Find the Best Digital Marketing Invoice Sample for NPOs

Digital marketing invoice sample for NPOs

Will: Hello, everyone. And welcome to  Take Advantage Of $156,000 In Free Digital   Advertising With The Google And Microsoft Ad  Grants For Nonprofits with Community Boost.   This workshop is being recorded and slides will  be shared afterwards. So, please, keep your eyes   peeled for a follow-up email later today in case  you want to review anything that we go over.   In case it's your first time here, this  free workshop is an Instrumentl partner   workshop. These are collaborations between  Instrumentl and community partners provide   free educational opportunities for nonprofit  professionals. Our goal is to tackle a problem   that folks often have to solve while also  sharing different ways that Instrumentl’s   platform can help grant writers and nonprofits  win more grants. Instrumentl is the institutional   fundraising platform. If you want to bring grant  prospecting, tracking, or management to one place,   we can help you do that. And you can set up  your own personalized grant recommendations   using the link on the screen, which I’ll also  drop in the Zoom chat in just a little bit.   Lastly, be sure to stick around for today's entire  presentation. At the end, we'll be sharing some   freebie resources from Community Boost as well as  ourselves. More to come after Emily and Regan's   presentation. With that housekeeping out of  the way, I'm very excited to introduce both   Emily and Regan. And we'll use the search ads to  combine aspects of creativity and data analysis to   help nonprofits when it comes to furthering their  goals. And Regan is the Director of Revenue for   Community Boost Consulting where he oversees  research and development of new advertising   channels to ensure that Community Boost Consulting  is consistently offering the most relevant   digital marketing services to their clients. We ask that if you have any questions along the   way, please include three hashtags in front of  them so that it can be more easily distinguished   in the Zoom chat. Yes, recordings are going  to be shared afterwards as well as slides. So,   no need to ask that question. And with that,  Regan and Emily, feel free to take it away.   Regan: Alrighty. Yeah. Emily, do  you want to share your screen?   Emily: Yeah. Let’s see. Regan: While   you're getting that pulled up, I can kind  of do a quick intro. Is this on your screen   right now? Emily: Yeah.   Regan: Okay. Perfect. All right. Well,  thank you so much for joining today.   As mentioned, we're going to be talking  about how you can unlock $156,000 in   free ad spend through both the Google Ad Grant  and Microsoft Ads for Social Impact Program.   Right at the very beginning, I do want to preface  something. I wouldn't have originally booked this   webinar. The Microsoft Ad Grant was in a pilot  program from July all the way through December.   That has closed at the moment. It is going to  reopen, and we'll talk about that. But I did   want to preface that at the beginning because  that was not the original intention. We wanted   to talk about how you could utilize it right  now. So, we'll focus more of the presentation   today on the Google Ad Grant side. And then  we'll talk through some of the research and   findings that we've had on the Microsoft side and  make sure that you're in the loop on how you can   take advantage of it once that program reopens. So just to give a quick introduction to Community   Boost -- well, actually, let me do this poll  first. I think something that could be really   helpful is to understand kind of where everybody's  at with the Google Ad Grant or Microsoft Ad Grant.   I know a lot of organizations may already have  this. Some of you may not have either of them. So,   go ahead and respond to the poll. And we'd love to  just get a pulse of who's here and what you guys   already know. So, let it go for a second. Will:   Awesome. And I'll go ahead and share these  results since people are really quick   at answering this poll. We’re at 77% of the  folks having answered it. Right now, 80%. So,   let's go ahead and share these results here. Regan: Okay. So, there's a decent percentage   that does have the Google Ad Grant. It doesn't  look like anybody has the Microsoft Ad Grant. So,   no one was able to get into that pilot program.  Although, actually, it looks like there's a few   of you who have both the Microsoft Ad Grant and  the Google Ad Grant. So, about 4%. And then the   rest of you don't have either. So, cool. Well, I mean, no matter where you are in   this process, that's okay. I just want to make  sure we kind of cater our content to make sure   it's relevant to the individuals who are here. So now, I will get into just a quick introduction   of Community Boost. We are a nonprofit focused  digital marketing agency. We exist to empower   social ventures that are changing the world.  We've been working in the nonprofit space for   a little over 10 years. And in 2022, supported a  little over 500 nonprofits directly under digital   marketing services. Those organizations range from  some of the top in the market, like Charity Water,   Equal Justice Initiative, Cancer Research  Institute, Kiva. But we also work with numerous   theaters, museums, local United Ways. I saw Loaves  and Fishes is in here today. And we've worked with   Loaves and Fishes before. So, super excited. No matter what size your nonprofit is or what   part of the industry you're in, there is something  that we can help you with, whether it's directly   or through resources like this webinar today.  We're also the host of the Nonprofit Marketing   Summit. I don't know if any of you have  attended that in the past. But we typically,   in any given year, serve a little over 50,000  nonprofit leaders through the Marketing Summit.   And we'll provide some links to that later today. In 2023, we're looking to help generate a little   over $50 million for our clients  through advertising. And currently,   our team has about 66 total team members with  kind of the intent to grow to a little over   100 team members in 2023. So, super excited  to chat with you all today. I know we already   kind of did an introduction. So, I think we  can skip the next two slides. But again, I'm   Regan and this is Emily. And I'll pass it to her. Emily: Yeah. Thanks, Regan. Yeah, we already did   those intros. But I just wanted to say I'm just  super grateful to be talking to you all today,   especially about the Google Ad Grant. I  do kind of nerd out on search ads in the   Google Ad Grant because I think it's just  a great way for nonprofits to drive traffic   to their site and get meaningful results. So kind of going through the agenda today,   we're first going to talk about what is the  Google Ad Grant. We'll see some examples   of the Google Ad Grant in action, and how to  apply for the Google Ad Grant. And then I'll   pass it over to Regan. And, again, right now  the Microsoft program is on pause. But it's   still really important to know this information  for when it does come back. And there is still   action that you can take to get into the  program and to learn more about Microsoft.   So before we cover the Google Ad Grant, I think  it's really important to just cover the basics   of search advertising. So, this page should look  pretty familiar. This is the Google search engine   results page. And sometimes as marketers, we can  get kind of caught up in these specific channels   that might be a little confusing on the back end.  