Without a doubt, using Google Ad Grants for Nonprofits has its limits and disadvantages. And while it may be common practice to moan about the severe lack of variety and features for a Google Ad Grants account. You can still use these limitations to your advantage. There are several methods that we can employ to get the absolute most out of these ad campaigns as possible.
In this article, Ben Givon will cover three effective workarounds all marketers and advertisers should use to attract the most quality leads and traffic possible:
- Utilize mobile app extensions
- Use Dynamic Search Ads
- Try automated bidding to avoid bid limitations
Utilize mobile app extensions to advertise your apps
Firstly, one of the most useful workarounds that you could use in your Google Ad Grants account is mobile app extensions. By default, Google Ad Grants only permit marketers to use text-based ad campaigns on the network. As a result, online marketers and advertisers using Google Ad Grants will be unable to set up universal app campaigns if their nonprofit has an app that they would want to advertise. Regardless of whether you use Google Ads Editor to run your Good Ad Grants account, it will show that you can implement a universal app campaign. Then when you attempt to post a live app campaign, it will be marked as an invalid action.
However, there is a simple way to bypass this hurdle. Universal app campaigns may not be permitted, but app extensions certainly are allowed. Why is this the case? An app extension is simply a section of your search ad, and therefore any text ads that make up the search network are permissible and acceptable to run.
As with any other app extensions, you can introduce to your Google Ad Grants account. You can add these extensions at the campaign level, account level, or even ad group levels. If your app runs on both iOS and Android mobile and desktop devices, you will need to create a pair of contrary extensions. It’s possible to have an application that meets the goals you would like your Google Ad Grants account to accomplish. Anytime the app is downloaded and installed, it will increase the conversion rate within your account. The Google Ads help website has the information needed to understand the various types of app conversions to monitor and track within your ad campaigns.
Use Dynamic Search Ads to generate more quality traffic
The second most effective workaround is to use Dynamic Search Ads to generate more traffic. When you set up a campaign account in Google Ad Grants, Ben Givon already taught us that we could only run search network campaigns. Dynamic Search Ads, also commonly referred to as DSAs, make up a section of the search network campaign setup. Once you get to the campaign settings, choose the show more settings tab, located beneath the Networks area of the page. There you will find the option to create and specify your Dynamic Search Ads settings.
If you are not well accustomed to Dynamic Search Ads, they are a springboard for marketers and advertisers to broaden their audience reach on the search network. By allowing Google to home in on potential customers via the content on their business site as opposed to targeting users via keywords. You could have a Google Ad Grants account that does not use all the budget offered by Google. Perhaps the keywords you are looking to target are incredibly competitive and are not getting that all-important exposure. Or maybe you are finding it challenging to identify and pinpoint new relevant keywords to implement into your account. Try dynamic search ads in your Google Ad Grants accounts now and see what it can do for your results.
Google has all the instructions when it comes to setting up a new search campaign with Google Ad Grants accounts. Click here to read the full instructions.
‘How to create a new Search campaign with a Dynamic Ad Group.’
- Sign in to your Google Ads account.
- From the page menu on the left, click Campaigns.
- Click the plus button +, then select New campaign.
- Select one or more goals for your campaign. Or, click Create a campaign without a one to continue without goals.
- Optional: Under “Select the results you want to get from this campaign”. Select the checkbox next to the actions you want customers to take after seeing your ad. (for example, website visits, phone calls, or app downloads). Enter the relevant details.
- Select Search as your campaign type.
- Select any results you want to get from the campaign.
- Click Continue.
- Name your campaign and enter the locations you want to target languages you wish to use and your budget.
- Under “Bidding,” choose an automated bid strategy if you want Google to optimize your bids. We recommend the target CPA or enhanced CPC options.
- Enter your bid limit (optional) and budget.
- At the top of the screen under “General Settings,” expand Show more settings, and then click Dynamic Search Ad.
- Enter your website domain and select your website language.
- Click Save and Continue to continue onto the next stage—creating a dynamic ad group and targets.
You can see from the image below that you can use your website index, page feed URLs, or a mixture of both to use as content sources for your advertisements. If you desire to add a page feed. You can simply do this via the Business data section in the Setup column under Tools and Settings in Google Ads. The remainder of the campaign launch process is pretty much the same as any other Search Network campaign.
