, as well those who traveled and participated in this successful event. The workshop was a two-day event, attended by approximately 100 non-profit organizations in the Google Grants program. The first day focused specifically on Google Grants, while the second day catered to other Google for Non-Profit products, such as the YouTube Non-Profit Program, Google Apps, and more.

For those of you who could not attend the workshop, or for those in attendance who could benefit from a refresher, we are happy to announce that the videos from the workshop sessions are now live on our newly-launched Google Grants YouTube channel!

For your convenience, we have sorted our workshop videos thematically:

AdWords Tutorials - Where you can learn from Google Grants volunteers. Our in-house experts advise on how to manage, evaluate, and improve your AdWords account with tools like optimization, website optimizer, and Google Analytics.

Non-profit Case Studies - Where you can learn from your peers. Our grantees share success stories and how to cope with pain points through case studies and a grantee panel.

Other Google Products & Offerings - Where you can learn about other Google offerings for non-profits. Our Google Product teams offer additional strategies to reach organizational goals through programs like Google Earth, YouTube, and Webmaster Central.

We hope that you find these videos helpful in the ongoing management of your Google Grants account, as well as for insight into additional Google tools and programs available for non-profits.

Posted by AnnMarie Hill, The Google Grants Team

"My Take On Peace" YouTube Contest

2009-08-27T11:30:00.000-07:00

Monday, September 21st is the 10th anniversary of Peace Day, a UN-sanctioned day of global nonviolence and ceasefire. In honor of Peace Day, YouTube has launched the "My Take on Peace" contest with a non-profit called Peace One Day. The contest is designed to get people thinking about how they'll create peace on that day and to share their ideas with the online community through video.

The winning video submission will receive a HD camera, and multiple winners will be showcased during Peace Day concerts this year! Visit the "My Take on Peace" contest page or the YouTube blog post for more information about the contest. If your organization needs help creating videos, whether for Peace Day or any other topic, visit Video Volunteers to get assistance from generous volunteers who can help make great videos for your cause.

Posted by Kristie Ferketich, Google Grants Team

Upcoming Online Nonprofit Technology Conference

2009-08-25T10:36:00.000-07:00

In a few short weeks, the Nonprofit Technology Network, (NTEN), will host a live online conference about how to effectively use technology to meet your organization's mission. The conference will take place on September 16th and 17th, and you can attend right from the comfort of your desk! Keynotes and hands-on sessions will be featured throughout the two-day event, so attendees will walk away with both high-level and more tactical learnings. Visit NTEN's website for more information, including the conference agenda, registration fees, and more.

A few members of the Google Grants team will be participating in the conference for an "Ask the Expert" session. This session will be held on September 17th from 10:40am until 11:20am Pacific. Feel free to join us and ask any questions you may have. Hope to "see" you then!

Posted by Kristie Ferketich, Google Grants Team

Partnering Non-Profits With Student Teams for Flourishing Campaigns: Laying the Groundwork

2009-08-20T14:08:00.000-07:00

School is almost back in session, and Wayne State University is joining the roster of top notch universities that are participating in AdWords in the Curriculum. Past and current participants include Eastern Michigan University, Michigan State University, and Emerson College.

How do AdWords in the Curriculum participants (students and non-profits) coordinate to attain success? For many non-profits, time is tight, and the task of developing advertising strategy may fall to the wayside of other concerns such as program development, event planning, or fundraising efforts. These priorities are understandable, and AdWords in the Curriculum is designed to ease the weight of honing online advertising while providing a valuable learning experience for students. That said, the effectiveness of a campaign will depend largely on mutual engagement from both students and non-profits. The time commitment may differ, but close engagement and adherence to deadlines are essential for an online advertising campaign to take flight.

For non-profits who are considering working with a student team or set of interns, the following steps that will be used in the Wayne State course are helpful for ensuring that a partnership develops between a student team and a non-profit team. This partnership will help lead to a fruitful campaign tailored to a non-profit's needs.