And you might get caught up in your own messaging   internally. And, oh, it's really important to  have consistent messaging across channels. With   Google Search, in particular, it's important to  remember. You are a Google search for yourself,   most likely. And so, this page should look really  familiar to you. And you know that when you go   to Google and you're making a search, you're  typically looking to have a question answered or   you're looking to get more information. Or in some  cases, you're looking to take immediate action.   And so, that's the example here. We have the  example of someone typing into the search engine,   best nonprofits to donate to. So, that's  what we call a search term. And so,   we can see when someone searches for that,  these are the listings that show up on the   search engine results page. So at the bottom  here, we can see organic results. And so the   way that you can improve your organic results  is through search engine optimization, or SEO.   So, this is a bit of a longer term game. It  can potentially take a few months, maybe even   a year to get to the top spot on the first page  for search engine optimization results. And so,   this is really important. We do encourage people  to work on their SEO because once you get on the   first page, you're more consistently on the  first page. And you show up more often when   someone searches for something like the best  nonprofits to donate to. So, that's really   important and we really do encourage it. But in the meantime, a way that we can get   to the top of the page almost immediately  is through search ads, and specifically the   Google Ad Grant. So you can see the top results  here, Google is making it a little bit trickier   to tell what is an ad and what is not. But you  can kind of see in the upper left hand side,   the little ad indication there. And so, in this  particular example, we have four ad results.   And so, it's just really important to utilize  search advertising. Again, so just get to the   top of the page while you're working on your  SEO. And if any of you have the Google Ad Grant,   which I saw in that poll, some of you do, it's  really important if you are creating ads to also   include image extensions. So, that's that little  picture that you can see on the upper right hand   side. Obviously, it just provides more context  for the organization and entices people to look   at that ad and click on it. And so, this is kind  of what we're talking about when we're talking   about Google ads, search advertising, and the Ad  grant. This is where your ads are showing up.   And so, this is a little deeper dive into the  anatomy of a Google Ad. And so, we have the final   URL and display path, which is really just the  landing page that you're sending traffic to. So,   the particular page on your site. And then  we have the headlines, which you can see are   hyperlinked there. So, that's what people are  clicking on when they click on your ad. And so,   that's why it's really important when you're  coming up with headlines. You do want headlines   that really relate to what someone typed in.  Because again, if you kind of take yourself back   to your everyday Google Search user, you're  really looking for the result that's going   to answer your question most closely or provide  the information that you're looking for. And so,   you want your headlines to be really specific  to what someone is typing into Google.   You can also include more information  about your organization. Maybe calls   to action. And so, that's kind of how we  create headlines. And with descriptions,   you can see you have more opportunity to elaborate  on those things like what your organization does,   what someone can expect when they reach a  landing page that you're sending traffic to.   So, now, I'm going to get into what actually  is the Google Ad Grant. So, we have a lot of   professionals here familiar with grants. And so,  this term should be very familiar. But the Google   Ad Grant is probably a little bit different from  what you're thinking of when you hear the word   grant. So the Google Ad Grant is really just  a Google Ads account that uses Google's free   money in order to show those ads on the search  engine results page. And so, a nonprofit can   have a separate paid account where they're paying  their own money to show ads, maybe video ads or   ads on the Display Network. But for search ads,  you can have a Google Ad Grant account where it's   $10,000 a month of free advertising of Google's  money on their search engine results page.   And so, a key difference here that might  be different from a traditional grant is   that the Google Ad Grant money remains  in effect indefinitely. So, you don't   have to reapply in a year or two. Once you get the Google Ad Grant,   your organization has it. And it's important  to note that there are certain stipulations and   policies that Google has in place that do need  to be followed in order to maintain your Google   Ad Grant account. So, they do just want to make  sure that grantees are serving high-quality ads   that relate to the keywords in their account and  relate to what the organization actually does.   So at the end of the day, Google is still  very focused on user experience. And so, they   do just want to make sure these accounts are high  quality. So, you do want to make sure that you're   following those policies in order to keep your  grant live and active all the time. But again,   the grant money doesn't necessarily go away.  You don't have to reapply or anything like that.   And it's important to note that the money does not  roll over month over month if it's not spent. But   there aren't any repercussions if the full 10k is  not spent. So, it's really just $10,000 a month   there for you to use for your organization.  If you spend $1,000, $5,000, $10,000,   it's all the same to Google. But you can take  advantage of the full 10,000 every single month.   And so, the real power of the Google Ad Grant  lies in what we call the digital marketing   funnel. And so, the funnel really just describes  the kind of beginning and the user journey. When   they are a brand new user and they get to your  site, and then kind of moving them through that   funnel to knowing a little bit more about  your organization, maybe signing up for a   newsletter and learning more about what you do.  And then eventually, hopefully, then becoming   supporters and brand advocates and people  who are really plugged into your nonprofit.   So the Google Ad Grant and search ads in  general works really well for the top of   the funnel traffic in this digital marketing  funnel. And so, what I mean by that is it's   really good at generating new users and  website traffic to your site. Because,   again, if we go back to that example, if that's  nonprofits to donate to, if someone types that   and clicks on your ad, it's likely that they've  never heard of your organization before. So,   that's a brand new user who's just getting to  your website and looking to learn more. And so,   that can help increase awareness, education,  and engagement that maybe they get to your   site. And again, they could watch a video  or maybe click out to your socials.   