The Benefits of Google Ad Grant for Church Outreach Programs
Jono Long • April 21, 2025
Churches today have a powerful tool at their disposal for expanding their reach and engaging their communities: the Google Ad Grant. This program provides free advertising on Google's search results to eligible non-profit organizations, including churches. By optimizing the use of these ads, churches can attract new visitors, promote events, and share their mission with a broader audience. This approach not only helps in spreading the message but also supports growth and sustainability within church programs.
Faithworks Marketing specializes in helping churches navigate resources like the Google Ad Grant. By focusing on targeted outreach, churches can ensure their message reaches the right audience, leading to increased attendance and community engagement. The potential impact of utilizing such an exciting tool is immense, enabling churches to thrive in today's digital landscape.
Understanding Google Ad Grant
The Google Ad Grant is essentially free online advertising for non-profits. If your church qualifies, Google provides up to $10,000 per month in search ad spending. This setup allows churches to promote their initiatives, attract volunteers, and engage with their communities without worrying about ad costs. The process is straightforward: Google enables your church to appear in search results when users look for terms related to your mission or programs.
For churches, the program works seamlessly by targeting specific keywords that people interested in church activities might search for. For example, keywords like “local charity events” or “spiritual workshops near me” can be targeted. This strategy ensures that when someone in your area searches for related topics, your church's ad appears prominently.
Beyond reaching new attendees, participating in the Google Ad Grant program offers several advantages:
- Increased Visibility: Your church's activities can gain more attention when the ad appears in Google search results.
- Community Connection: It's easier to engage with current and prospective members by appearing in searches they’re already doing.
- Resource Optimization: By allocating grant funds to specific campaigns, churches can maximize their reach without spending part of their budget on advertising.
The Google Ad Grant is a valuable tool for churches looking to enhance their outreach efforts. By understanding the basics and aligning them with your church’s goals, you can effectively harness the power of online advertising.
Increasing Online Visibility
Boosting a church's online presence is a clear benefit of the Google Ad Grant. By allowing churches to appear prominently in search results, this tool opens up many possibilities. Here's how churches can use it effectively:
- Targeted Keywords: Choose keywords that align with your church's mission and activities. Think about what people might search for, like "community service opportunities" or "weekly worship schedule."
- Ad Variety: Don’t stick to just one type of ad. Mix both informational ads about services and event-focused ads. This way, you attract different groups by addressing varied interests.
- Reach Strategies: Consider local targeting by focusing on your town or city. This ensures your church is seen by people most likely to attend. Adjust your ads based on current church events, making them timely and relevant.
Engaging more people becomes easier when your church consistently shows up in searches. This visibility not only increases attendance at events but also strengthens your church’s identity within the community.
Engaging the Community
Engagement goes beyond visibility. It's about creating a connection with both current and potential congregation members. The Google Ad Grant can assist in this by:
- Relevant Content: Craft ads that invite interaction. Questions like "Looking to join a choir?" or statements such as "Join us for fellowship this Sunday" invite responses.
- Personal Touch: Tailor messages to speak directly to your audience. Use warm, welcoming language to make your church approachable.
- Successful Examples: A church might run a campaign highlighting its community involvement, like blood drives or food banks. Ads showcasing these activities can encourage others to participate or donate.
Offering relatable content through thoughtful advertising builds stronger, lasting relationships within the community, turning passive observers into active participants.
Staying Compliant with Google Ad Grant Policies
Ensuring compliance with Google Ad Grant policies is key to continuing its use without interruption. Some tips include:
- Eligibility Maintenance: Regularly check that your church meets all program requirements, from maintaining an active website to engaging in meaningful activities.
- Ad Guidelines: Follow Google's rules on ads. Keep them non-commercial and ensure they align with the grant's intent.
- Frequent Review: Regular audits of your campaign help. This means periodically adjusting keywords and ensuring that all content stays relevant and up to date.
Staying vigilant will safeguard ongoing access to the grant, enabling your church to use this resource effectively over time.
To fully harness the benefits of your church's outreach efforts, consider leveraging the powerful opportunities provided by the
Google Ad Grant. Faithworks Marketing can guide you every step of the way to create engaging campaigns that resonate with your audience and align with your church's goals. Learn more about how your church can excel today.
