Request a strategy call Google Ad Grants management for charities
We run Google Ad Grants accounts for Australian charities, along with the content and the measurement that make them work. One Egg has managed five of these, for organisations including Fred Hollows, Victor Chang and NAPCAN. If you do not have a grant yet, we can set that up as well.
Trusted by Australian organisations since 2014
Why a grant is worth having
Most charity advertising goes straight to the ask. Donate now, to someone who has never heard of you. Audiences have seen that ad a thousand times and they are sceptical, so it converts poorly and it spends goodwill you would rather keep.
A grant account works differently, because of its own limits. It is text ads on Google search only, which means it only ever reaches people who are already looking for something. Someone searches the condition, the issue, the region or the question, and you are the organisation that answers it properly, at no media cost to you. You have not asked for anything yet. You have earned the right to ask later.
That is what Google Ad Grants is for. It is the chance to be in front of people at the moment they are trying to understand something you already know more about than almost anyone. It is also why an account running a handful of brand campaigns leaves most of the value sitting there unused.
The grant does not buy you attention. It buys you the chance to be useful first.
Why most grant accounts underperform
The account keeps running, the reports keep arriving, and nobody can quite say why it is not doing more. In our experience there are three reasons, and only one of them is about the account.
Grant bids are capped at $2 a click, so you cannot outbid a commercial advertiser. You win on breadth instead. Every useful page on your site is another set of searches you can serve under the cap. Most of the work in a strong grant account is not inside the account.
A grant is usually set up once, by whoever had capacity that quarter, and then it runs. Keywords go stale, ads stop matching the pages, new programs never get campaigns, and the person who understood the setup moves on.
The grant gets measured on its own numbers rather than on its job inside the plan. It is the cheapest way in the world to reach someone who is already searching, and the wrong tool for almost everything else.
What Google Grants management includes
Google reports that Ad Grants accounts managed by a certified agency deliver eight times the conversion value, in donations and sign-ups, of accounts left to run themselves. That gap comes from somebody doing the content work, the keyword work and the measurement work every month, rather than once.
Where the allowance is going, which searches you are missing and what is holding the account back. This is where we start with most of the accounts we take on.
Campaign structure around your causes, your programs and the questions people search, built to the grant’s rules so the account stays healthy.
The part that lifts the number. What your audience is searching for, what your site can answer today and what to publish next.
Keywords, ad copy, landing page direction, search term pruning and account health, every month. Not a quarterly check-in.
Donations, sign-ups, enquiries and cost per donor acquired. Reporting you can take to a board, not a screenshot of clicks.
Before you engage us we will tell you what your account can realistically reach. If a grant is not worth the effort for an organisation like yours, we will say so.
Published client results
NAPCAN’s figures are for the grant itself: we secured it and built the account from scratch, including campaigns for National Child Protection Week. The Victor Chang figures cover its whole programme. The Fred Hollows figures are for search overall, not the grant alone. All not-for-profit case studies ↗
What to expect from the allowance
The US$10,000 is a ceiling, not a target. Very few charities reach it. That is simply what happens when you run a grant properly against a finite amount of relevant search, capped at $2 a click, on text ads only.
Be sceptical of anyone who promises you the full amount. The ways to spend it all are mostly bad ones: broad keywords that bring in the wrong people, ads pointed at pages that cannot answer them, and a click-through rate that drifts down until Google takes notice.
What we aim at instead is the useful ceiling for your organisation. That is a real number, we can estimate it before you engage us, and the content work is what raises it over time.
A smaller spend on the right searches is worth more than a bigger number in a report.
Where the grant stops
The grant cannot run Display, video or social. It cannot compete on expensive commercial terms. It only reaches people who are already searching, and it runs out of room well before your audience does. None of that is a flaw. It is the deal. So we treat the grant as one part of a plan. Most of the charities we work with run several of these alongside it. Digital marketing for not-for-profits ↗
For the audiences, formats and moments a grant account is not allowed to reach.
Being found on the same searches without paying for the click. The channel that compounds.
A growing share of donors now ask an assistant which charity to support. Most charities have never checked whether they are named, or what is said about them.
The one investment that lifts the grant, SEO and AI visibility at the same time.
How it works
Three steps, and only the first one needs you.
Thirty minutes with a senior member of our team. If you already have a grant, we look at the account before we speak. If you do not, we tell you whether it is worth applying for.
In plain language, with an honest estimate of what your grant can realistically reach and what it would take to raise that. You keep that whether or not you work with us.
Application if you need it, account build, content planning, monthly management and reporting. You focus on the cause.
Why One Egg
We have run five of these: CEF Country Education Foundation, NAPCAN, Fred Hollows, Victor Chang and OBK Community Kitchen. We know the difference between an account that technically complies and an account that brings in donors. You get a senior team with deep experience across the charity and not-for-profit sector, and no lock-in contracts. We earn it every month.
“They are extremely responsive, always happy to explain things in simple terms, and very knowledgeable in their field.”
Madelene McGrathNational Marketing Manager, NAPCAN “One Egg have been great to work with. The team is professional and knowledgeable and they always go the extra mile to help us. They have tailored their services to suit our needs and we are starting to see results already. We are happy customers!”
Georgi GloverMedia & Communication Manager, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute From the blog
Frequently asked questions
Google Ad Grants gives eligible non-profits US$10,000 a month in free Google search advertising. It is text ads on Google search only, with bids capped at $2 a click and account requirements you have to keep meeting. Our guide to digital marketing for charities covers the other free programs.
Yes. That is most of the accounts we take on. We review what is there before we speak, so the first conversation is about your account rather than about grants in general.
Yes, and some charities do it well. It takes someone who understands search, has time every month and can keep publishing content. Where it usually falls down is not the setup. It is the second year.
Most registered Australian charities with ACNC registration and DGR status do. Schools, universities, hospitals and government bodies are not eligible, although charitable foundations attached to health services generally are. You also need a secure, informative website on your own domain, because the grant is judged on what your site can answer. You do not need to be running Google Ads already. We handle the Google for Nonprofits verification and the application, and we will check eligibility before we speak. If you are not eligible, paid Google Ads management covers the same searches with a media budget.
Usually a few weeks, depending on how quickly Google verifies your organisation and whether your website needs work first.
Accounts can be paused for not meeting the requirements, and reinstated once the issue is fixed. Managed properly, it is not something you need to think about.
It depends on the size of the account and how much content work sits alongside it. We quote after the first conversation, once we understand what you need. There are no lock-in contracts.
Get started
Whether you have a grant that is not performing, no grant at all, or you just want a straight answer on whether it is worth the effort for an organisation like yours, you will leave the conversation knowing more than you came in with.
Prefer to talk? 1300 490 147