Once they get to your site, they can also  generate leads. They can want to learn more   by signing up for a newsletter, or maybe signing  up for an event, or maybe submitting a form or   petition or anything that you have to offer  where you're asking for their information and   for them to kind of do a little bit more. And then from there, towards the bottom of   the funnel, the ad grant can also help drive  donations, sales, enrolments. So, those things   that people are really looking to take action on  like donating. If you're an animal organization,   maybe adopting an animal. Or if you have an online  shop, it can also work well if you're trying to   sell different goods. So the Google Ad Grant works  really well in kind of the entire funnel. But   especially at the top where we're just trying to  get new users to the site and get them to engage.   So now, we're going to look at some  examples of the Google Ad Grant in action.   So, this organization is called Zero Breast  Cancer. Their mission is to promote breast cancer   risk reduction. And so, their goal with using  the Google Ad Grant was to increase site traffic,   brand awareness, and resource utilization. And  so, the solution here was to add keywords that   were related to those resources, which were blog  posts, guides, and downloadable infographics,   fact sheets, and activity books. And so, again,  the importance here is that we are connecting   people who are going to Google and looking for  more information about breast cancer, whether   they want to learn more about symptoms or have  a loved one who has breast cancer and want to   learn how to support them. We just want to  connect people with what they're searching   and provide resources and more information. And so, we also created high quality ads that   related to those keywords. Like I said, when  you're creating headlines and descriptions for   these ads, you really want to relate to what  someone is typing into Google. You want to   have calls to action to get them to click  on the ad and to take action from there.   And so, the results, as you can see, is an overall  increase in site traffic and then also an increase   in direct traffic. So, this is pretty normal.  We do often see once an organization implements   the Google Ad Grant, an increase in a lot of  other channels. And that's because, like I was   talking about, most people who are typing into  Google are typing in a non-branded term. So,   something like the best nonprofits to donate to. So once they get to your site and learn a little   bit more about you, if they come to your  site a second time, maybe a few weeks later,   they're probably not going to just type in the  best nonprofits to donate to again and then get   to your site that way. They probably will have  bookmarked your site where we'll just type in   your organization's name directly into Google and  get to your site from there. So for that reason,   we do just see an increase of people knowing  about your organization with that increase   brand awareness, or maybe even clicking on one  of those organic listings that isn't an ad.   So the Ad Grant can help not just in its own  bubble, but with other channels as well.   And so, the next organization we're going to go  over is Habitat for Humanity in Greensboro. And   their mission is to build affordable, high  quality, energy efficient, and sustainable   houses that families are proud to call home. And  so, their goal is also to increase site traffic,   but also increase volunteer engagement and  then purchases and donations to their research,   which is basically their home appliance thrift  store. And so, we're able to add in a variety   of keywords around different things like  home ownership, volunteering, shopping,   and donating for home goods. And the beauty of  the Google Ad Grant is that you can be going   after different pockets of traffic, different  audiences, and serving different goals at one   time. And that's kind of the difference between  a lot of other marketing channels where you maybe   have to choose one to focus for the month or  one focus for the quarter because of budget.   With the Google Ad Grant, you're able to  run multiple campaigns at a time. And you   can run them on a pretty evergreen status.  So, you can run them every month of the year.   And in this example, we also use Google's  predetermined categories to target their   typical audiences and their interests. So,  people who are interested in home improvement   and home furnishing and home decor enthusiasts.  So, we're just kind of -- you're able to hone   in on the more target audience from there. And you can see the results here. Impressions   are really just the amount of times that their  ads showed up on the search engine results page.   And you can see over 4,000 clicks directly  to their site and then an increase in their   goals from there. So people who are looking to  volunteer and to shop, and to donate goods.   So now that we know the basics of search  advertising and a little bit more about   the Google Ad Grant, I'm going to dive into  actually how you get the Google Ad Grant.   So in terms of eligibility, you do have to be  a 501(c)(3) non-profit. And you do have to be   registered through Google for nonprofits. So as  long as you are in 501(c)(3) nonprofit, you are   eligible. So, again, that may be a little bit of  a difference compared to a typical grant. There's   not as much competition. It's really just -- as  long as you qualify, Google will accept you.   And so, you also do have to have a  functional website. In some ways that   Google measures this is with making sure that  there's no broken links or 404 errors. So,   you just want to make sure that your website is  high quality, the user experience is top notch,   and that there are no areas that people  are kind of landing on and not getting   the information that they need. You also  want to secure your site with HTTPS. So,   I would recommend just talking to a web developer  or someone who can help you with that. So,   just some good things to clean up on your  site before you apply for Google Ad Grant.   So, there are some organizations that aren't  eligible within this category. And that   would be governmental organizations, hospitals,  schools, and fiscally sponsored organizations. So,   we do recommend just going ahead and applying for  Google for Nonprofits. If you have any doubt, the   worst that can happen is you apply and they tell  you that you're not eligible. But again, for the   most part, if you are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, you  will get the Google Ad Grant. So we do recommend   just going through with that process because  I'll outline in a second. It is pretty easy.   So, just some other stipulations here,   ads can't offer financial products  like mortgages and credit cards.   You also can't ask for those bigger donations,  like cars, boats and property donations. So,   there are just a few rules. But generally, it's  a pretty open program and pretty easy to follow.   So, the process for the Google Ad Grant  application is actually fairly simple. It's   really more about getting access to the proper  accounts rather than submitting these applications   where you've written paragraphs about why you  should get the Google Ad Grant and why you should   qualify. You can kind of take that out of your  head. Again, it's really just getting access to   these proper platforms that allow you to apply. So the first platform that you have to get access   to is Techsoup. And, really, Techsoup is  just the third-party tool that Google uses   to verify your charity status. So, it's pretty  easy. It's like creating any other account.   