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We Don’t Have a Content Problem—We Have a Process Problem Mac has been in the trenches—planting churches, coaching pastors, and working alongside ministries of all sizes. One of the most shocking stats he shared? A survey conducted in both 2008 and 2018 showed the exact same thing: leadership development was still the #1 issue churches faced. In other words, 10 years passed and nothing changed . Why? Because churches have misunderstood what leadership development actually is. “In America, we think, ‘If I said it, you got it.’ We think dumping information equals transformation.” — Mac Lake But real leadership development isn’t about downloading content into people’s heads. It’s about walking with them through a process that transforms their character, skillset, and capacity. Common Mistakes Churches Make in Leadership Development Here’s the hard truth: most churches are doing leadership placement, not leadership development. Instead of building from the ground up, we’re hoping to recruit already-polished volunteers from other churches. Instead of developing a healthy leadership culture, we throw new volunteers into ministry after two weeks of shadowing and hope for the best. Mac calls this “putting someone in the batting cage, throwing two pitches, and then sending them into a ballgame.” The result? Frustrated leaders. Bottlenecks. Burnout. Another mistake: confusing readiness with willingness . “We're looking for readiness, not willingness. And there’s a shortage in our pipelines because we never built a culture of leadership development yesterday.” — Mac Lake If we wait for perfect, fully-formed leaders to appear, we’ll be waiting forever. Instead, we need to spot potential, not polish. What Jesus Modeled—and Why We’re Missing It Let’s take a cue from the ultimate leadership developer: Jesus. Mac broke down Jesus’ leadership process chronologically. For nearly 21 months , Jesus hung out with future disciples before appointing the 12. Once He did, He didn’t just dump knowledge on them. He apprenticed them intentionally —giving them both content and real-life ministry experience. “He spent a disproportionate amount of time with a few to impact the many.” — Mac Lake And here’s the key: the 12 weren’t perfect. They still argued about who was the greatest. But Jesus saw potential. He saw what they could become—not just where they were. In contrast, many modern churches are intimidated by church culture. We bend our methods to keep people happy, rather than following biblical principles. But Mac puts it plainly: “Do you want to build your church around cultural norms or biblical principles?” Building a Scalable Leadership Pipeline So what’s the alternative? How do we actually build leaders? It starts with a pipeline—a clearly defined structure that identifies where someone is, and what they need to grow to the next level. Mac outlines five key stages in the leadership pipeline: Lead Self – personal responsibility, spiritual maturity. Lead Others – small groups, teams, entry-level leadership. Lead Leaders – coaching, oversight of team leaders. Lead a Ministry/Department – directors, strategic leaders. Lead the Church – pastors, executive staff. At each level, there should be clear competencies, character traits , and onboarding systems . This framework not only helps identify current leaders, but allows churches to measure the “depth chart” in every ministry area—just like a football team knows its backups. Where to Start—Even If You’re Busy and Bi-Vocational Here’s the encouraging part: this doesn’t require massive teams, software, or budgets. “All it takes is picking two people and walking them through a process.” — Mac Lake Mac recommends starting with two current leaders who you trust. Walk them through his book Leading Others, a leadership development tool built for churches. Meet every other week. Talk through the competencies. Let them try. Then, challenge them to do the same with two new people the next semester. This developer-to-developer model mirrors Jesus’ ministry and multiplies impact faster than hiring more staff. Real-Life Example: From Small Group to Movement Mac shared a story about his wife—a stay-at-home grandma—who started a women’s small group. After one semester, she picked three women to meet with every other week using Leading Others. By the next semester, those women launched their own groups. And she started the process again. Now those three women are training their own future leaders. Just like that, 12 new small group leaders are born—not by accident, but through intentional development. And that’s the secret sauce: simple, reproducible systems that start with relationship. Final Thoughts: Stop Looking—Start Building If your church is struggling to find leaders, don’t be discouraged. The problem isn’t your people. It’s not even your budget. The problem is that we haven’t been discipling people to lead like Jesus. It’s time to make a shift. ✅ Stop looking for pre-packaged leaders. ✅ Start developing the willing. ✅ Move from “doers” to “developers.” ✅ And build a leadership culture that lasts. Whether you’re a full-time pastor or bi-vocational leader, the path forward is clear: start small, start now, and stay consistent . 🔗 Resources Mentioned: Get the Free eBook: Rethinking Leadership Development Mac Lake on Instagram Learn more at MultiplyGroup.org