Successful communication between Google Grants recipients and students depends on measuring progress and accountability. Deadlines, meetings, and progress reports are three cornerstones of a framework for AdWords in the Curriculum effectiveness.

Wayne State Professor of Marketing Kevin Ketels explains, "The non-profits will receive a copy of my syllabus up front so they understand expectations for the students as well as for their own participation. For example, the non-profits will need to understand hard deadlines for reviewing student work in order to launch on deadline. In my syllabus, I have outlined a specific agenda for the introductory meeting between students and the non-profit. This meeting includes a review of the non-profit mission, overview of Google AdWords, goals for the advertising campaign, deadlines, and exchange of contact information."

Regular progress reports are a final facet of making sure that a partnership is blossoming between a student team and non-profit.

"I have also outlined specific milestones throughout the semester that include definition of organizational objectives, advertising design, campaign launch, evaluation, and optimization of the program," added Ketels. "For each of these items, the non-profit and I will receive a progress report from the student teams."

This is Wayne State University's first semester of AdWords in the Curriculum. Throughout the process, the mission and interests of the Google Grants recipient will be prioritized, keeping in mind time constraints and importance of a strong relationship between the student and non-profit partners.

"This course is unlike any I’ve taught in the past in that the students will be working on a project that directly impacts an outside organization," said Ketels. "It will require a high level of planning and communication between the non-profit organizations and their assigned student teams."

AdWords in the Curriculum at Wayne State will serve to educate students about the online advertising space, and will help non-profits local to Michigan get their first AdWords campaigns off to a running start.

Posted by Anita Varma, Google Ann Arbor

Resource round-up for August

2009-08-18T10:29:00.000-07:00

This month's resource round-up for August includes an invitation to join Googlers in our nation's capital for a live discussion of search, an opportunity to tell the stories of the homeless individuals in your community, and a helpful list of AdWords tools created just for grantees from an Atlanta-based marketing consultant.

Learn the basics of Search, LIVE.
If your organization is based in Washington, DC, come meet Googlers from our headquarters at our official meet up on August 26th. Be sure to RSVP for details.

Bring awareness to homeless communities in your area.
Mark Horvath, formerly homeless and now founder of InvisiblePeople.tv, is traveling the country (tentative itinerary here) to interview homeless individuals and share their real, unedited stories with the world. If you have a suggestion of a shelter or tent city they should visit along the way, you can email roadtrip [at] invsiblepeople [dot] tv.

Tools for grantees.
One marketing consultant lists his favorite AdWords tools for Google Grantees.

If you come across resources that would be useful to the greater non-profit community, feel free to post it to the appropriate topic in our discussion group so that everyone can benefit. If you'd like to review previous round-ups, just click here and read through previous months' round-ups or search for "resource round-up" from the search box at the top of the page.

Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team

Grantee best practices, National Women's Law Center

2009-08-13T10:42:00.000-07:00

National Women's Law Center is one grantee who is really putting AdWords and Grants to work for their organization. The way they've gone about implementing and running their Google Grants AdWords account, as outlined in this two part series by their Online Outreach Manager, Robin Reed, is an excellent example of how to go from zero to 60 with AdWords as a participant in the Google Grants program.

If your organization is currently running an AdWords account, or it's just getting started and you're wondering how other non-profits run successful campaigns, read through these best practices from NWLC and see which of these tips you can use with your own account.

Start off right
NWLC began by reading through our Beginner's Guide before diving in. This is a great way to get a baseline understanding of the AdWords program and discover tactics for starting your account on the right foot.

Get everyone involved
Sometimes it's hard, as a sole individual within a larger organization, to pull together all the best ideas and information for a marketing campaign. By involving other team members, and even your founders, in the process it becomes much easier to do everything from coming up with relevant keywords to developing a strategy for testing marketing initiatives.

Use the right tool for the job
While you definitely know your organization better than any outsider, sometimes enlisting the help of AdWords tools can give your account a boost. NWLC used the Keyword Tool to help fill in the gaps in their keyword list and, when they were stuck with keywords that weren't performing, they added new combinations of terms drawn from ideas presented by the tool to boost traffic in their account.