You just need to submit your IRS determination  letter just to verify that you are a 501(c)(3)   nonprofit. And then from there, once you're  verified on Techsoup, you create a Google for   Nonprofits account. And this takes five minutes  or less. And this is kind of the hub from where   you're going to apply for the Google Ad Grant.  So once you get into Google for Nonprofits, you   go into your account and click Activate. And then  you fill out what's called an eligibility form.   So, this should take 20 minutes or less. Again,  the answers really have no bearing on whether   or not you actually get the grant. It's just  so that Google has more information about the   grantees that are in the program. So it'll just  ask you things like, what is your annual budget,   what are your marketing goals, are there any  times of year where you're really honing in on   those marketing goals? And so, it's really just  informational for Google. So once you submit that   eligibility form, then you submit your activation  for review. And you should hear back within three   business days from the Google Ad Grants team.  So again, if you kind of go through this process   linearly and get access to these accounts, you're  looking to do this in a week or less potentially.   And so, once you have the Google Ad Grant account,  this is where the more heavy lifting comes in,   to be honest. So, it's really -- the application  is fairly easy. But creating a high-quality built   out account will take a little bit more time.  And we do recommend just setting a really solid   foundation from the beginning and kind of trying  to take advantage of the full $10,000 per month   right off the bat. And so, that requires creating  campaigns with ad groups and keywords in it,   and understanding who your target audience is, and  finding those keywords that will relate to them,   and then creating those high-quality ads. So the first step would just be to outline the   campaign structure based on your organization's  goals. From there, you do keyword research to   see what searches actually have search volume.  There are really cool tools that you can use to   see what people are actually searching for and  what they have searched for over the last year,   two years, or five years. And then from  there, you create those high-quality ads   that are related to the keywords. The ads that  will show up on the search engine results page.   And once you have that really solid foundation  laid out, we do recommend continually optimizing   your account to either scale results or  maintain results. So again, at the beginning,   we're looking at working in an account maybe once  a week. But after a few months, once you get your   accounts in the place that you want it to be  at, you can optimize it maybe twice a month,   once a month, just making sure that you have  continual eyes in the account and you're   making changes so that Google knows that you're  taking advantage of the account. It's definitely   not a “set it and forget it” type of platform.  It's very dynamic and can always be improved.   And so, this just outlines the account  structure in your Google Ad Grants account.   And this would function in the same way  for a paid Google Ads account as well.   The bones are kind of the same here. So, you have  your account. And within your account, you have   multiple campaigns. Again, we are able to target  kind of the multiple goals and audiences so we   can have as many campaigns, really, running at the  same time as we want. And so, within a campaign,   you have ad groups. And ad groups are really  just the houses for the keywords and ads. And so,   this is kind of the typical structure, again, for  an Ad Grant account or a Google paid account.   And this might be a lot of jargon. But once  you get this down, the good thing is, again,   it's going to be kind of the same, whether you're  working in an ad grant account or a paid account,   or even Microsoft. So, Microsoft pretty clearly  mirrors Google. So once you have Google down,   the transition to Microsoft is really easy. So,  this will all kind of hold up when you're creating   multiple accounts. So, to kind of transition into  the Microsoft Ad Grant and Microsoft program,   I'm going to hand it off to Reagan. Regan: Perfect. Well, I will move   the screen share over to my computer. And I saw a ton of questions here. We are going   to have a Q&A section at the end. And any that we  don't get to, you can absolutely reach out to us.   We'll get you a response. But for now, I'm going  to go ahead and share my screen and we'll dive in.   So Emily just talked a little bit about the  Google Ad Grant, which absolutely -- I mean,   no matter what category of nonprofit you're  in, as long as you do have a 501(c)(3),   I recommend applying. I know we talked about  some of those categories that Google says may   not be eligible. But, again, I interpret that as  may not. I've gotten plenty of schools, medical   institutions approved. And we thought that they  wouldn't. So, it's always worth trying. But now,   we're going to move and talk a little bit more  about the Microsoft ads for Social Impact Program,   which is very similar to the Google Offer. Again, as I preface at the very beginning, when we   originally booked this webinar, it was  still an open beta that has currently   closed. But it is going to hopefully be  reopening again later this year ing   to what the Microsoft team has told us. The first thing I do want to talk about,   though, is who's even using Microsoft? I think  when we talk about the Google Ad Grant, the   value of showing up on the front page of Google is  pretty clear, because most of us use that. Where   even when we first heard about that Microsoft  Ad Grant, I think our first impression was,   “That's really cool. But do people even  use Microsoft? Like, do people use Bing?”   And so, for me, I get really into data and  research. And before we started to decide whether   or not we wanted to move down this path, we wanted  to first understand who's even using Microsoft.   And we were actually pretty surprised. When we  talk about Microsoft, especially Microsoft search,   it is not just Bing. That partner network is  pretty large. So from a search standpoint,   it's made up of things like Bing, Yahoo, AOL.  But Microsoft also owns LinkedIn. And there's   some really interesting data that Microsoft is  able to collect from your LinkedIn profile that   can be used to influence targeting options in the  Microsoft Ads account. Microsoft, like Bing powers   Amazon Alexa. So as we want to get more into that  voice search market, right? Focusing on both your   Microsoft SEO and ad strategy can make sense if  you think that your audience is using Alexa.   Again, that network is absolutely massive.  And it's going to continue to grow. I mean,   Microsoft is making investments. I don't know how  many of you are familiar with the term ChatGPT.   But Microsoft is a major investor in that which is  going to completely change the way that we think   a lot of organic searches is going to work and  that that whole network is likely to grow pretty   significantly over the next five years. As far  as data and who's actually using the platform,   in the US alone, there's about 117 million unique  monthly searchers with about 7.2 billion searches   happening monthly, right? When we go and we search  things, we're not typically just searching once a   month. I make multiple searches every single day. And while the mobile market share of the Microsoft   network is pretty small, the desktop market share  is large. It's about 38% currently of all desktop   users in the US have Bing or one of the Microsoft  search networks as their primary search engine.   