Oct 4, 2023
Request for Assistance with Campaign Strategy Optimization
I hope this finds you well. We initiated our campaign approximately a week ago. However, the metrics we've received so far have been quite concerning. We've recorded no clicks and haven't received any data on impressions during this period. I'm reaching out to share our current campaign settings and target groups, seeking your expertise on possible optimization strategies.
Ad Groups and Corresponding Keywords:
Education Donations:
Donate for education
Donate money for education
Need donation for education
Donors for education
Donate to education charity
Women's Empowerment:
Empower women
Women's empowerment organizations
Best charities for women's education
Donate to women's education
...[and so on for the rest of the ad groups]
Campaign Overview:
Objective: Create a campaign without guided goals.
Type: Search.
Bidding: Max CPC of $2.
Targeted Locations:
English speakers in America (specifically Minnesota)
English speakers in England (specifically London)
Language: English.
Target Group Interests:
Education
Early childhood education
Childcare and education
Budget: $90 per day (increased from an initial $60/day).
Bidding Strategy: Manual CPC.
In an attempt to improve the campaign's performance, we thought to raise our max CPC from $2 to $4. However, when we tried to implement this change, we encountered an error stating: "Value exceeds the allowed maximum." Additionally, we are contemplating whether our selected interests might be causing the lack of impressions. We're considering removing them as a test.
Given the above, I'd appreciate your insights and recommendations on how we can optimize our campaign for better performance.
Thank you for your time and support.
Warm regards,
TwoWings
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I know you are likely looking for a more in-depth answer than what I am able to provide right now but I hope these few items put you on the right path...
1) You are currently doing CPC bidding when you should be using conversion-based Smart bidding. Not only will that get you past the $2 CPC cap issue but it is also part of the Ad Grants account management policy which states in part:
2) The keywords that you are targeting fall in the category of "low volume / high competition". In other words, there are few people searching these keywords but several nonprofits that are bidding on those keywords. Many are grantees, like yourself, however, several are paid advertisers and paid ads typically serve above grant ads. Applying a good CPA strategy as mentioned above can help you be more competitive here but it is still going to be slim opportunities.
Bidding - In order to drive performance for Grantees, Ad Grants requires that accounts created on or after April 22, 2019 must use conversion-based Smart bidding for all campaigns, unless using Smart campaigns. Each campaign must use either Maximize conversions, Maximize conversion values, Target CPA, or Target ROAS bidding.
2) The keywords that you are targeting fall in the category of "low volume / high competition". In other words, there are few people searching these keywords but several nonprofits that are bidding on those keywords. Many are grantees, like yourself, however, several are paid advertisers and paid ads typically serve above grant ads. Applying a good CPA strategy as mentioned above can help you be more competitive here but it is still going to be slim opportunities.
2.a) A specific note on donation terms. Donation terms can be particularly challenging - keep in mind, there are over 115,000 nonprofits in more than 50 countries that participate in the Google Ad Grants program, most of them are trying to generate donation traffic. So lots of competition there but on a larger scale, few donations happen on a first introduction. This is especially true for nonprofits who are not well-known brands. Since most donors want to get to know the organization they are their donating money to, find other ways to get prospects involved - such as newsletter or social media follow, something that will allow you to continue the conversation so that you can continue to share your story with them. Ad Grants, works much better at those soft-ask conversions than it does donations. So focus on those and then, during the giving season, do a reach out campaign asking for donations; either by an email marketing campaign or running remarketing display ads to your list.
3) Location and interest targeting. You mentioned Minnesota and London, with an interest in education. To be clear, that is good relevant targeting but knowing that the search volume is already limited, I would likely open location and interest based targeting up some to give the smart bidding algorithm more data to work with. Once you have a few months data coming in, and the system has learned your "perfect prospect" then look at narrowing your targeting back down to optimize even further.
Hope this helps and happy advertising.
Platinum Product Expert Jason King, Ad Grants Certified Professional recommended this
All Replies (2)
Oct 4, 2023
I know you are likely looking for a more in-depth answer than what I am able to provide right now but I hope these few items put you on the right path...
1) You are currently doing CPC bidding when you should be using conversion-based Smart bidding. Not only will that get you past the $2 CPC cap issue but it is also part of the Ad Grants account management policy which states in part:
2) The keywords that you are targeting fall in the category of "low volume / high competition". In other words, there are few people searching these keywords but several nonprofits that are bidding on those keywords. Many are grantees, like yourself, however, several are paid advertisers and paid ads typically serve above grant ads. Applying a good CPA strategy as mentioned above can help you be more competitive here but it is still going to be slim opportunities.
Bidding - In order to drive performance for Grantees, Ad Grants requires that accounts created on or after April 22, 2019 must use conversion-based Smart bidding for all campaigns, unless using Smart campaigns. Each campaign must use either Maximize conversions, Maximize conversion values, Target CPA, or Target ROAS bidding.
2) The keywords that you are targeting fall in the category of "low volume / high competition". In other words, there are few people searching these keywords but several nonprofits that are bidding on those keywords. Many are grantees, like yourself, however, several are paid advertisers and paid ads typically serve above grant ads. Applying a good CPA strategy as mentioned above can help you be more competitive here but it is still going to be slim opportunities.
2.a) A specific note on donation terms. Donation terms can be particularly challenging - keep in mind, there are over 115,000 nonprofits in more than 50 countries that participate in the Google Ad Grants program, most of them are trying to generate donation traffic. So lots of competition there but on a larger scale, few donations happen on a first introduction. This is especially true for nonprofits who are not well-known brands. Since most donors want to get to know the organization they are their donating money to, find other ways to get prospects involved - such as newsletter or social media follow, something that will allow you to continue the conversation so that you can continue to share your story with them. Ad Grants, works much better at those soft-ask conversions than it does donations. So focus on those and then, during the giving season, do a reach out campaign asking for donations; either by an email marketing campaign or running remarketing display ads to your list.
3) Location and interest targeting. You mentioned Minnesota and London, with an interest in education. To be clear, that is good relevant targeting but knowing that the search volume is already limited, I would likely open location and interest based targeting up some to give the smart bidding algorithm more data to work with. Once you have a few months data coming in, and the system has learned your "perfect prospect" then look at narrowing your targeting back down to optimize even further.
Hope this helps and happy advertising.
Platinum Product Expert Jason King, Ad Grants Certified Professional recommended this
Oct 9, 2023
Dear Robert,
Thank you for your insightful guidance. Based on your recommendations, I've adjusted our bidding strategy to focus on smart bidding and maximizing conversions. I've also removed specific location targeting, opting for a worldwide reach. Currently, our max CPC stands at $4. However, even after four days, we've yet to see any impressions or clicks.
Given that our keywords primarily revolve around donations, do you believe $4 for max CPC is sufficient? My concern stems from the perceived intense competition surrounding such keywords. I'm actively integrating the less competitive keywords with higher search volumes, as you suggested.
Your expertise is invaluable to us. Our NGO is heavily reliant on these ads to attract donations, and there's a genuine hope that these efforts bear fruit. Do you have any further recommendations or insights? We genuinely value your expert opinion.
Warm regards
If your only priority is donations, don't expect an Ad Grant to help much with that yet. To get donations for such popular terms, you'd need to run ads in a paid account. And it would still difficult, because few people donate on first hearing of your organization.
But Robert has laid out a strategy that makes sense, to use an Ad Grant for awareness and soft asks and to build up audiences that might later donate, that you could target with paid ads and/or email.