Maximizing your nonprofit’s budget with cost-effective ads

As a nonprofit, there’s more at stake than simply making a profit. But that doesn’t mean expenses aren’t a concern. It’s often the complete opposite. You’re now needing to do a lot more with a lot less.

That’s why it’s so essential to leverage cost-effective nonprofit advertising strategies this year. Big companies can keep the doors open even with big expenses in tow. But as a lean and mean nonprofit, you’re constantly looking for new ways to maximize your digital marketing ROI.

Keep reading as we jump into three of the best ways to make a big splash  — even with a slim budget:

1. Google Ad Grant for nonprofits
2. Geofencing for nonprofits
3. Email retargeting for nonprofits (ok, these aren’t ads, but you’ll see they’re pretty close)

Google Ad Grant for nonprofits

This has got to be the single most cost-effective advertising option out there. Google is willing to hand you $10,000 each and every month if you’re a 501(c)(3) (but not a governmental organization, in healthcare, or education — here’s more information if you are in the education space — and please double check me here on all the requirements, so you don’t get your hopes up too quickly).

It may take a little time and monthly adjustments to spend all of that $10,000 budget, but it’s worth the effort, especially because it’s not coming out of your pocket.

One thing to pay attention to with the Google Ad Grant for nonprofits: because a lot of nonprofits are using it, bids for ad placements can run much higher for nonprofit keywords. So you may end up having to spend a larger portion of that $10,000 budget to get the results you would expect. That’s because you’re ultimately bidding against other people with free money in their pockets!

That’s definitely not meant to dissuade you from jumping all the way in. But having the right expectations and a mentality of constantly learning and growing will make the work a lot more enjoyable and rewarding!

If you haven’t received this grant yet, and you’re looking for additional tips and tricks to maximizing the spend and its impact while getting started, check out our comprehensive guide to the Google Ad Grant.

Geofencing for nonprofits

Display advertising is one of the most cost-effective ways to reach new audiences with your message. 1,000 impressions, depending on where they’re being viewed, cost anywhere from $5 to $10. That’s pretty hard to replicate on social platforms or even in Google Ads.

These aren’t going to be clicked on as much as an email (we’ll talk about that next!), but you likely don’t have everyone’s email address that you want to reach, and depending on the type of display ad you choose to serve, you can increase the chances of a click.

One of the most cost-effective nonprofit marketing tools out there are geofencing campaigns. These campaigns serve ads to people who are in a physical location. It’s one of a few creative ways of linking the digital world with the real one.

Say you’re a nonprofit that needs more volunteers. You can now serve ads on college campuses nearby where you can reach the perfect audience for the job. Or if you’re looking to increase donations, and you’ve found most of your donors come from a specific faith community, you can now reach more people like that by serving ads to people who worship at those specific places.

It’s one of the most cost-effective and unique ways of finding new audiences for your nonprofit that you can then continue to engage through meaningful content (maybe even a retargeting email!).

Email retargeting for nonprofits

Email may be the oldest trick in the book when it comes to digital marketing for nonprofits. But that doesn’t mean it’s working any less these days. 

So please don’t drop your email marketing efforts because you’re shifting focus to those shiny new geofencing campaigns or that free money in Google. Because email works, it will likely remain close to the heart of successful nonprofit marketing plans for years to come. 

Ok, emails are certainly different from digital ads, but retargeting emails use the same technology as one of the most effective display ads around: retargeting ads. This type of ad serves to people who visit your website, and retargeting emails simply send these people an email instead.

You likely have spreadsheet after spreadsheet of people interested in your organization, and they’re all in different places of the journey. The best thing about retargeting emails is because they recently ended up on your website, we all know it’s the perfect time to reach out.

At Feathr, we believe that nonprofits deserve to have the best email marketing tools available — from automation to retargeting — without having to pay an arm and a leg simply because their audience is growing with them. 

So if your current email service provider charges you per email or based on how large your audience is, we think it might be the proper time to reconsider.

Because email is likely the single most cost-effective marketing channel at your nonprofit, we think it will pay dividends to make sure email is working as hard for your mission as you are.

Maximizing through minimizing

Nonprofits are given a serious challenge. They’re told to expand to better meet needs, but then they’re told not to spend any money doing so.

We know these expectations can be limiting — to say the least — because we believe nonprofits should plan on expanding their impact, and that will more often than not require additional spending on marketing.

But if your nonprofit is taking the first steps into the digital advertising world, we’re so happy for you, because we think you’re in the exact right place.

If you’re looking to expand your digital tools and want to take the first steps with geofencing or want to talk through navigating the Google Ad Grant, we’re waiting in the wings to lend a hand.

Drop us a line today, and let’s start talking about what it would look like to take your nonprofit’s marketing efforts to a higher altitude!