What if I told your church could receive a free Google Grant of US$10,000 per month for Google Adwords.
Would you be interested?
One of the things I’ve noticed since serving in church world is our love of ‘free’. Let’s face it, most of us don’t have big budgets and can’t actually afford to advertise or spend money. I recently spoke to some church leaders about social media. I was amazed that when I mentioned this idea I saw a focus I hadn’t seen in the previous moments and pens started to furiously write down what I was sharing about Google Grants for non-profits. It just goes to show church leaders know how to chase down a bargain when they see one.
I wrote a few weeks about the importance improving the SEO for your church website. But a good digital strategy shouldn’t just rely on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). Your church should be investing in SEM (Search Engine Marketing).
Some of you are now like… what are you talking about!? Let me explain.
SEO is how people find your website ‘organically’ (No money) through search engines. SEM is how people find your website through Google Adwords (Paid and usually at the top of the search results) when searching on Google.
In different seasons there are different key-words that people are using when searching. For example, in the Christmas season and someone may search for ‘Christmas church services’. The organic search result may be a link to your church buried deep on the 25th search result page. But with SEM you can bring your result to the top of the list.
Some of you may be thinking isn’t this an IT problem? That’s not the way I see it. A crucial part of my role is to help my church get noticed online. That means that if we are currently on page 53 in the search results then I need to work out how to get us to the first page and be noticed. In my own humble opinion if we want our message to be received and heard online, SEM helps it get noticed.
How Google Grants work
- You get an Adword daily spending limit of $329 per day. You can’t spend $10,000 on one day sorry.
- There are limitations on both words and costs around those words so choose wisely or you could blow your budget very quickly. (This will limit some of the key words you can nominate).
- Your text only ad will run below paid Google Ad-Words (Remember it’s free).
- Google Grants are basically a tax write-off for Google. It could change.
Like anything you get for free there are limitations and drawbacks. But I encourage you to check out Google Grants here.
If you are serious about applying for a Google Grant and want help setting up it there is a service that will help your church set it up. Wait for it. It’s free. Find out more about these generous folks here.
Oh and if you get rather good at Google Ad-Words I’ve heard that Google may bump you up to be able to spend $40,000 per month in free ad-words. Read more here.
I feel like Santa Claus right now! Enjoy the gifts 🙂
Your Turn
Have you used Google Adwords? What have you found that has worked? What are the challenges you have found? Do you have any questions about Google Adwords? Leave a comment below.
