Previously I had written a post on leveraging Google Grants for non-profits that talked about the Google Grants program and how non-profits could receive up to $40,000 per month in PPC advertising on Google for only $1,500. While that was the stated value in PPC advertising that you could receive, the spending cap had not been enforced until just recently. In the past my non-profit clients who used Google Grants accounts could spend over $40,000 in a given month. Additionally, they had never been charged the 5% of ad spend when going over $10,000.

Google, however, has decided to enforce the rules as is evident by the excerpt of an email my client recently received.

…To ensure that we can continue to offer this program to even
more non-profits, we have implemented monthly budget caps of
either $10,000 or $40,000 on all Google Grants recipients. Moving forward, your account will be automatically capped at
$10,000 per month in free AdWords advertising. However, if your
organization has a demonstrated need for additional budget, you
may be eligible to receive an increased budget of $40,000 per
month and be invoiced for 5% of the spend between $10,000 -
$40,000 (up to a maximum of $1,500 per month)…

It appears from the excerpt above that in order to get the full $40,000 in advertising you have to have a “demonstrated need for additional budget” beyond the initial $10,000. I have yet to hear back from them on exactly what that means, but no matter what the answer is, changes will be made to how the accounts are managed.What does this mean for non-profits that had been taking advantage of the remarkable generosity that Google has and continues to show? It will require them to refocus their goals for Google Grants in order to mitigate the loss in donations as a result of the lower monthly spend. In the past I had leveraged Google Grants in a number of ways for my clients, but there was usually a strong focus placed on branding and educating visitors on the mission of the organization. There was a more long term approach taken when looking at how we could use Google Grants to build the brand and in tern increase donations. This, however, will now have to change since the budget will no longer allow us to partake in as many branding campaigns, but instead we will have to focus mainly on the immediate result of delivering a donation.

I have no complaints that are directed at Google, however, since neither Yahoo nor MSN offer a similar program to help non-profits with limited budgets reach their target audience. The benefits that my non-profit clients have received from Google Grants are amazing and the donation revenue that has been achieved would never have been possible without the generosity of the folks over at Google. Changes will need to be made to how I use Google Grants, but at the end of the day how could you ever complain about receiving up to $40,000 per month in advertising for only $1,500?

Have you received a similar notice recently from Google Grants? What are your thoughts on the Google Grants program for non-profits? 

Filed under: Non-Profits, PPC on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 by Nate Linnell | 5 Comments
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