Optimization of Google Ad Grants for KIRCHE IN NOT Austria

KIRCHE IN NOT Austria optimized with the fundraising agency GRÜN alpha the use of Google Ads Grants to increase website traffic and gain new donor contacts. Ads on spiritual topics and free brochures were particularly successful. The increased online presence marks an important step in the digital transformation, which will be expanded further.

ACN Austria is an international Catholic aid organization with locations in 23 countries worldwide. The organization is financed through donations and supports pastoral projects in around 140 countries. The majority of donations are traditionally made offline via a regularly published magazine. In recent years, however, there has been increasing investment in digitization and the online sector in order to reach new target groups.

Given that the donor base is predominantly older, attracting online donations is a challenge. The primary goal was therefore to increase website traffic, increase the visibility of KIRCHE IN NOT Austria on the Internet and reach potential donors through targeted lead generation. Google Ads Grants for NGOs, Google's advertising program for non-profit organizations, can be used as a means of increasing online reach. Christian Klyma, responsible for public relations and fundraising at KIRCHE IN NOT Austria, describes one of the challenges of his work: "Our donors are usually older, often 60 to 70 years old or more. This makes online fundraising more difficult." Therefore, the initial goal was to increase the organization's website reach and visibility in order to attract potential donors in the long term.

KIRCHE IN NOT Austria has already handed over the management of the Google Ads Grants account to GRÜN alpha Initially, an uplift in budget utilization was achieved, so that a monthly utilization of 2022 to 8.000 US dollars could be achieved as early as 9.000. In 2023, however, the important metrics declined, meaning that only about half of the available budget was used. The main reason for this was the increase in the price of relevant keywords that exceeded the CPC limit of 2 US dollars. To counteract this trend, the introduction of eCommerce tracking was decided in 2024.

A key improvement was the switch from event-based tracking to e-commerce tracking. This captured detailed data on user interactions, including donation suggestions, categories and item names. The technical implementation was carried out by GRÜN alpha, which integrated the necessary tracking parameters via the Google Tag Manager and a data layer. This measure formed the basis for more powerful bidding strategies.

After implementing tracking, the $2 CPC limit was circumvented by switching from click-based to conversion-based bidding strategies. New strategies such as “maximizing conversions” and “maximizing conversion values” were used. Joachim Sina, Managing Director of GRÜN alpha, describes the success of these measures: "One of the biggest challenges was using the budget correctly. The specified CPC limits prevented the use of many relevant keywords. By optimizing the bidding strategies, we were able to significantly increase ad performance."

The implementation of Google Ads Grants in collaboration with GRÜN alpha was an important step in the digital transformation of KIRCHE IN NOT. The increased online presence helps us reach more people and generate valuable addresses for potential donations. Christian Klyma sums it up: "Getting more attention on the internet, getting our topics ranked higher, generating more traffic - it's definitely worth it."

In the long term, KIRCHE IN NOT plans to develop an integrated SEO strategy to further optimize keyword relevance and integrate sustainable online donations into the organization's overall strategy. The collaboration with GRÜN alpha should be expanded in order to further increase the previous success.