National Garden Scheme
Can Google Ad Grants Really Make a Difference to a Charity?
The National Garden Scheme Say; ‘Absolutely, Yes!’
We know that charities and non-profits get mixed results from their Google Ad Grant performance. Usually this comes as a result of a number of core reasons;
- It’s being poorly managed
- Ads are not being optimised effectively
- Keyword themes and ad groups are not targeted enough or relevant enough to landing page content
- The site is lacking content to target
However, when a Google Ad Grant or GrantsPro account is looked after and nurtured, the results are incredible to witness.
We’ve shouted before about the results we’ve had for some of our clients. Of course, we love to see that the work we have done has made a significant impact, and we want to shout about it, but it’s also a great opportunity to show other charities what can be done with the Grant, and why all eligible non-profits really should be using it!
The National Garden Scheme are one of those who have had some truly great results. With the massive impact from COVID-19, this could have been a disastrous time for NGS.
However, they rose to the challenge, and introduced virtual garden tours. Beyond Your Brand came in to offer support in managing the Grant account.
The National Garden Scheme’s objective was to spend as much of the Grant as possible, but as efficiently as could be achieved, and with the results that really mattered; driving donations.
As a result of the continued work, their Grant, and ultimately their visibility, has increased despite the pandemic; achieving over 15,000 clicks from the Grant in July and spending all $10,000 of their available budget;
The CTR (click-through rate) of the ads also increased, as ads and keywords were optimised. The minimum requirement to remain compliant with the Grant policy is 5%. In July 2020, we achieved an unheard of CTR of over 33%;
March: 19.83%
April: 24.52%
May: 19.50%
June: 28.00%
July: 33.11%
Part of the ongoing success is that they not only open beautiful gardens for charity, but they are also passionate about the physical and mental health benefits that gardens offer. The range of topics, all focused around gardens, has meant that the growth of the Ad Grant has been quite incredible.
Joanne McGowan, The National Garden Scheme’s Digital Development and Infrastructure Manager says,
“We started working with Beyond Your Brand to provide support in managing the Grant account. It has been most definitely money well spent.
The recent performance of the Google Ad Grant demonstrates the success we can have when other departments feed into digital. We produce and update comms plans to highlight the major campaigns we will be working on. Beyond Your Brand and I then work together to design new ad groups and we are already planning campaigns around Staycation for August and the Great British Garden Party for September.”
We are incredibly proud to be working alongside such an amazing charity, who do so much for nursing and health charities in the UK. We love the fact that our expertise really can make a difference, and we encourage all charities to really make the most of the Ad Grant on offer from Google.
Many of their gardens are thankfully now open again to the public. We’ve spoken to one such local gardener, Andrea McDowell, The Cotswold Gardener, who has opened her garden for the first time;
It was hugely satisfying to be able to open my garden to raise money for charity and my children were excited to get on board too; selling fresh lemonade, cakes and cut flowers.
Such a great cause in supporting nursing charities and I’m looking forward to doing it again.”
We’re very proud of the work we’ve done with the National Garden Scheme. If you’d like to learn more, then please do get in touch.
