Children's Museum of Atlanta
Google Ad Grant Case Study
Restructuring a nonprofit Google Ad Grant account to increase visibility, support membership growth and make better use of Google's donated advertising.
Children’s Museum of Atlanta is a nonprofit educational organization in downtown Atlanta dedicated to helping young children learn through interactive experiences and play.
Ahead of its grand reopening in December 2015, the Museum needed greater exposure for its exhibits, events and programs, stronger membership sales and help ensuring its Google Ad Grant account was being managed correctly.
The opportunity wasn’t simply to spend more of Google’s donated advertising dollars.
It was to use the Grant more strategically.
Services: Google Ad Grant Management • Google Ads Strategy • Conversion Tracking • Campaign Optimization • Nonprofit Digital Strategy
Results at a Glance
+68.68%
Increase in Clicks & Engagement
−23.71%
Decrease in Cost Per Click
~8%
Account-Wide Click-Through Rate
And in less than five months, the Museum’s Google Grant program moved from the $10,000 level to the $40,000-per-month ad spend level available through the program at that time.
The Client
Children's Museum of Atlanta
Children’s Museum of Atlanta is a nonprofit organization focused on helping children develop educational skills through interactive learning and play.
At the time of this project, the Museum was preparing for its December 2015 grand reopening.
That created an important window for digital marketing.
The Museum needed to build awareness while also supporting several organizational goals, including:
Membership sales
Exhibits and programs
Special events
Donations
Website traffic
and greater overall visibility.
The Challenge
A Powerful Advertising Resource That Needed a Better Strategy
Google’s Ad Grant program provided the Museum with access to donated search advertising.
But having access to advertising dollars and using those dollars effectively are two very different things.
The existing account needed an overhaul.
We needed to make sure the account was structured around the Museum’s goals while also operating within the requirements Google had established for its Grant program.
That meant evaluating important areas including:
✔️ Geographic targeting
✔️ Click-through rates
✔️ Keyword quality
✔️ Campaign organization
✔️ Conversion tracking
✔️ Account compliance
The Strategy
Build the Account Around the Museum's Real Goals
One of the Museum’s major objectives was increasing membership sales.
But memberships weren’t its only priority.
The Museum also needed visibility for exhibits, programs, educators, field trips, parties, donations, special events, and its upcoming grand reopening.
Rather than treating all of those audiences the same, we created a more organized campaign structure that allowed us to target different search intents with relevant keywords and advertising.
The objective was straightforward:
Connect what people were searching for with the specific Museum experience, program, or action most relevant to them.
What We Changed
Rebuilt the Campaign Structure
We created campaigns around specific audiences, services, and organizational priorities.
These included:
Brand Georgia
Brand-name searches specifically targeted within Georgia.
Memberships
Advertising focused on users interested in Museum membership opportunities.
Educators
Searches related to teachers and educational resources.
Exhibits
Visibility around Museum exhibits.
Programs
Campaigns supporting the Museum’s educational programming.
Parties
Advertising related to party opportunities at the Museum.
Special Events
Campaigns designed around specific events.
Grand Re-Opening
Dedicated advertising supporting the Museum’s reopening.
We also developed campaigns for national audiences, users outside Georgia and other relevant opportunities.
Tighter Ad Groups & Keyword Targeting
Relevance Matters
Within those campaigns, we created closely related ad groups containing targeted keywords, advertisements, and extensions.
For example, the larger CMA campaign included areas such as:
Event Calendar
Member Perks
Holidays & School Breaks
Teachers & Educators
General Memberships
Donations
Exhibits
Field Trips
This gave us much greater control over the relationship between a person’s search, the advertisement they saw, and the part of the Museum we wanted them to discover.
Continuous Testing & Optimization
A Google Ads Account Is Never Really "Finished"
Campaign structure was only the beginning.
We continually tested:
Ad copy
Keywords
Keyword bids
and other campaign elements.
That ongoing optimization allowed us to make decisions based on actual account performance rather than simply launching campaigns and hoping they worked.
Conversion Tracking
Traffic Wasn't the Only Goal
The Museum didn’t simply need more clicks.
It needed marketing that supported organizational outcomes.
Conversion tracking was therefore an important part of the account overhaul.
That helped create a stronger connection between advertising activity and the actions the Museum actually wanted visitors to take.
This remains one of the most important principles in my Google Ads work today:
A click is not the goal.
The action that happens after the click is what matters.
The Results
Significant Improvement in Less Than Five Months
The changes produced measurable improvements across the Google Ad Grant account.
+68.68% Clicks & Engagement
Overall Google Ads clicks and engagement increased 68.68%.
−23.71% Cost Per Click
At the same time, average cost per click decreased 23.71%.
~8% Click-Through Rate
We maintained an account-wide click-through rate of approximately 8%.
Increased Membership Sales
The Museum also reported a substantial increase in membership sales.
Greater Visibility
The campaigns drove additional traffic and awareness for the Museum’s events, exhibits, and programs.
From $10K to the $40K Google Grant Level
One of the biggest accomplishments happened in less than five months.
The Museum’s Google Grant program moved from its existing $10,000 level to the $40,000-per-month advertising level available through Google’s Grant program at that time.
That gave the organization substantially more advertising capacity to promote memberships, educational programs, events, exhibits, and other initiatives.
But access to more advertising wasn’t the end goal.
The real accomplishment was building an account capable of using that opportunity strategically.
Why This Strategy Worked
The Grant Was Treated Like a Marketing Investment
Free advertising isn’t valuable if it isn’t reaching the right people.
The Museum had many different audiences and objectives:
Parents looking for activities.
Teachers researching educational opportunities.
Families considering memberships.
People interested in exhibits.
Organizations planning field trips.
Visitors looking for special events.
Potential donors.
Trying to reach all of those audiences through a handful of broad campaigns would have limited our ability to control messaging and targeting.
Instead, we built the advertising structure around search intent and organizational goals.
That made the Google Ad Grant more than free advertising.
It became part of the Museum’s broader digital strategy.
Google Ads Has Changed Since This Case Study
This project took place in 2015–2016, when Google’s advertising platform was still called Google AdWords.
Google Ads and the Google Ad Grants program have evolved significantly since then.
Campaign technology, automation, bidding, measurement, and program requirements have all changed.
But the strategic principles demonstrated in this case study remain relevant:
Build campaigns around real goals.
Understand search intent.
Create tightly focused targeting.
Measure meaningful conversions.
Continually test performance.
And use the data to determine what happens next.
Those principles continue to guide the way I approach Google Ads strategy today.
Is Your Nonprofit Making the Most of Google Ads?
Access to Google’s advertising tools doesn’t automatically create visibility, engagement, or conversions.
Whether you’re working with a Google Ad Grant or a traditional paid Google Ads account, your campaigns need a strategy behind them.
I’ll help you evaluate the account, identify opportunities, improve targeting and conversion tracking, and determine how Google Ads can better support your organization’s actual goals.
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