[Sagamore Online] Fwd: Google Grants Enrollment Approved

[John R. Lenz]

This is decent news. Basically we can now start advertising programs/events/etc. about our school using adwords. 

The ads must link to the PTA site.

With the impending move to the county-wide CMS for all websites, this is how I'm forecasting we need to deal with it:

1. Update/remove the detritus from the PTA site and re-organize it.

2. Merge the PTA site and the county site using the current wordpress installation/hosting that the PTA site uses. 

3. Update the look of the combo site so that the brand is preserved.

4. When the county flips the switch and says "here's your new generic site; good luck" then we inject a bit of javascript into the new (county) site so that it automatically forwards traffic to the combo PTA site. (This will need Ms. Martin's approval of course).

5. Have a field party.

-John


Begin forwarded message:

> From: googlefornonprofits-noreply at google.com
> Subject: Google Grants Enrollment Approved
> Date: September 17, 2013 11:56:25 PM EDT
> To: john at lenzmarketing.com
> 
> Congratulations!
> 
> We're pleased to inform you that Sagamore Hills ES PTA has been approved for Google AdWords Grants. We’re glad to have you as part of the program and we hope that your AdWords grant will help you find additional support for your nonprofit.
> 
> IMPORTANT: Please note that the AdWords system and interface is designed for our paying advertisers. You may find that some features or advertising opportunities may be restricted within your account. It's important to learn the key differences between a Google Grants account and a regular AdWords account, and set your account settings accordingly.
> 
> Google Grants accounts:
> 
> • have a daily budget set to USD 330 dollars total for ALL campaigns, which is equivalent to about USD 10,000 per month
> 
> • have a maximum cost-per-click (CPC) limit of USD 2.00
> 
> • only run keyword-targeted campaigns
> 
> • only run text ads
> 
> • only run ads on Google search result pages and not on the Google Network
> 
> • run ads for as long as your organization remains actively engaged with your AdWords account
> 
> • per Google Grants guidelines, you are required to log in and manage your account at least once per month. Failure to log in for three consecutive months may result in your account being automatically cancelled or paused.
> 
> If any of your settings are not according to the Google Grants guidelines, please make the adjustments to your account now.
> 
> Below are some very important steps you'll need to take, so please read this carefully.
> 
> 1. Create your campaigns
> 
> Please note that although your account is now active, you still need to set up your campaigns in order to start running. When you're ready to start, please sign in to your account at www.adwords.google.com and create your first campaign. Learn how to create your campaign at:
> 
> https://support.google.com/nonprofits/answer/1689506?hl=en
> 
> Your ads should begin to run once you've created your campaign. If you want to preview how your ad looks, use the Ad Preview Tool at www.google.com/AdPreview. Learn more at https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/1704363?hl=en.
> 
> 2. Monitor your campaign performance
> 
> Once you've created your campaigns, it's very important that you enable the Quality Score column within your account and monitor this column on a daily basis for the first 2-4 weeks; this can take as little as 5 minutes a day if your account is performing well. Quality Score is a vital measure of your campaign's performance, and the first few weeks are when your account will earn its initial quality score. Here's how to enable the quality score column within your account: https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2454010?hl=en.
> 
> In tandem with your Quality Score, you should monitor your clickthrough rate (CTR) which shows how often people who see your ad actually click it. Ideally, you should aim to have a CTR that is above 1% for each of your keywords; the higher the CTR, the better.
> 
> Here are some things you can do if a keyword has a CTR of less than 1%, meaning that it generates a lot of impressions but very few clicks:
> 
> - Pause or delete that keyword; poorly performing keywords can lower your Quality Score, which can prevent your account from being able to show ads at all.
> 
> - Move the keyword to its own ad group with an ad that relates more directly to that keyword. For example, the keyword "elementary school scholarships" might perform better in an ad group whose ad has "Elementary School Scholarships" as the headline in the ad text.
> 
> - Combine a singular keyword with other keywords to make it more specific. For example, change "scholarship" to "elementary school scholarship."
> 
> - Add more negative keywords to your account
> 
> - Search Google for the keyword to learn more about the other search and sponsored link results showing for that keyword. This can help give you ideas for rewriting and differentiating your ad.
> 
> As always, when making changes and additions to your AdWords account, we strongly encourage you to only include highly targeted and relevant keywords specific to your organization. The addition of irrelevant and general keywords can negatively impact account performance and may stop the delivery of your ads.
> 
> For help resources and guides, please visit https://support.google.com/nonprofits/.
> 
> We're glad to have you in the Google Grants program.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Google Grants Team
> 
> 
> Application Information:
> Charity ID: 58-6072487
> Organization: Sagamore Hills ES PTA