And there are 44 million people out of the  170 million that only use the Microsoft search   engine. So, right, there are a lot of people who  might use Microsoft in their desktop because it's   the default search engine and they just left  it there. But then they go on their phone and   they open up Safari, it automatically goes to  Google. But there are 44 million people where if   we are not focused on either our organic SEO on  Microsoft or doing something like the Microsoft   ads for social impact, we might be losing  out on a market of 44 million total people.   And I think that another thing to note is  from a goal perspective, right? Like, yes,   there's people searching, but are they the types  of people who would be able to donate to us or   be able to convert with this? I know that  there are tons of different nonprofit goals   that are out there. I'd say the majority  of the ones that we run into are more in   that kind of fundraising volunteer side. But  we work with tons of theaters and museums,   et cetera. But when we talk specifically about  that donor goal, when we look at who the best   donor prospects are, it's typically someone that's  over the age of 50. The data says that they're   typically in committed relationships or empty  nesters. They typically have children over the   age of six, which is probably more tied to that  the age demographics that we're seeing as well,   and a household income of over $100,000 a  year. Where when we look at the data of who   is on the Microsoft Search Network,  it's overwhelmingly in our favor.   So, over 50% of individuals are over the age of  45 that are searching on the Microsoft Search   Network. More than half of those individuals of  total individuals are married or living with a   partner. Over half of them have children in the  household. And about 35% of individuals using   Microsoft in the US network have a household  income of over $100,000 with almost 50% of   that audience having an income of over $75,000  a year. So, I'm not saying that there are more   overall individuals because Google does get more  searches. There are more people using Google than   Microsoft. But when we look at the percentage  of people who fall in our rate category,   it is higher in that sense. So when we run an  ad, someone clicks on it, the chance that they   fall into our ideal demographic is higher  than, really, anywhere else at the moment.   Another really interesting data point that  Microsoft is able to provide is that comparatively   to Google, the average conversion value. So,  how much someone is spending when they make a   purchase through the Microsoft Search Network is  about 30% higher than then the Google network. So,   another really fun fact for us, right? If  someone's going to donate $100 but they have   the option to potentially donate 130 instead,  I'd rather take the 130. I think we all would.   So, that's a little bit of like who is actually  using the network, which I think helps build   a case that it's worth taking the time and  effort to move here. But just like Google,   Microsoft knows the value of showing up on  the front page, which is why, typically,   if you want to get there, in those first few  positions, you'd have to pay to be there.   But just like Google saw an opportunity to let  nonprofits get that space for essentially free,   Microsoft wanted to launch something similar. So, they launched their ad for social impact   program back in July of this year where nonprofits  could join and get $3,000 a month in ad spend,   rather than Google's 10,000. However, there are  some really unique capabilities within Microsoft   that do not exist in Google. So, the Google Ad  Grant, something to note, is that when you want   to show up on Google and you use your Google  Ad Grant, you're only going to show up about   10% of the time on average for the keywords you  want to go after, which causes challenges when   those really specific terms, like not just  donate to nonprofits, but donate to melanoma   awareness. That's a much more specific search. But if someone is searching it and you provide   those services, they're more likely to convert.  But because it's so specific, there's less people   that search for it, which makes it so that, yeah,  you can show up for it. But you probably aren't   getting enough clicks to really make an impact.  Where on the Microsoft side, you show up closer to   60% of the time. So even with less those keywords  that are really specific and have less search   volume, you're getting about three times the  amount of overall clicks on those keywords, which   allow you to actually take advantage of that. So other than that, it is very similar. But   besides that to the Google side, what we ended up  doing is we took a cohort of our current clients   that were already using the Google Ad Grants.  And we wanted to see, if we were to take the   exact same keywords we were already using the  exact same ads, the exact same strategies and   copy and pasted it over to Microsoft, like  what would the algorithm do differently?   Which is how we got a lot of this data. And so,  even with less money, we did see that we showed   up more often on Microsoft. So, about 60% of  the time versus Google was 10% of the time.   And because of that, we ended up getting  more overall impressions. For those of you   who may not be familiar with that term  and impression is how often essentially   those ads were seen. So, it's not 22,000  individuals. Some individuals might have seen   it twice, some might have seen it once. Some might  have seen it six times. But our ads, we're seeing   22,000 times with $3,000. Where in Google, with  $10,000, they were only seen about 15,000 times.   So again, the power even with less money, if that  impression share leads to more people seeing it,   there is less competition on Microsoft because  I think there are a lot of advertisers who have   this kind of stigma against like Microsoft.  People aren't really searching there. So,   the competition is less. So, the  cost per click was less as well.   So, clicking on average would cost $6.75 on  Google. It only cost about $4.98 on Microsoft.   But, again, it is less overall money. So,  the total number of clicks that we got   was about 602 with that budget. Where on  the Google side, it was closer to 1400.   So even though it is about a third of the  budget, which was not quite a third of the   amount of clicks. But knowing this, right,  you want to use that to your advantage. So,   I don't necessarily recommend copying and  pasting the bill. That was more to get a   clear data comparison. But knowing that we're  going to show it more often, knowing that our   cost is a little bit cheaper, we can find the  holes that our Google Ad Grant has the keywords   that are really hard to go after, and use those  specifically on the Microsoft search network.   So, what are the requirements here? Again,  it's almost like copy and pasted from Google,   in my opinion. So on Google, you would go  through getting your Google for Nonprofits   account set up. With Microsoft, you get  your Microsoft for nonprofits account   set up. You get verified through Techsoup.  They just make sure that you are eligible.   From there, right, you have to have a functional  website. You can't send ads to a website that   doesn't exist or doesn't work. So, obviously, we  would need that there. And I know there were some   questions on what counts as a functional  website. So, we can talk through that.   