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Case study · Nonprofit & conservation

NatureServe

Google Ad Grants management and digital marketing consulting for the nonprofit that has been the authoritative source for biodiversity data in North America for 50 years: grant-funded paid search that puts NatureServe's data, tools and giving programs in front of the scientists, agencies, businesses and supporters who need them.

natureserve.org
Chuckwalla landscape
Biodiversity data for North America Unlocking the Power of Science to Guide Biodiversity Conservation Donate
Client NatureServe, nonprofit biodiversity conservation network
Industry Nonprofit · Conservation science & data
What we did Google Ad Grants management (paid search), digital marketing consulting
The challenge

Many audiences, one mission, a grant that has to be earned every month.

NatureServe serves very different people: conservation scientists searching for species and ecosystem data, state and federal land managers, businesses assessing biodiversity risk, educators, and individual supporters who want to adopt a species or give. Each group searches differently and lands on a different part of a large, data-rich site that also offers tools like NatureServe Explorer and InSite.

NatureServe advertises through Google Ad Grants, which gives eligible nonprofits free search advertising but comes with its own rules: a monthly grant ceiling, a minimum click-through rate the account must maintain, restrictions on single-word and low-quality keywords, and a requirement that conversions be tracked. An account that drifts out of compliance loses the grant. Paid search needed to reach the right audience for each goal while staying inside those rules, and the marketing team needed an outside perspective on where digital effort pays off.

What we do

Grant-compliant paid search, run by audience and goal.

  • Google Ad Grants account structure organized by audience and objective: data and tool users, partners and agencies, and donors and supporters
  • Keyword research around how scientists, agencies and businesses search for biodiversity data, species status and ecosystem information, built to meet Ad Grants quality and relevance rules
  • Ad copy and landing-page recommendations that match each search to the right resource, tool or giving program
  • Conversion tracking for data requests, tool sign-ups, newsletter and donation actions, which the Ad Grants program requires and which lets reporting speak in mission outcomes
  • Ongoing bid, budget and search-term management that keeps click-through rate above the program minimum and makes full use of the monthly grant, with monthly reporting
  • Digital marketing consulting with the NatureServe team on channel priorities, campaign timing around reports and launches, and measurement
About the client

The NatureServe Network, by the numbers.

50 Years as the authoritative source for biodiversity data in North America
60 Member programs in the United States and Canada
100,000 Species tracked in the NatureServe database
900,000 Annual users of NatureServe tools
Highlights

What Google Ad Grants management looks like when it's done right.

Audience-first structure

A researcher looking for a species status and a supporter looking to give should never see the same ad. Campaigns are separated by who is searching and what success means for them.

Keeping the grant, using the grant

Ad Grants accounts can lose funding for low click-through rates or weak keywords. We manage to the program's rules while spending the monthly grant on searches that advance the mission.

A partner, not just an operator

Beyond running the account, we advise the marketing team on where digital effort pays off, from campaign timing around major releases to what to measure.

Nonprofit or mission-driven organization?

Let's make every advertising dollar work harder for the mission.

A free review of your Google Ad Grants account or paid search, with honest recommendations.