AT ALBION, WE DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY…

Many marketing department staff in charitable organisations are well aware that Pay Per Click search advertising is a great way to rank higher than your competitors’ pages in the “natural” search results. What many charity marketing teams are not aware of, however, is that Google Ads Display Network (GDN) allows advertisers in the non-profit sectors to follow highly specific groups of potential supporters around the web. This includes just those people who have recently visited your competitors’ web pages.

Not only does this targeting option allow your charity to target people who have visited pages on the web related to your cause, it also allows you to target people who have already visited pages on your own site. By remarketing to people who have already donated, subscribed or bought your products, you can pull those same people back in order to encourage them to donate further or support another campaign you are currently focussing on.

Indeed, by having your ads displayed to only those people who have recently visited a page on a similar charity’s website or on specific pages hosted on news or information sites, you are able to target just those people who are most likely to engage with your movement and support your cause. Imagine only paying for advertising that only shows to those known to be interested in your offering. And imagine never again paying for blind, untargeted advertising that costs your organisation money but doesn’t result in new subscribers or customers. This is the real power of Google’s new targeting options. It has changed the way many non-profit organisations attract the right type of people to their sites.

Of course, the best thing about the Pay Per Click payment model is that you only pay when somebody in your target market clicks your ads. That means that every ad displayed around the web which isn’t clicked on costs you nothing at all. That’s right, you get all that high visibility and coverage for your organisation and campaign and you don’t pay a penny for it. Long gone are the days when blanket advertising is the only way to get your word out to the masses.

Because many traditional advertising and marketing agencies have yet to get a real grip on digital marketing and the new targeting options Google now provides, they encourage charities to try out the same old expensive methods of advertising in magazines, or billboards or on TV. This is often to the dismay of advertisers who don’t see a good return for their advertising investment (in addition, there is no real way of confirming which ads generated the resultant increased subscribers). However, with PPC you can see exactly which ads, keywords, targeting methods and bids resulted in each goal conversion. This means you can finely tune your advertising to send the most investment to the campaigns that yield the best results for your organisation.

Keep in mind that if your organisation needs to increase visibility then the Pay Per Click advertising payment model means that you never pay a penny unless a potential subscriber or benefactor clicks on your ads. So each ad impression that doesn’t get clicked is, is totally free advertising. This allows you to reinforce your organisation’s brand values, spread your message and tell the world about your cause at no risk. So now may be the right time to take advantage of the extra visibility you may be missing out on.