And just like Google, there are issues with  Governmental Organizations, hospitals, schools,   childcare centers. Again, I always  recommend applying. Just like Google,   we've seen some get through. But from my  experience, some of those that we were able   to get through on the Google side that fell in  that kind of school or hospital type of group   were -- even though they got to prefer the  Google side, were not approved for Microsoft.   So, it doesn't hurt. These applications don't  take that long. So, it's worth doing. Worse,   they're going to say is no. But other than  that, not a whole lot of other restrictions.   From an application process standpoint, again,  you're going to first fill out that Microsoft   for nonprofits forum. It'll take about  10 days for them to review everything.   Make sure that you are who you say you are.  You’re a nonprofit, et cetera, et cetera.   From there, once the program reopens,  there's going to be a link that you can   fill out where -- that you will fill out  like a form of -- it's like maybe 10, 15   questions. It's not very long. You submit that. And the reason they have you do that separately   is there's the description of who can actually  get into the Microsoft for nonprofits program.   It’s a lot bigger than who can get into the ad  grant program. So, you might get the Microsoft   for nonprofits as a hospital, but not the ad  grant itself. So, they separate those application   processes. And then if you do get approved for the  Microsoft Ad Grant, very similar to Google. You   then move into where the real work begins, I would  say, is just building the campaigns, doing the   keyword research, building the ads, and optimizing  to make sure you're getting the best cost per   click, and getting the most for your dollars. At the moment, like I said, this has been paused.   But what we can do is if you are interested in  the Microsoft Ad Grant side of things, you can   scan this QR code right here. We do have direct  contacts with the people who run the program.   They have been intentionally vague because  they don't want anybody giving a hard date,   and they have to push it. And it's bad PR. But  like I said, it should come out this year. We'll   know in advance. So if you scan that link and  sign up for that email list, as soon as we hear   the date that everything's going to be starting  again, we'll reach out to everybody on that list   and let you know, “Hey, it's time to get started”  so that you can be way ahead of the curve. There's   going to be a lot of people who end up applying.  The line is going to get long, and we'd like to   get you ultimately ahead of the queue there. So, I'll leave that up for a couple seconds more   and then we'll move here. And again, we’ll send  out the slide deck too. So if you missed it,   you can always go back and scan it after. The last thing I wanted to talk about is   unrelated to the Microsoft Google Ad Grant. But  as I mentioned at the beginning, we are the host   of the Nonprofit Marketing Summit. If you're  wanting to continue to boost your understanding   of marketing or you have a marketing team at  your organization who wants to learn more about   different types of platforms and hear from really  the best of the best in the space, our Nonprofit   Marketing Summit, the big innovation is happening  from February 28th through March 2nd. So, three   days. If you scan that link, it is free. It's all  online. So, you don't have to worry about flying   anywhere. You can attend the sessions you want. You can skip the sections that you don't want to   see. But I recommend going through and  signing up for that. Emily is going to   be a speaker. I'm going to be a speaker.  But we also have names like Vik Harrison,   who Scott Harrison from Charity Water’s wife.  She's going to be speaking with us via Zooli.   Beth Kanter, about 66 other speakers at that. So,  I highly recommend that you do that and sign up.   And then finally, I will open it up to Q&A here  after I say this last thing. But if you do have   specific questions, either about the Google Ad  Grant or Microsoft Ad Grant, if they don't get   answered in the Q&A or it's more tied to something  specific issue you've run into, scan this link, we   can definitely set up some time to have you talk  with my team. And we can help kind of troubleshoot   some of those more specific issues you may be  having. So, I'll go ahead and stop there. And,   Will, are we opening it up to Q&A now? Will: Yeah. Before we open it up to Q&A,   I wanted to do a quick share as well for folks on  Instrumentl. In case it's your first time here,   Instrumental is the institutional fundraising  platform. If you are looking to bring your   grant work into a single source of truth,  we can help you do that. And Community Boost   has a link as well that you can look at.  It'll be in the follow-up materials today.   The main thing that we see from folks is that  in their first year of using us, we raised   200k more in grants. We save them a significant  amount of time, three hours a week or a good fit   fund they find, as well as increase their grant  application output by one and a half times within   a year. And 9 out of 10 of our users say that  they've developed a stronger grant strategy.   So if you're ever looking to level up your  grants calendars and put all of the work   that you're doing around your grants in  a single all-knowing source of truth,   then definitely check that out. With that side  of things, we do have a number of questions.   But if you want to follow up  with Community Boost as well,   you can follow up with Candice who has been in  the chat as well. Candice at Communityboost.org.   Here are some of the links as well. Jot down  that code, and I'll start to fill some of these   questions now while I leave that up for a bit. Dimari asked, with regard to the Google Ad Grant,   are there any reporting requirements that  nonprofits have to follow or adhere to?   Emily: No, no reporting requirements. And,  yeah, really the only stipulations would be   Google has kind of a compliance policy guide. I  don't want to get into too much of the jargon.   But they just basically have rules for click  through rate, which is just making sure people   are clicking your ads often enough for how often  they're shown on the search engine results page.   And, really, just rules that ensure that your  account is high-quality and high-functioning.   But aside from that, no reporting requirements. Will: Awesome. And Melissa asked, how many hours   a week would you dedicate in terms of managing  your Google Ads Grant? I'm assuming that means   for somebody doing it in-house. Emily: Yeah. Kind of like I talked   about in my portion, we do dedicate a lot  of time upfront when you're first setting   up campaigns and ads. And so, that could be  anywhere from five to eight hours initially   just to get that really solid foundation.  