Case Study: American Writers Museum – SEO & Google Ad Grants for Nonprofits
Sector: Nonprofit
Project: SEO Keyword Research & Coaching, SEO Copywriting, Same Page Content Planning, Google Ad Grants
We increased brand awareness among educators and website traffic for American Writers Museum using keyword research strategy and SEO copywriting. Our Google Ad Grant Management has yielded a 10% conversion rate across a variety of objectives, including newsletter sign ups; educational field trip inquiries; registration for events; space rental requests; and engaging with online curricula.
The Challenge
American Writers Museum (AWM) is located in downtown Chicago, IL along one of the city's most well-known streets: Michigan Avenue. The museum showcases the greatest writers from America, featuring work that spans a total of five centuries, by combining highly interactive physical and digital exhibits with innovative programming.
AWM officially opened its doors in 2017 and approached Sarah Best Strategy for help in leveraging their Google Ad Grants for nonprofits to build brand awareness and reach their business goals.
AWM officially opened its doors in 2017 and approached Sarah Best Strategy for help in leveraging their Google Ad Grants for nonprofits to build brand awareness and reach their business goals.
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AWM reached out to SBS to collaborate on efforts designed to raise brand awareness and increase revenue, while taking work off the plates of their small-but-mighty team. They also wanted to find ways to plan, implement and track their social media efforts more effectively and take advantage of ad grant opportunities.
Primary goals for our work together were to:
Primary goals for our work together were to:
- Increase foot traffic into the museum from Michigan Avenue and the number of classrooms and groups visiting each month (either virtually or in person).
- Reach a larger local audience of Chicagoans who identify as arts and culture enthusiasts.
- Build brand awareness among educators, both locally and nationally.
- Ensure prospective visitors know the museum is highly interactive.
- Improve the website's SEO and local search results.
- Create a digital media content schedule using a time-efficient process for planning across platforms.
- Provide coaching and support for keyword research, SEO implementation, and ad grant management.
The Idea
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Our initial work with AMW focused on Keyword Research and Coaching on topics related to SEO, as well as Copywriting support for their team. This entailed:
The second stage of our work included a Same Page Content Planning Session, which enables teams to strategically plan, draft, schedule, and evaluate social media content in a collaborative and time-efficient manner. |
Once the SEO work and Same Page Planning Session were completed, we turned our focus to Google Ad Grants.
Google Ads, available to both nonprofit and for-profit organizations, enable you to push your search results "above the fold," meaning your site will show up ahead of other search results. Using this strategy can allow you to rank higher for terms where you would normally fall lower in an organic search, helping you to expand your client/donor base and, ultimately, further your mission.
Applying for the Google Ad Grant for nonprofits allows 501(c)3s to access up to $10,000 in free advertising that can be used to:
In order to help the AWM team make the most of their grant money, we:
Our approach to Google Ad Grant management is highly individualized and directly connects the SBS team expert to AWM's internal team. We believe working collaboratively and providing training throughout ensures AWM feels empowered to recreate our successes in the future.
Google Ads, available to both nonprofit and for-profit organizations, enable you to push your search results "above the fold," meaning your site will show up ahead of other search results. Using this strategy can allow you to rank higher for terms where you would normally fall lower in an organic search, helping you to expand your client/donor base and, ultimately, further your mission.
Applying for the Google Ad Grant for nonprofits allows 501(c)3s to access up to $10,000 in free advertising that can be used to:
- Increase donations,
- Build brand and program awareness, and
- Run campaigns for volunteering, events, tickets sales, etc.
In order to help the AWM team make the most of their grant money, we:
- Created and implemented a tagging strategy using Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics to provide streamlining of data across traffic sources, cohesion of goals, and a great ability to track meaningful conversions of all types.
- Provided coaching for the AWM team so they could use Google Tag Manager more fully and implement it themselves as desired.
- Consulted on new landing pages for audiences who find the website via Google Ads (e.g., curriculum pages for educators that tie into specific months, themes, or events).
- Ensured additional content could be accessed from Google Ad grant landing pages, such as podcasts, reading lists, and video clips with authors.
- Regularly collaborate with the AWM team to develop new campaigns and produce new info for the new audiences brought in by the ads.
- Continue to evaluate campaigns to adjust our goals and make website updates, which will help improve future results.
Our approach to Google Ad Grant management is highly individualized and directly connects the SBS team expert to AWM's internal team. We believe working collaboratively and providing training throughout ensures AWM feels empowered to recreate our successes in the future.
The Results
- Our work together has increased traffic to the website and boosted brand awareness among educators.
- The AWM team has learned how to strategically plan, schedule, and evaluate social media content in a cohesive and time-efficient manner.
- AWM now has more people coming into their membership funnel, because they are targeting their audience(s) more effectively.
- The overall site conversion rate averages 3.36%, and our Google Ad conversion rate is above 10% this includes:
- Signing up for the newsletter,
- Completing educational research forms,
- Requesting field trips,
- Registration for events,
- Space rental requests,
- Ticket sales, and
- Engaging with online curriculums.
- Google Ads is among the top highest drivers of traffic to the site.
- The AWM team feels more confident utilizing Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics so they can accurately evaluate their progress—and with adding new content to engage their expanding base and enhance their website.
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"The Sarah Best Strategy team is amazing to work with and they have helped us in a short amount of time to improve our skills and leverage SEO and SEM together to drive better results. They have a way of explaining things that make sense to our team with varying levels of experience and they have given us the tools and knowledge to be able to create more high performing campaigns. I appreciate our collaborative partnership and highly recommend Sarah Best Strategy for any digital marketing projects."
