Let’s set the scene: You have applied for and received a Google Grant for Adwords. You’re excited and launch a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign for acquisition – you want more donors. (NOTE: There are many ways to use Adwords to help your charity; acquisition is just one way.)
Your PPC campaign has a click through rate (CTR) of say, 2% at the end of a week. You make some adjustments and it increases to 3.5%. You’re feeling pretty good.
Is your PPC campaign a success?
I don’t know. CTR doesn’t equate to a new donor or additional revenue. What you really need to know is how many of the visitors that click on your ad become donors after reading your landing page. In other words: What is the conversion rate for your landing page? Are they taking the desired action such as making a donation?
Let me say this again: You don’t acquire a new donor when they click on your ad. Therefore high CTR’s are not your ultimate goal. The conversion rate for your landing page is where you find the payoff. Conversion is what brings in new donors, more revenue, etc.
Look at the big picture
A successful PPC campaign depends not only on ad quality, but also on your keyword research, how you structure your campaign, and it most definitely depends on a quality landing page. Your landing page continues the conversation the ad started. And again, the landing page is the secret to higher conversion rates. That’s a snapshot of the big picture.
Your PPC campaign will also benefit by executing the work in this step-by-step sequence:
1. keyword research
2. structure the ad groups and campaigns
3. write the landing page (and you will likely need more than one landing page)
4. write the ads (each ad must compliment the corresponding landing page)
5. go “live” with the campaign
Your nonprofit can benefit in many ways by running Google PPC campaigsn. But first you need a good start. I interviewed Dr. Howie Jacobson, author of “Adwords for Dummies.” I asked Howie for 3 tips to help your charity get started with Adwords … he replied with FOUR tips.
Click here for Howie’s 4 Google Adwords tips for nonprofits video with Karen Zapp.
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One question you MUST answer before launching Google Adwords for your nonprofit