You can create campaigns incrementally,   of course. But again, we like to just kind of  get ads up and running so that you're taking   advantage of the $10,000 a month that you have. From there, it kind of depends on the results   that you're seeing. If you're still having a hard  time reaching that full 10,000, we do recommend   being in the account every week, maybe for 45  minutes. If you are seeing the results initially   that you're looking for in order to maintain,  you can maybe be in the account twice a month   for 45 minutes each and kind of on the lower  end maybe once a month. But Google does require   changes at least once a month just to make sure  that you are going into the account and checking   up on things and continually improving it. Regan: Yeah. And I would say, I mean, just like   most things that you're going to get out what  you put in. And it's not always time specific,   right? I know people that might need to spend  four times the amount of time that I would to   get the same results. But there's a level of  experience that I have where I don't have to   think through certain things because I've already  learned those lessons. And so, it really depends   on your familiarity with how to navigate the  accounts, how to choose the right things.   You could see the exact same level of success  from an hour of high quality work that someone   else could see in 10 hours of, if they were to  choose all of the wrong keywords. Right? So,   yeah, I guess it's not really a mix  of how often. I would say, at minimum,   you should check in once a week. But it's  how long you're spending is really just   dependent on how happy you are with the  results that you're getting at the moment.   If you're spending a lot but it's not  giving you the results that you want,   take extra time and delete the things that  aren't working and free up budget to test new   strategies that hopefully would work. So, yeah. Will: Awesome. And Spurs FC asked, what if we've   had difficulty in getting approved for the Google  Ads Grant or issues with meeting the website   requirements? Is there any additional health? I  feel like that could be a good place to share that   QR code link for looking at time with you, guys. Emily:   Yeah, Google also does have tools that you can  measure site speed. And I would say site speed is   one of the biggest issues that we come across when  we're talking about high-quality websites. So,   using those tools. And then if you do  have a website developer or someone   who can kind of help you speed up your  site, that is a great place to start.   And like I mentioned on my slide as well, if there  are any broken links or 404 errors, you can reach   out to Google support if you're having issues  with that. Even if you don't have the upgrade,   you can kind of try and reach out and see if they  can find any links that are broken. Or again,   a web developer is really helpful with  that. So, those are kind of the two main   areas that we see issues with websites. Regan: Sorry, Emily. The other thing is   that -- isn't there something that they should  have that kind of the footer of their website,   too? I know we've run into those issues. But -- Emily: Yeah. It is really helpful to have your EIN   on the footer, if not a complete, dedicated page,  that talks about your organization, what you do,   maybe even having some financial statements  in there. That does help with the verification   process so that Google can easily go to your  site, see your EIN, your charity status,   who you are. So, yeah, that is really helpful  to have your EIN in the footer of your site.   Will: Robert asked earlier, and I know this was  initially answered in the responses of whether   or not $10,000 a month is a significant amount in  search advertising. I'm curious, just in general,   what you guys see for the cost per click in  the nonprofit space just for folks to have   some general sense of how costly it is there, as  well as, I noticed a lot of the stats that were   shared is around raw traffic. But how do you guys  conceptualize that in terms of tracking towards   the goals of how much they've actually raised from  the awareness that comes from those campaigns?   Regan: Yeah, great. Great questions. I'll  start by just the first question, which is,   is $10,000 a lot? It absolutely is. Compared to  -- if you were not a nonprofit, you didn't have   the 501(c)(3), if you wanted to spend $10,000,  you would have to spend 10,000 real dollars,   right? So Community Boost, for example, we're  not a nonprofit ourselves. If we wanted to run   search ads, like we're probably not spending  anywhere close to $10,000 a month in our own   real money, because it's a lot of money. So, yeah, my answer is yes. It's a very   significant amount. The difference though  is, again, knowing those Google Ad Grant   stipulations of you're only showing about 10%  of the time, like there are keywords that since   we're paying real money, we can show up for and  see a lot of success with and be competitive   with. Where you are going to be less competitive  with the free money that Google is giving you.   So, again, there's pros and cons to spending  real money versus doing the grant. But I'd say   there's almost actually no con of doing the grant  because you can always spend real money on top   of that if you wanted to. You get all the pros,  the con. It's free money. Yeah. So, I don't know   if it helped to answer it. But it's a lot. Will: As a follow up question, I'm curious   if you guys see any difference in terms of the  free money versus the dollars that people are   actually spending. Is there a tier order of how  they're allocating that from Google side? Or is it   consistent across? Yeah. Regan: I can answer that. Or,   Emily, if you want to. It's up to you. Emily: Yeah. There is a little bit of a   tiered system. So Google Ad Grant, ads will always  show below paid ads. You can't tell on the search   engine results page what is an ad grant ad and  what's a paid ad. So, it all looks the same.   So, that is the advantage of having an  additional paid account, if it makes sense,   for competitive keywords that you're wanting  to go after because you can get even more to   the top of the page more consistently. All that to say, I mean, we still have   many organizations that do spend the full  $10,000 a month and are driving hundreds,   thousands of clicks to the site every month. So  even with the limitations of showing up around 10%   of the time and showing the low paid accounts,  you can still drive so much traffic and get   results through the ad grant. But, yeah, there  are certain advantages of using a paid account   if you want to, even bolster your presence  on the search engine result page even more.   And that is what, to Regan's point in his  section, the advantage of the Microsoft   Grant where there's just one app, one auction.  So ad grant ads, paid ads, it's all the same. So,   that is the difference between the Microsoft  and the Google Ad Grant account. So, Regan,   do you want to add anything more to that? Regan: No. I mean, I think the other piece is   just like do we see a difference in the overall  conversions that happen or kind of answering   that piece of the question? I mean, there is a  difference, right, because you're less competitive   and you show up less often. You can't go as  specific as you could with a paid account. So,   the difference would be maybe I'm looking  up like that's nonprofits to donate to.   There's a lot more people that are searching for  something that's broad like that than there are   people typing in to donate to Melanoma Research. And let's say I'm a nonprofit that does Melanoma   Research. If someone's typing in donate  to Melanoma Research, I know that they're   looking to donate and I know that they want to  donate to a cause that is Melanoma Research. So,   all I have to convince them once they get to our  site is that we are the person that's focused on   Melanoma Research that they should donate  to over x, y, and z. We’re on a term like   donate to cancer or donate to nonprofits.  