Maximize Conversions with Google Grants

Google has changed the Google Ad Grants program so that you can better make use of your Google Grants budget by having one or more campaigns in your account use the maximize conversions bidding strategy. When using the maximize conversion bidding strategy, Google no longer limits your maximum bid to $2 per click. Prior to this change, which Google announced in November, there was no way around the $2 per click limit and that combined with the relatively high 5% Click Through Rate (CTR) requirement for the Google Ad Grants program meant that most organizations only ever used a fraction of their actual Google Grants allowance.

It is still best to use manual settings wherever possible since you will have more control over the accounts and ads that way and you can likely achieve better results. Thus for most campaigns we would still recommend using the manual bidding strategy despite the $2 per click restriction, however it makes sense to have one campaign that you use the maximize conversions bidding strategy for. It can be used to soak up the rest of the unused ads grant. When you set up the Maximize Conversions bidding strategy for a campaign, you will be prompted for a budget and you can select a budget that will lead to a higher bid and thus more clicks and conversions than you would have otherwise. This will take some additional ad spend, but in so far as you are likely under-utilizing the full Google Ads Grant, this works out very well and just gives you better results without any downside.

You should make sure the conversions that you measured are meaningful and not just clicks.  When you applied for Google Grants you likely set up conversion tracking then,  This would be a good time to revisit is and look in Google Analytics and make sure you are tracking events like donation and contact form submissions and call or whatever it is that is most relevant to your organization.

If your digital marketing agency is not maximizing your full Google Grant, talk with us at Grant Republic and know that there is a more effective way to use it.