Did you know that the Google Ad Grant isn't the only program giving nonprofits free ad spend?

Microsoft's Ads for Social Impact program

Depending on the type of work your nonprofit does, you are likely to find that your ads perform better in Microsoft Ads, which puts ads on the Bing search engine and several other sites, than they do in the Google Ad Grant.

Since mid-2022 nonprofits have been able to apply for a Microsoft Ad Grant to get $3,000 worth of free ad budget. That might be less than the $10,000 from the Google Ad Grant, but it can be more valuable in terms of results. A few observations from running Microsoft Ad Grants for clients:

• Keywords that can’t get impressions in a Google Grant, can in a Microsoft Grant
• Donations are more frequent and for higher average amounts
• Clicks are cheaper
• Cost per conversion is cheaper
• Click Through Rate (CTR) is much lower, but that’s ok because there’s no requirement to maintain a minimum CTR
• Unlike the Google Ad Grant, Microsoft has no special rules for how nonprofits use the budget

Whereas Google puts free ads below paid ads, Microsoft puts them into a single bidding auction. Your ads can compete in a way they simply can’t on Google. Its easy to spend the full budget on keywords that might get zero traffic in a Google Grant.

If you know Google Ads, it's easy to learn Microsoft Ads

You might feel daunted by having to learn to use a new ads platform. The good news is that the Microsoft As interface is similar, almost identical in places, to that of Google Ads, so it's easy to learn. Most of the concepts are the same, sometimes with slightly different jargon (Spend instead of Cost, Audience ads instead of Display ads).

In the screenshot above notice that the Impression rates are massively higher than a Google Ad Grant can achieve. This account is using the Target Impression Share bidding strategy, which an Ad Grant isn't allowed to use, to try to get top placement for our ads.

Campaigns can even be auto-imported from Google Ads on a schedule (for example weekly). Mirroring your campaigns isn't necessarily the optimal way to manage ads, but it certainly simplifies your life.

But... the program is currently on pause

Microsoft's Ads for Social Impact program launched back in mid-June in multiple countries; then it was restricted to just the US; and as of now the program is on pause and not taking new applications. Once it re-opens I highly recommend you apply. Meanwhile you can sign up to be informed when the program re-opens. Anecdotally I've heard of several nonprofits being admitted in late 2023.

Google Ad Grant Vs. the Microsoft Ads Grant: which wins?

Longevity

Google's Ad Grant is the oldest program, now over 20 years old. Six years ago changes to the program’s rules led to better account management and increased average Click Through Rates (CTR).

Microsoft's ad grant only launched in June 2022. It was initially available in multiple countries, then restricted to the US only. The grant initially offered $3,000 per month, but this was later reduced to $1,000. Since April 2023 the program has paused to new applications.

Generosity

In terms of budget, Google wins with a maximum $10,000 per month versus Microsoft's $1,000 a month limit.

Microsoft offers nonprofits the opportunity to increase their free grant from $1,000 to $3,000. To qualify for the upgrade, organizations must spend an additional $800 per month from their own funds for two consecutive months. I highly recommend you consider that option if you can see that ads lead to donations or sign-ups.

However, budget is only one way to calculate generosity. The much cheaper CPC of the Microsoft Grant, means that you might get almost as many clicks from it as you do the Google Grant.

It's a tie... but if Microsoft ever raise the free amount, they will be the definite winner.

Ease of Spending

How competitive can your ads be? Google displays free ads below-paid ads, with separate bidding auctions for free and paid ads. This often results in an impression share of less than 10%, making it difficult to get traffic and spend the daily budget, especially for niche keywords.

In contrast, Microsoft Advertising Grants do not bundle free and paid ads separately and they participate in the same bidding auctions. This leads to a far larger impression share.

Microsoft wins, as it's so easy to get impressions and spend money. That means you can be more selective about how you spend the money on Microsoft, targeting only priority keywords.

Be careful: unlike the Google Ad Grants daily budget, which is automatically capped at $329 per day, Microsoft give you $1,000 to spend as you want, when you want within the month, with no cap. Set your budget carefully and keep a close eye on spend or you risk receiving a bill for real money.

Flexibility and rules

As we covered in the lesson about compliance, the Google Ad Grant program has a lot of rules to follow. You can only create Search ads and must choose a conversion-base d bidding strategy.

Microsoft has almost no special rules for their grant. You can use any bidding strategy you like. There's no minimum CTR to maintain. They allow you to create both Search and Display ads and ads have a more varied reach, showing ads not only in Bing but also in Yahoo, AOL, Outlook, MSN, and other places.