We find someone who's wanting to donate,   but are they wanting to donate to an animal rights  organization, environmental organization? There's   a lot more questions that we have to answer. And so, again, the more narrow we go, the higher   likelihood that that person is going to convert  earlier. And maybe make a donation that first   time. But as it gets more specific, it gets harder  with the Google Ad Grants. So, you're limited to   some of those broader keywords. It's not something  so broad as like the word non-profit. That's way   too broad. But again, there are some limitations  with it. But, again, it's free money. So, it's not   the end of the world. Will: Sure. Eliza asked, and this was   something that another person kind of follow-up  and also wanted the answer to, which is why I'm   feeling it here. Are 501(c)(3) organizations that  start and run schools around the world eligible   saw international impact? And also, faith-based  organizations, are they eligible or ineligible?   Regan: We work with plenty of faith-based  organizations. I mean, it's not a problem.   The bigger thing that Google is going to  care about is just kind of the language   that’s being used. And so, I think with religious  organizations in general, if it looks hateful,   or anything like that, if you have that kind of  information on your site, you're less likely to   get approved. But I would say, the average church  Christian-based organization, Muslim organization,   Buddhist organization, we've gotten all of  them approved. It hasn't been a problem.   And to answer the question on the  schools, it's always worth trying.   I've gotten charter schools approved. We  work with plenty of organizations that are   nonprofits that focus on the education  system but are not a school themselves.   It even says like, “You can't get daycares  approved.” But, I mean, YMCA has a daycare   component, and YMCA can get approved. So, it's  always worth applying. And even if they say no,   it's always good to almost like try again.  Because I've gotten rejected on the first   time and approved on the second. But, yeah. Emily: Yeah. Yes, schools are nuanced. I think we   mainly see an issue if it's like a university or  private school where Google is wanting them to use   more of the real dollars there. But, yeah, if your  organization has kind of a charitable arm to it,   even if there are, even if there is a for  profit component, if there's a charitable arm,   then that can get qualified. So, yeah, I just want  to reiterate what Reagan said. It's always worth   trying because, especially in the school system,  in an education system, it's pretty nuanced.   Will: Gina asked, “Do you need to apply for  the grant annually? Or is it continuous,   indefinitely? What does that look like?” Emily: Yeah. You just need to apply one time. So   once you have the Google Ad Grant, it's yours and  it does not go away. So, that's the beauty of it.   Will: Veronica asked, “You keep encouraging me  to apply anyways. Has it been your experience   that any organization that currently has  a fiscal sponsor has been approved?”   Emily: Not to my knowledge. That is  part of the stipulations for Google.   It wouldn't qualify. So, I guess, that would be my  answer. But, Regan, do you have anything to add?   Regan: My answer is going to be apply anyway.  It's not the application. It's not like you are   spending 10 hours writing this application,  and hopefully you get it and you have to   explain everything. You’re just filling  out some forms. It doesn't take that long.   The worst they're going to say is no, and you  wasted 45 minutes. But the best case scenario,   you get approved and then you can focus on the  harder part of building out everything after   that. But you just got $10,000 a month. So, yeah. But I don't know of any -- I can't think off the   top of my head from our client roster if  we have fiscally sponsored organizations.   I can't memorize every client I have. Will: And Gina asked the same question on   whether or not you need to apply annually  for the Microsoft Ad Grant. But it sounds   like that one is also similar to Google. Regan: Yeah, yeah, it's the exact same. So,   you just apply once. It's where you would  run into issues as if you -- you’re applying   and everything is all good and dandy.  And then all of a sudden, you're like,   “I think it's doing good.” And you don't check on  it for five years. And something changes and now   you're making -- your certain pages, your  website goes down. And then they're like,   “Hey, you need to fix this. You don't do it.” If you're unresponsive, they can cancel your   grant. And then typically, the process is just  going and talking to someone and saying, “Oh,   yeah. This person, I don't know who it was, but  they messed it up, we want to try again.” And   they'll typically let you. But I've seen in  a couple of cases where we've had to reapply   at that point. I mean, as long as you're not just  like forgetting about it, you're fine for years.   Will: Sure. And Rob asked, “Are Google  or Microsoft Ad Grants geo targeted?”   Regan: Yes. So, you get to choose where  you're targeting. And you can go down to   a specific zip code if you wanted to do that. Or  typically, we focus on more of the DMA range. So,   I can say target people in -- anybody  in San Diego who's searching this,   you can see it. Or anybody in these specific  zip codes but not in these zip codes.   So, yeah, you can target them that way, for sure. The bigger thing is people will only see your ads   if they actually search for the term that you're  wanting to go after. So, the more narrow you   get that audience, the less overall -- again,  going back to the Donate to Melanoma Research,   if I target the whole US, there's more people  searching than only people in the zip code 92106   just based on population size. Will: And Peter asked, “Can nonprofit use   ads for projects, campaigns or joint ventures  that aren't completely related back to their   original organization's mission?” Regan: It's a good question. I mean,   it depends. I mean, I guess it would depend.  It doesn't always have to be tied to what your   mission statement is. You couldn't be like, “Hey,  Coca-Cola, you should give us money. And then   we'll send ads to get people to buy Coca Cola.”  Obviously, Google is not going to like that.   But if your mission is like, we want to build  wells. And then all of a sudden you're like,   “Well, actually, these kids need shoes,” and  then you want to add that into it. That's okay.   And operating budget for the Google Ad  Grants, specifically, does not matter. I mean,   as long as you have your 501(c)(3), that's  all you really need. As your budget increases,   you'll typically be able to -- either afford  someone fulltime in-house for marketing that's   doing that or an outside agency. So, what  you can do with it will start to grow as your   budget goes up. But there is no minimum budget  requirement. You just have to have your status.   Will: Awesome. If anyone else has any final  questions, feel free to drop them in the chat.   I will also be dropping in the chat if you  enjoyed this workshop. We'll be back next week   to cover five tips for building an antiracist  culture in your fundraising with Kia Croom.   So, feel free to join us for that as well  next week. But if there's any final questions,   feel free to drop them in the chat here. Regan: I did see one question much earlier about   keyword research and how to do that. The