Putting the Google Ad Grant to work for a small marketing team.
For cultural attractions with small marketing teams and limited advertising budgets, the Google Ad Grant can be one of the largest advertising resources available to the institution.
The challenge is finding the time and expertise to manage it. The same person responsible for events, email, social media, membership, creative, and everything else on the marketing calendar may also be responsible for managing a Google Ads account.
At Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, less than 10% of the available Grant was being used each month. The opportunity was to build an account that could capture more relevant search demand and support priorities across the Garden throughout the year.
Applying our Google Ad Grant approach.
We rebuilt the account using the same framework we use for cultural attractions – establishing the foundation, expanding relevant search demand, and building campaigns around the priorities of the institution.
Capture branded search with current messaging.
People searching directly for Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens already have strong intent. Grant ads give the Garden more control over what those visitors see – using current messaging, seasonal imagery, sitelinks, and other ad assets to highlight what is happening now.
A search in spring can showcase seasonal blooms. A search during the holidays can promote a holiday event. The advertising can change throughout the year as the Garden changes.
Connect the account to meaningful conversions.
We established conversion tracking around meaningful actions on the Garden’s website.
Beyond providing better measurement, these signals give Google more information about which searches and visitors are producing valuable actions and help its machine learning optimize the account.
A well-structured Grant account gives Google more to work with.
Build campaigns around the full institution.
The Google Ad Grant can support much more than general visitation. We built campaigns around the Garden’s events, memberships, education programs, donations, and other institutional priorities.
For a small marketing team, this is one of the Grant’s biggest advantages. A single advertising resource can support priorities across admissions, membership, education, development, and programming throughout the year.
Compete for “things to do” searches.
The Grant also gives the Garden an opportunity to reach people who aren’t looking for a botanical garden at all.
Campaigns targeting searches like “things to do in Mendocino” put the Garden in front of people deciding how to spend their time. That moves Google Search beyond capturing existing awareness and turns it into a discovery channel for potential visitors.
Take up more useful space in the search results.
We expanded ads with sitelinks and other assets that gave visitors direct paths to events, memberships, visitor information, and other priorities.
These additions also strengthened the ads themselves, improving their visibility and giving the Garden more real estate within the search results.
Keep the Grant aligned with changing priorities.
A Google Ad Grant shouldn’t be built once and left alone. Campaigns were updated as events ended, seasonal experiences changed, and new institutional priorities emerged.
That ongoing management allowed the account to reflect what the Garden had to promote throughout the year while continuing to identify new opportunities to capture relevant search demand.
What changed
Within the first three months, Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens increased utilization from less than 10% to 95% of the available Google Ad Grant.
More importantly, the additional utilization came from expanding the role of the account.
More than 60% of searches were non-branded, helping the Garden reach people searching for experiences in Mendocino – not just people already searching for the institution by name.
The Grant became an active advertising channel that could support visitation and priorities across the institution without requiring additional paid media dollars.
