In the digital age — and particularly in the wake of the pandemic, which saw a significant uptick in charitable donations that has largely remained strong since — nonprofits face the challenge of competing for visibility in an increasingly crowded online space. One of the most effective ways to do this is through Search Engine Marketing (SEM), within which lies the field of  Search Engine Optimization (SEO). These help your website content appear in search results related to your mission. 

Such efforts break down into two main categories: those pursuing paid search results — known as search ads — and organic (unpaid) results. Strategies for each are often complementary, but differ greatly. Further complicating the equation is another division within the field of paid search results: grant-funded ads and those paid for out of pocket.

Understanding SEM vs. SEO

SEM and SEO are two terms often used interchangeably, but they traditionally refer to different strategies in the digital marketing landscape.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

SEM is a broad term that encompasses various techniques to increase a website’s visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). This includes both paid advertising methods, such as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads, and organic strategies like SEO. Essentially, SEM is an umbrella term that aims to drive both paid and unpaid traffic to your website.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO, on the other hand, is a subset of SEM focused on improving a website’s organic search rankings. Rather than paying to place your content in ads at the top of SERPs, SEO seeks to increase your search engine rankings so that your site appears toward the top of unpaid organic search results. This involves optimizing various elements of your website and content, such as keywords, meta descriptions, and backlinks, to naturally appear higher in SERPs.

Understanding Paid, Organic, and Google Ad Grant Strategies

Paid Search Ads

Paid search marketing, also known as pay per click (PPC) marketing, involves bidding for advertising space on the SERPs of predetermined search queries. When someone searches for a keyword that you have chosen to bid on (and you win the instantaneous ad auction), your ad appears at the top of the page, increasing visibility and encouraging clicks.

Google Ad Grant-Based Search

Grant-funded ads are simply paid search ads that are funded by the search network (Google or Microsoft) rather than out of pocket by a nonprofit. Google Ad Grants offer eligible organizations $10,000 per month in in-kind advertising credits. With this, a nonprofit’s bids in an ad auction are covered by Google rather than paid for by the organization. 

While these ads appear indistinguishably from traditional paid ads, the Grant itself has some eligibility requirements that are more stringent than those for for-profit advertisers — namely a 5% minimum click-through-rate (CTR), while the network-wide average is only 3%. This is Google’s way of ensuring that its grant funds high-quality ads only.

Organic SEO

Organic SEO is the practice of optimizing your website and content to rank naturally in SERPs. The organic results on a SERP include everything except for paid results. These are the “standard” search results, within which placement is determined by Google’s algorithms and its evaluation (ranking) of your website. 

SEO seeks to maximize this ranking by incorporating elements favored by Google’s algorithms across your website. This involves keyword research and high-quality content creation, backend optimization of HTML and CSS, and optimized UI and UX.

Search Marketing ROI: Paid and Grant Ads

While grant-funded ads are a form of paid ads, the difference in how they are paid for drastically changes the return on investment equation. 

With traditional paid ads, marketers often take pains to cut down on costs for obvious reasons. This can involve anything from avoiding effective but expensive keywords to reducing ad auction bids, both of which minimize investment at the cost of performance. 

Google Grant-funded ads, on the other hand, come from Google’s own funds, so spending more does not increase your nonprofit’s investment. Essentially, this provides all of the return at none of the investment. 

As such, nonprofits are empowered to bid on competitive keywords and spend large sums on popular searches without negatively impacting their ROI. With the ads being functionally free, there is no downside to a high spend, which is the exact opposite of ROI strategies for traditional paid ads. 

The Benefits of Using Multiple Strategies

  • Complementary strengths. Paid and organic strategies follow different approaches, but can be incredibly complementary. Paid search offers immediate visibility and direct control over when and where your site is shown to searchers. SEO costs nothing per click, builds credibility and brand authority, and fosters long-term engagement.

Further, the same content that an organization creates for SEO strategy purposes serves as stellar landing pages for their paid ads, since it is crafted with SEM best practices and search algorithms in mind. In this way, SEO content serves double duty, bringing in free organic clicks from searches that you may not be bidding on, while also providing excellent pages to direct your paid ads toward. 

  • Data sharing. The data collected about your SEO content performance can inform your PPC SEM strategy. For instance, keywords related to those that are already bringing in organic clicks are often strong candidates for paid ad bids. Organic performance of a given page reveals high interest in certain keywords, which, in turn, demonstrates the promise of bidding on other similar searches. 

In this manner, by employing SEO and paid SEM simultaneously, you can use one to maximize that which is already working in the other. 

  • Budget efficiency. By using Google Ad Grants, nonprofits can enjoy the benefits of paid search without depleting their budget, allowing more funds to be allocated to organic SEO efforts.

How to Implement Paid, Grant-Funded, and Organic SEM Strategies

  • Start with a solid foundation. Before diving into paid or Google Ad Grant-based search, ensure your website is optimized for organic search. This involves creating high-quality, authoritative content that serves your target audience’s needs.The more content on your website, the more searches you can appear in.
  • Leverage Google Ad Grants. If eligible, apply for Google Ad Grants and use the free advertising credit to supplement or replace out-of-pocket paid advertising. Remember to adhere to Google’s guidelines to maintain your grant.
    • A/B Testing. Use A/B testing to determine which keywords and ad formats yield the best results. This data can be used to refine both your paid and organic strategies. Specialist search marketing agencies will run constant optimizations on your account that include A/B testing and deep analytics.
  • Use Keyword Research for Content: There are many keyword research tools offered by Google and third-party firms. These can reveal search trends that represent opportunities for website and traffic growth. Use what people are already searching for to create website content that answers their questions.
  • Monitor and adjust. Regularly monitor the performance of your campaigns. Use tools like Google Analytics to track metrics like CTR, CPC, and conversion rates. Make data-driven adjustments to optimize ROI.

In conclusion, paid search, Google Ad Grant-based search ads, and organic SEO strategies each offer unique advantages and limitations. By understanding these, nonprofits can create a holistic strategy that leverages the strengths of each approach. Through careful planning, data analysis, and ongoing optimization, your nonprofit can maximize its online visibility, engage more effectively with its audience, and drive meaningful action.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed both by SEM as a field and by the sheer number of marketing tools available, you’re not alone. Particularly if you don’t have a dedicated content writer, or yours is strapped for time with other duties, it may be a good idea to enlist the services of a partner who can take care of both SEO and SEM for you. 

Nonprofit Megaphone helps nonprofits obtain and maintain the Google Ad Grant, which gives organizations access to free Google Ad funding to promote their mission. Having high-quality SEO content on your website is a key component of both successful grant-funded and organic search marketing. 

If your organization needs help with producing content and getting it in front of as many internet readers as possible, you may benefit from one of our content plans. Our writers will work with you to create keyword-researched content that will significantly boost your nonprofit’s visibility according to SEO best practices.

All of our writers and grant managers are trained in SEO as well as the use of keyword research tools, taking any related worry off your shoulders. Contact us today to learn how we can put both organic and grant-funded SEM to work for your organization!

For more tips and guides on how to tackle key aspects of nonprofit operations, see our library of helpful articles. Here at Nonprofit Megaphone, our mission is amplifying nonprofit voices. If you think Nonprofit Megaphone’s industry-leading Google Ad Grant management could be right for your organization, click here for a free consultation!