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After graduating from East Carolina University with a degree in business marketing, he headed into the corporate world. But while attending a growing, contemporary church in San Antonio, Texas, he heard the Holy Spirit whisper, “That’s what I want you to do.” From that moment, everything changed. Ryan began serving in student ministry, first in Texas and eventually back in his hometown—where he swore he’d never return. But God had other plans. In 2013, with a small team of friends, Ryan helped launch 902 Church. “Honestly,” he says, “I thought we’d last two weeks. A month would’ve been revival.” Now, twelve years later, 902 Church is thriving. Culture, Systems, and Teams: The Three Gears of Growth If you’re a pastor wondering where to start when it comes to leading well and growing your church, Ryan’s advice is simple: focus on culture , systems , and teams . 🎯 Culture Culture flows from the top. At 902, the culture is about going—going into the community, reaching people far from God, and creating a place where people feel seen, known, and called. This go-first mentality starts in the pulpit and filters through every ministry. 🔧 Systems Ryan admits he’s not a “systems guy” by nature—but he’s learned their value. 902 has developed onboarding systems like their Start Here class, which helps new attendees discover their spiritual gifts and passions. They use tools like Planning Center to track those gifts and make strategic decisions about where to plug people in. 🧑🤝🧑 Teams Instead of scrambling to fill roles with warm bodies, Ryan and his team are committed to putting the right people in the right seats on the right bus . That means sitting down with people, learning their stories, and identifying how God has uniquely gifted them. “You’ll never feel more spiritually alive than when you’re doing what God called you to do,” he says. 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If you’ve been granted $10,000 in free advertising from Google but aren’t seeing the results you hoped for, you're not alone. Many churches find themselves frustrated by low ad spend, minimal clicks, and little to no traction from their Google Ad Grant. The truth is—your ads may not be the problem. Your website might be. Let’s break down why your church website plays a bigger role in your Google Ad Grant success than you think, and how to start optimizing it today. The Hidden Truth About the Google Ad Grant Here's the thing most churches discover the hard way: getting the grant is just step one. Making it work is an entirely different challenge. Churches often try to fix low performance by tweaking ad copy or targeting. But what if the real issue isn’t your ads at all—it's your landing pages? Google doesn’t just want catchy ads—it wants relevant, high-quality content on the pages your ads point to. If there’s no meaningful content there, your ad performance will suffer. 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Skip the vague slogans. ✅ Strong Call-to-Actions – “Plan a Visit,” “Join a Small Group,” “Watch a Sermon”—make it easy for people to take action. ✅ Content That Matches Your Ad – If your ad promotes an Easter Egg Hunt, your landing page should be all about the Easter Egg Hunt. Content is King (But Not Just Any Content) Church websites often fall into two traps: Too little content — only a few vague lines of text. Fluffy, churchy language — lots of warm phrases, but little substance. Neither will help you. Google wants to see relevant, informative text —ideally 300+ words per page. Also, words on graphics don’t count. Google’s bots can’t read images. And while your slogan may be “You Belong Here,” a better headline for your homepage might be: “Bible-based Church in [City Name] | Join Us This Sunday at 10 AM.” It may not sound as poetic, but it speaks to real people and real searches . User Experience: Navigation, Mobile, and Page Speed Let’s talk usability. Google doesn’t just care what’s on your website—it cares how well your website works : 🚫 Slow sites hurt your performance 📱 Non-mobile-friendly sites drop your rankings 😵💫 Complicated navigation confuses users and drives them away Your website should work just as well on a smartphone as it does on a desktop. It should load quickly, be glitch-free, and offer intuitive navigation. Oh, and about those third-party sites like Planning Center? Google doesn’t like ads linking to those. Ads should point directly to your church’s website , not external tools. Conversion Optimization: Make Visitors Take Action You’ve got people to your website—now what? Your site needs to guide them toward action. That’s called conversion optimization . Here’s how: Use big, clear buttons (“Plan Your Visit” / “Register for Event”) Put important info at the top —don’t bury the good stuff. Tell people what to do —don’t assume they’ll figure it out. Highlight your pastor —staff pages are often the second-most visited. Add testimonials and real stories —build trust and connection. Pro tip: Your video testimonials don’t need to be professionally produced. In fact, authentic cell phone videos often perform better than polished promo clips. SEO and the Google Grant: Two Sides of the Same Coin Running a successful Google Ad Grant campaign is more like SEO than traditional advertising. That means keywords matter —a lot. Do some basic keyword research (Google's free Keyword Planner tool is a great place to start). Make sure your site includes the phrases people are actually searching for—not just your internal lingo or branding slogans. Example: You might love the phrase “Next Steps Pathway,” but no one’s Googling that. Instead, use plain language like “Join a Small Group” or “Bible Study for Women.” Don’t Get Overwhelmed—Just Start Somewhere Yes, this can all feel like a lot. But you don’t have to do everything overnight. 