Be creative
By understanding that their standard marketing messaging wasn't going to work within the constraints of AdWords character limits, NWLC pared down their standard message by focusing on action-oriented terms and a concise but powerful message. They were also creative with the scope of their ads, making sure to have ads customized to each ad group's theme.

Some ad types in their campaigns include:
"Evergreen" ads that are always running and provide general links to their organization's offerings, but are not tied to a specific topic:

Seasonal and timely ads that speak to specific events as they approach or are underway. Branded ads that use their organization's name and its common misspellings.

Use your budget wisely
They direct more of their budget to the better performing campaigns and those that are sending a timely or seasonal message; while they direct less of it to the lower performing campaigns, and pause ad groups when their messages are out-of-season.

Look to your results for best practices
When you've taken stock of your successes, keep track of what you did that resulted in success - then do it some more!

NWLC realized the value of running timely ads associated with events in the news, and also recognized the boost in traffic their account could receive if they actively optimized their keywords and ads to match the searches users were doing. During campaign season, for example, they ran ads encouraging people to register to vote and saw their highest numbers of the season.

They saw that all their testing and experimenting paid off in the end, and determined that they'd continue this practice of testing and experimenting with future campaigns. They also used the effective messages from their AdWords ads in other communications, based on which ads performed best and received the most traffic.

National Women’s Law Center is a non-profit organization focused on protecting and advancing the progress of women and girls at work, in school, and in virtually every aspect of their lives. NWLC has been a participant in the Google Grants program since 2008.

If you have your own best practices or experiences that you'd like to share with other grantees and nonprofits, we encourage you to strike up a conversation with other members in the discussion forum and possibly submit your testimonial to our team.

Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team

Using the new AdWords interface

2009-08-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

Since the introduction of the new AdWords interface, we’ve received feedback as you’ve experimented with the new features and improvements. One grantee, The Real News Network, was kind enough to share a summary of their favorite changes to the new UI via our webform, which we think you’ll find helpful as you work with the new tool.

Hands-on control over different keywords
“Overall, the "new and improved" AdWords program tools and multi-layered Analytics data gives me, as campaign craftsman, a macro-view of my audience's prime interests and responses, plus immediate hands-on control over different keyword or topic avenues I can go down to reach various audience segments with different text ad messaging.”

Easily create separate ad groups
“Likewise, the ability to quickly and easily create separate ad groups that reflect separate audience interests is essential.”

Pull up a keyword report in real time
“The ability to pull up a keyword report in real time that displays keyword volume for new terms I may not yet have chosen, or thought of, allows me to broaden my audience reach very quickly - by choosing high volume terms which touch on wide search-audience interests, via optional keyword lists the tool offers me.”

Quickly shift messaging
“These tools also allow me to quickly shift messaging right alongside audience interest or mood shifts, as text ads often go live within an hour or two.”

We’re ecstatic that grantees like The Real News Network are finding the new interface easier and more efficient. Check in with the AdWords team every Thursday to learn even more about the updated features in AdWords.

The Real News Network is a television news and documentary network focused on providing independent and uncompromising journalism. The Real News Network has been a participant in the Google Grants program since 2008.

If you have your own best practices or experiences that you'd like to share with other grantees and non-profits, we encourage you to strike up a conversation with other members in the discussion forum or submit your testimonial to our team.

Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team

Grantee Best Practices Summary

2009-08-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

We've collected some of the handiest and most effective best practices from our grantee base so that you all can benefit from their hard-learned lessons.

Think about the goals your org is working toward and choose the tips that can help you achieve them with AdWords and Google Grants.

Establish goals

Regularly checking their AdWords and analytics account for progress and changes has helped one grantee, "...establish a more concrete baseline of data and move forward with other options such as conversion tracking."