Conversion Tracking

Because Google Ads integrates with Google Analytics, it's relatively straightforward to set up conversion tracking without having to create any code.

It's possible, definitely recommended, but more technically difficult to set up conversion tracking using Microsoft Ads. You are likely to need to add code using Google Tag Manager.

Also, in Google Analytics it seems to be trickier sometimes to track the conversions coming from Microsoft Ads. They are sometimes mis-attributed to Organic Bing, rather than Bing ads.

Click Through Rate (CTR)

Expect to get a much lower CTR in Microsoft Ads than in a Google Grant. Fortunately, Microsoft does not have a minimum CTR rule.

Cost-per-Click (CPC)

In Google Grant accounts I've seen CPC that ranged from $1.62 (cerebral palsy) to $9.92 (international aid).

Compare that to Microsoft’s lowest account average of $0.23 (brand ads only), and the highest of $3.78 (cerebral palsy).

Microsoft’s CPC is generally far lower than Google’s; coupled with the ease of spending, your Ads for Social Impact budget can go a lot further than you might expect.

Demographic differences

Microsoft Ads:

• Older
• In the US
• Higher level of education
• Higher income
• Bigger spenders online
• More likely to be parents
• More likely to donate, and donate higher amounts

Google Ads:

• Younger
• More international
• More computer literate
• More likely to volunteer or get involved in activism
  

Ability to get donations

The Google Ad Grant is generally less effective in generating donation revenue compared to previous years, it still serves as a valuable tool for raising awareness about nonprofit organizations, and for list-building to support a longer-term donation strategy.

The Microsoft Ad Grant, on the accounts that I've tested it on, has been much more useful for getting donations.

Microsoft Ads offers a unique extension called an action extension that can be used to drive engagement. It's like putting a donation button on your ads.

Strategies for using the Microsoft Ads for Social Impact grant

Use Microsoft Ads for the keywords you can't get to work on Google

The keywords that face too much competition. Or the keywords that are too niche to work in a Google Grant. Or the keywords that are expensive in Google Ads. You might only put up your single most important campaign, focusing on donations or signups. Then you would reserve the Google Ad Grant with its bigger budget on less competitive, less goal-driven awareness keywords.

Run brand ads in Microsoft Ads

The Google Grant won't get much above 10% impression share, even for brand terms, but you can own the top spots for your brand in Microsoft.

Try a Target Impression Share bidding strategy. You might be able to get the lion's share of impressions for specific keywords and topics in Bing results.

Put donation ads on Microsoft

The older demographic that donates more often, and higher amounts, makes this a sensible strategy to pursue. Donation keywords rarely get results in Google. Make sure that the keywords are relevant to your mission. Bear in mid that for many nonprofits it's their brand terms that lead to the most donations from ads.

Here's an example from a UK mother and baby charity, that ran near-identical donation campaigns in both their Google Grant and using their Microsoft Ads for Social Impact. During this period the Microsoft Grant budget was less than one third of the Google Grant, yet it achieved much better results from donation keywords.

Google:

10 one-off donations for average amount $35

2 monthly donations for average amount $7

Microsoft:

34 one-off donations for average amount $170

7 monthly donations for average amount $10

Target specific job roles

Microsoft Ads has some targeting options that don't exist in Google Ads. For example, you can target people by job role. A baby charity used this to put ads about pregnancy and employment in front of people who work in HR.

Target people who work in specific industries

Microsoft products, including the Edge browser, defaulting to the Bing search engine, are commonly found in certain industries: including education and healthcare. That means Microsoft Ads can be especially useful for targeting people who work in those industries.

A health nonprofit ads for a nutrition course in front of people who work in nursing and healthcare.

An nonprofit put ads for its teacher training course, in front of people who work in education.

Resources

The Microsoft Ads for Social Impact program—sign up to be notified as and when it relaunches
nonprofits.tsi.microsoft.com/en-US/ads-for-social-impac

Google Ad Grants vs. Microsoft Ads for Social Impact: How do they compare? New platforms, new features, new strategies
The presentation I gave at the Nonprofit Technology Conference in Denver in 2023. It outlines the main differences between the programs, and includes statistics from 26 Google and 9 Microsoft grant accounts that I managed, that illustrate how different the results can be.
docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TmuwzmdGv0OblVtpO1XR1F67EbhvLSEf5ZoBTBarTMo