So it’s been about 1 month since Google decided to remove paid adverts from the right hand side of the search results pages. When this first happened our first reaction was probably the same as a many others, ‘what will happen to the cost of clicks?’

We imagined inflated click-costs and clients’ CPA’s increasing. Not to mention CTR dropping due to the ads that have since moved to the bottom of the SERPs, having next to no chance of generating any interest.

Was this a ploy for Google to make more money? We had numerous conversations amongst our PPC team about what this meant and what we should be doing to make sure our clients are ranking in the top 4 positions.

Instead of panicking and increasing bids, we opted to leave bids as they were and monitor. We pride ourselves on well built, granular account structures, utilising all of Google’s available tools to maximise quality scores. We liaise with clients to ensure that the landing pages are optimised for PPC campaigns, which has helped achieve strong PPC results month-on-month, so why change our approach now?

We trusted that Google would continue to reward quality advertisers with higher rankings, instead of favouring poor account builds with higher CPC’s.
Dave Ashbolt, Head of PPC

Since the change how has this impacted our clients? Well, so far it’s been positive across the board. The majority of accounts have seen a reduction in costs per click, while maintaining or improving ranking and comparatively increased click through rates, due to the decrease in impressions now available.

We haven’t seen conversion rates suffer either; again, some clients have actually experienced some impressive improvements.

These changes haven’t been surprising when you think about it. Advertisers always strived to rank in the top 3 positions, due to higher click through rates and a conversion being more likely to occur when occupying one of those spots.

It’s still very early days, but the initial signs have been positive for us and we haven’t experienced any of our initial fears. The next few months will give a clearer picture of the effects on PPC results and we’ll report back when we have more data!

If you’re having problems since the change or need PPC advice. Contact enquiries@passiondigital.co.uk or call 0203 4321 369

We’re extremely excited to announce that Passion Digital have helped Action Medical Research to successfully join the Google GrantsPro programme.

Charities which utilise the standard Google Ad Grants programme receive $10,000 per month of in-kind advertising from Google, completely free of charge. With the help of Passion digital, Action Medical Research (AMR) now receive $40,000 per month of in-kind advertising, following their successful application to upgrade to Google GrantsPro.

This additional advertising budget which will be invaluable in helping AMR to fund medical research to beat the diseases that devastate the lives of so many children.  They have been funding medical breakthroughs since 1952 – such as the first polio vaccines in the UK, ultrasound in pregnancy and the rubella vaccine – helping to save thousands of children’s lives and change many more.  You can read about more of AMR’s medical success stories here: action.org.uk/about-us/successes

“Passion have managed our Adwords account for a long time and have effectively steered us towards the Pro account. 

As a small charity we are always looking for greater reach and visibility to continue our work, and the Pro account will give us the ability to compete with larger charities and test more effectively, raising awareness and generating much needed income to fund vital medical research.”

Grant Ellis, Web Manager, AMR. 

Passion Digital look forward to the challenge of utilising a much larger budget to increase donations and general awareness of this much-needed charity. If you have a Google Ad Grant account and need help upgrading to the Google GrantsPro programme, please do get in touch to see where Passion Digital could help.

We recently announced that existing Google Ad Grant accounts can apply to advertise multiple domains under one account, so we thought we’d stick with charity/non-profit PPC and mention Google GrantsPro.

What is Google GrantsPro?

Existing Google Ad Grant advertisers who utilise the full $10,000 per month given to them have the opportunity to gain a much larger grant of $40,000 per month to spend on Google Search Advertising.

How Do I Get Google GrantsPro?

To qualify for the larger amount, it’s not as simple as just spending the $10,000 per month Google provide to non-profits (which we know in itself is a huge task!). There are a number of factors that need to be taken in to consideration – your Google Ad Grants account must have:

• Spent at least $9,900 twice in six months.
• Correctly installed Conversion Tracking and be actively tracking at least one conversion (tracking conversions from Google Analytics in to AdWords also counts).
• Account-level click-through-rate (CTR) of 1% or higher.
• Agree to complete surveys and provide conversion data numbers.
• Manage the account at least weekly or bi-weekly.

You’ll need to fill out an application form confirming these points and provide details on how you plan to use the additional budget provided.  This requires more detail than the Ad Grant application and data would need to be included, for example if donations increased by x% how would that effect the people who benefit from your charity.

What Next?

If you are lucky enough to meet the criteria and are awarded $40,000 per month the next question is, what do you do with that money? Passion Digital have worked with many Ad Grant and GrantsPro accounts so we understand how to make them work for your organisation. We can help throughout the process and maximise the chances of upgrading your existing AdGrant account to a GrantsPro account.

Get in touch today to see if we can help with your Google Grant management

For those who aren’t aware, Google Ad Grants is a non-profit facet of Google’s Pay Per Click advertising platform Adwords.  non-profits and charities may be entitled to up to $10,000 of free advertising every month through Google Ad Grants.

Traditionally this was only applicable to a single domain. However, Google recently announced that Google Ad Grant users may be able to promote multiple domains through the same account, offering a real marketing boost for non-profits.

Reasons You Can Request An Exception From The “One Domain” Rule

You can request an exception to the single domain website policy if your charity has other websites which:

• Promote ongoing projects with similar content, owned by your organization
• Contain the same information as your main domain but for a different language audience
• Replace your original website because you’ve changed your domain since applying for Ad Grants

What does this mean for non-profit organisations?

This is great news for all varieties of non-profits; we have worked with a number of organisations who have multiple domains beneath an umbrella organisation and, until now, promoting the other domains has been through AdWords, paid for using funds which could be better utilised elsewhere.

If accepted, non-profits can now save on marketing costs and take full advantage of the $10,000 available.

You’re probably thinking, what if we already spend or are close to spending $10,000 per month… won’t the additional domains reduce spend on our current domain? The answer is yes it will, but fear not, Google offer a GrantsPro account!

Google GrantsPro offers advertisers $40,000 per month. There are certain criteria which need to be met based on your existing Google Ad Grant account, though:

• Spent at least $9,900 twice in at six months
• Correctly installed Conversion Tracking and tracking at least one conversion
• Account-level Click-Through-Rate of 1% or higher
• Agree to complete surveys and provide conversion data numbers
• Manage the account weekly or bi-weekly

Passion Digital have worked with a large number of charities and charitable trusts, we can help apply for Ad Grants, multiple domains and GrantsPro on your behalf – we also manage Ad Grant accounts for non-profits on an on-going basis, to ensure we’re maximising the value of Google Ad Grants for our clients.