This is an excellent way to become comfortable with the features of the program and get a better understanding of the ebb and flow of your account's performance while setting goals meaningful to your org. Then, when you're ready to branch out, you're already versed in the basics of your account and AdWords and have goals you can measure against.

Secure organization funding

Sometimes it's difficult to provide substantial data about your org's performance, a challenge when working with potential and existing funders, but a few grantees have begun to use the detailed reporting available from their Google Analytics and AdWords accounts to share with their funders and prospective sponsors to ensure new and future funding for their organization.

One grantee pinpoints this strategy even further, using reports showing the downloads of their online materials by their target audience to appeal to the larger sponsors who make up the majority of their funding. Being able to show the efficacy of your org's efforts is a powerful tool in securing support from potential funders.

The reports available in Google Analytics and AdWords can be powerful tools for making a case for resources and funding your org's needs. These tools are free to use and help centers are available for both Google Analytics and AdWords to help you find and build the reports that best suit your needs.

Reach new markets

Reaching new markets with your org's message can be challenging, especially when you aren't sure how to customize your message for different regions.

One grantee uses the geo-targeting capabilities in AdWords to focus their regional messaging only to the most relevant regions, rather than diluting the message with global targeting settings. Another grantee launches new landing pages and markets by running test campaigns in their account and choosing the best messaging based on the rate of impressions and CTR throughout the test period.

React effectively to timely events

There are times when it's crucial to be fast and accurate with your org's message, like during a natural disaster or humanitarian crisis. In some cases, you just need to conserve time and resources so you can get everything done! A couple grantees have begun to take advantage of the speed of AdWords to react to emergencies and be more efficient with their marketing strategies.

One grantee has pre-built adgroups built specifically for crisis response which they turn on or off at a moment's notice so that they can, "...quickly help donors when a crisis occurs."

Another grantee, finding herself with limited time to go through the usual process of testing for an email campaign, decided to try a rotation of ad messaging in her AdWords account and was able to see what performed best, thus informing her decisions for the rest of their campaigns. "With Adwords, I can be trying some new ads in 15 minutes! Analyzing what keywords are pulling is also a snap."

Increase traffic

Getting more traffic is a goal for most online advertisers, but there are some tried and true methods for accomplishing this sometimes tricky feat. Some have mastered the launch and iterate method for the benefit of their orgs.

One grantee continually tweaks their best performing ads to maintain or increase high CTRs, which in turn also drives traffic and brings awareness to new their new offerings. Another has taken advantage of a drop in competition for their terms, potentially a result of a down economy, by increasing their bids closer to the $1 maximum CPC and running more ads than normal to promote their content.

Look out for new best practices every quarter as we review the latest grantee trends and strategies in AdWords and analytics. If you've had a recent success with AdWords or analytics you'd like to share, please visit our discussion forum to share with other grantees right now or share the story with our team here.

Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team

From The Midwest To The World

2009-07-30T10:43:00.000-07:00

Before I started working here, my image of Google was little more than a colorful logo and a large company with a reputation for employee perks like free food and onsite massages - many, many states away from my home in Michigan.

Within my first month at Google I became a volunteer for Google Grants. It’s almost two years later and I now coordinate regular Google Grants events for the entire Ann Arbor office. It has been my privilege to foster our office's commitment to our ever-expanding community of Google Grantees. I'm consistently amazed at the impact my Midwestern colleagues and I have had on so many deserving local and national non-profit organizations. In 2009 alone, we have helped more than 400 Grantees get started with AdWords advertising. I'm truly honored to be a champion of the Google Grants program amongst my coworkers and community, and the passion for service I've experienced as a Grants volunteer is like none I have ever experienced before.

Google, to me, is no longer a distant California campus; it is part of my Michigan home. It’s a place where maple leaves cycle through the seasons outside my office window. It’s a place where communities pull together. It’s a place that’s not all about amenities. In fact, it’s not about what Google gives to me at all, but rather what I am encouraged to give back, that makes me proud to be a part of this unique and inspirational company.

Posted by Colby Chilcote, Google Ann Arbor