How to Spend More of Your Grant

As a Google Grants recipient, you have $10,000 per month in AdWords spend at your disposal. This is a very exciting, though sometimes daunting, opportunity. We often hear questions from grantees who are interested in spending more of the monthly budget they've been awarded. Indeed, most grantees' accounts spend less than the monthly allowance, which is understandable given that most non-profits in the U.S. and in the Google Grants program, are small, local organizations that that primarily serve their immediate areas.

Typically, many of the non-profit groups who spend their allotted budget, or come close to it, are national or international organizations that work on issues that are searched on often. Google Insights for Search can help you determine how high search volume is for your cause. That being said, we recognize that many grantees would like to spend more of their budget to effectively reach interested individuals and promote more awareness of the causes they support. Therefore, we'd like to introduce you to a tool that will help you do just that: the Search-based Keyword Tool (SbKT).

This tool reviews the content of your website and generates a list of relevant, historical Google search queries on which you're not currently advertising. In other words, the SbKT provides you with relevant keywords that you previously didn't even know were untapped marketing opportunities. Including some of these terms in your account can help you spend more of your marketing budget, and also connect you with additional targeted users based on what you know they're searching on, rather than what you're guessing they're searching on.

To use the tool, type www.google.com/sktool in your browser and sign into your AdWords account. Once you've done so, simply enter your URL into website field and let the tool do the work. It'll even display landing pages that might be relevant on your site and provide bidding suggestions for each of the terms it provides. Once a list of new keyword suggestions has been generated, you can pick the most relevant terms, export them to a CSV, and upload them to your account. For more detailed guidance on how to use the SbKT, please visit our help center.

We hope you enjoy using the Search-based Keyword Tool to further build out your account!

Posted By: German Freiwald, Google Grants Team