In 2018, we were approached by Goodwill Industries of the Greater East Bay to help them better utilize their Google Ad Grant to generate more foot traffic to their brick-and-mortar locations as well as drive online sales.
As our work together progressed—and they started to see increases in traffic and spend—word spread and we started to work with two other Goodwill stores in California — Goodwill of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin, and Goodwill of Silicon Valley.
Executive Assistant Goodwill Industries of the Greater East Bay
All three Goodwill stores struggled to fully utilize their Google Ad Grant account. On average, each Goodwill was spending less than 20 percent of the total $10,000/mo. In other words, they were leaving more than $8,000 in advertising dollars on the table every single month. This of course hindered the amount of website traffic that they could send to their site from the Grant.
To make matters even more challenging, none of the Ad Grant accounts had conversion tracking set up, which not only limits how well someone can understand the performance of their ads, but it also significantly limits how well they can optimize their account for the highest ROI. And, most importantly, having no conversion tracking set up puts an account in jeopardy of being deactivated as it doesn’t abide by Google Ad Grant compliance rules.
Before jumping in, we met with each client to understand their marketing and sales goals, and how those related to their Google Ad Grant.
We then ran each account through our audit process which allowed us to develop a roadmap of optimizations from account compliance issues to driving more traffic and sales to their websites.
As part of our audit and discovery process, Media Cause ran each Ad Grant account through our Ad Grant Health Report. This Report analyzes all of the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and measures them against our client roster as well as industry standards. It also identifies areas of opportunity to optimize the account.
Two of the biggest findings were the limited amount of spend (each Goodwill was spending less than 20% of the Ad Grant budget each month), and the lack of Conversion Tracking—an element that is not only required to remain compliant with Ad Grant policies, but also critical to optimizing the account for maximum impact.
Following the Health Report, we immediately installed Conversion Tracking so that the Ad Grant accounts would remain active. This process involved goal setting, benchmarking our objectives, and working on the technical setup needed (e.g. HTML code and tags) to accurately measure the data.
We then set up a series of new ad campaigns to drive key marketing and sales goals for each store. This process involves what is called Keyword Research, a process in which we uncover and analyze search queries that can allow an organization to rank their ads at the top of a Google search.
Month-over-month, we optimize their accounts, adjusting keywords, copy, and create new campaigns. We make continuous updates based on our monthly report and strategy sessions with our clients—making sure we’re aligned with their recent needs and goals.
