Have you ever wanted to try online advertising to promote your
organization, but weren’t sure how to get started? Starting tomorrow,
NTEN.org (The Nonprofit Technology Network) will be hosting a series of
webinars aimed at teaching you how to get the most out of Google
Grants, a program that offers free online Google Adwords advertising to
select non-profits.
In this series, members of the Google Grants team will discuss the
program and best practices to make the most of your account, looking at
tips, tricks, and tools to select highly-targeted keywords, create
relevant ads, and evaluate performance.
This will be a valuable series for both current Google Grantees and
interested organizations. After attending the 5-part series,
participants will have developed:
- A firm understanding of the Google Grants program, including its benefits and requirements for grantees.
- Solid optimization skills for building and maintaining a successful
AdWords account, including how to maximize keywords, ad text, and
campaign structure.
- Knowledge of how and why to evaluate account performance, using various AdWords tools
Under the Google Grants
program, participating organizations use AdWords online advertising
accounts to target their constituents with ads to promote their
programs, solicit donations, recruit volunteers, and more.
Google Grants now accepts applications from 15 countries outside the US, by the way, so do check the nonprofit program details
page to see if your group will qualify. New program participants are
selected four times a year, and it may take up to six months for
approval. The pay-off in increased traffic to your organization’s
website could be well worth the wait, however — Brett Meyer,
Communications and Web Manager at NTEN, says that “our complimentary
AdWords account now provides nearly 5% of our total site traffic,
almost all of it new to our community.”
This success didn’t come without a steep learning curve! The
complexity of selecting the right keywords, composing ads, and managing
an online advertising campaign can make it all a bit challenging for
non-profits that don’t have a professional marketer on call. And no
doubt that’s a good part of the impetus behind NTEN’s Adwords webinar
series.
The webinars kick off tomorrow (September 11) with an introductory session, Setting Yourself Up for Success with Adwords,
that covers the program details, eligibility for interested groups, the
application process, identifying goals for your account, and the
resources and tools provided by Google to help you achieve those goals.
Other sessions include:
- Optimizing Keywords in AdWords (Sept. 19, 2008)
- Optimizing Ad Text in AdWords (Sept. 26, 2008)
- Managing Multiple Campaigns (Oct. 10, 2008)
- Evaluating AdWords Performance (Oct. 17, 2008)
The cost for each webinar is $30 for NTEN members, $60 for non-members; pick and choose the topics that interest you most, or, if you’re very quick, you can still register for all five Google Grants webinars at a discounted price.