Google Ad Grants

Challenge

Teen Rescue, a 501(c)3 charitable organization, runs River View Christian Academy, a private boarding school that has been providing structure, guidance and education for troubled teens for over 25 years. In addition to word-of-mouth referrals, Teen Rescue relies on organic search traffic and its google ads grant to drive leads and student enrollment for the school.

With recent changes to Google Ads Grant compliance standards, it became more challenging to remain qualified for the ‘free’ media spend from the search giant. Specifically, the $2 bid cap and 5% CTR requirement have greatly reduced the volume most advertisers can drive from their ad grant accounts.

Teen Rescue turned to Emergent for help. We took over management of the account and did the following:

• Expanded the keyword portfolio
• Optimized text ads to higher clickthrough rates
• Added negative KWs at the ad group and campaign level
• Changed bidding strategies from Manual CPC to ‘Maximize Conversions’

The first two steps helped to maintain the 5% CTR threshold, while the last tactic helped to mitigate the $2 bid ceiling.

Results

• Increased traffic volume by 2.5x
• Reached the $10,000 monthly maximum for standard Ad Grant accounts
• Increased leads and School Enrollment, the main KPI for the client