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The Google Ad Grant is a game-changer for churches looking to increase their online visibility and reach more people in their communities. By providing eligible nonprofits with up to $10,000 per month in free Google Ads, this program helps churches show up in search results when people are looking for a place to worship, seeking spiritual guidance, or exploring faith-based communities. However, Google is always making updates to its platform, and 2025 is no exception. If your church wants to make the most of this incredible opportunity, it’s crucial to understand these changes and implement the right strategies. In this post, we’ll cover: Common mistakes to avoid with the Google Ad Grant New features for 2025, including Performance Max (PMax) campaigns How to use AI wisely in your Google Ads strategy Practical tips to maximize the impact of your church’s campaigns Common Google Ad Grant Mistakes to Avoid Many churches apply for the Google Ad Grant, but some run into problems that limit their success. Here are a few common mistakes and how to avoid them: 1. Entering Credit Card Information One of the biggest mistakes new users make is adding a payment method to their Google Ads account. If you enter credit card details, your account can accidentally convert into a paid one—causing you to lose your grant eligibility. Google Ad Grants do not require billing, and your billing section should say, "We don’t bill you." 2. Mismanaging Multiple Google Accounts Church leaders often have multiple Google accounts (for personal use, church management, or Google Workspace). It’s easy to accidentally mix them up, which can lead to confusion and errors when managing your grant. Always ensure you’re logged into the correct Google account when working on your ads. 3. Expecting Instant Visitors Instead of Focusing on Visibility Many pastors assume Google Ads will immediately bring people through the church doors. While ads can help increase attendance, their primary goal is to create awareness and drive traffic to your website . Just like a potential church visitor may see your sign, check out your website, follow your social media, and then decide to visit weeks later, Google Ads work similarly. 4. Poorly Structured Campaigns Some churches set up one or two generic campaigns and expect them to generate results. The key to success is targeted campaigns with well-researched keywords, clear ad copy, and well-optimized landing pages. More on that in next week’s post! What’s New in 2025? Google’s Performance Max (PMax) Campaigns A major update to Google Ad Grants in 2025 is the ability to use Performance Max (PMax) campaigns . Previously, churches could only run search ads (text-based ads that appear in Google search results). But now, with PMax, churches can reach people across multiple Google platforms, including: ✅ Search ads (Google search results) ✅ YouTube ads ✅ Google Display Network (banner ads on various websites) ✅ Gmail ads ✅ Google Maps ads What Makes Performance Max Exciting? More Visibility – Instead of just showing text-based search ads, your church can now display images, videos, and other engaging content across Google’s vast network. AI-Powered Optimization – Google’s AI analyzes user behavior and automatically places your ads where they’re most likely to succeed. Better Audience Targeting – PMax finds people actively searching for a church or faith-based content, even if they haven’t directly searched for one yet. How to Effectively Use Performance Max for Your Church While PMax is a great addition to Google Ad Grants, it shouldn’t replace your search campaigns . Instead, use it as a complementary tool. Here’s how: 1. Keep Running Traditional Search Ads Search ads still work best for capturing people actively searching for a church. A mix of search and PMax campaigns will give your church the best results. 2. Upload High-Quality Images & Videos PMax uses visual content , so make sure to upload great photos and videos of your church services, community events, and ministries. This will make your ads more engaging and effective. 3. Monitor and Optimize Regularly Not all churches will see the same results with PMax. Track your performance, tweak your campaigns, and adjust as needed. AI in Google Ads: Helpful or Harmful? AI is playing a larger role in Google Ads, and while it can be helpful, churches should use it wisely . ✅ AI-powered Performance Max can be beneficial because it helps target the right audience. ❌ Auto-generated ad recommendations should be reviewed carefully. Google’s AI may suggest changes that don’t align with your church’s mission or audience. Best Practice: Use AI as a Tool, Not a Replacement Google’s AI is like a smart intern —it can help analyze data and automate tasks, but you still need to oversee and guide the process . Make sure the content aligns with your church’s message and mission before implementing changes. Final Tips for Success with Google Ad Grants 🔹 Have multiple well-structured campaigns. Create different campaigns for Sunday services, kids’ ministry, outreach events, and seasonal services (like Christmas and Easter). 🔹 Ensure your website has strong content. Google ads perform better when your website provides detailed, relevant information on your church and ministries. 🔹 Regularly review and adjust campaigns. A/B test different ad copy, keywords, and images to find what works best. Conclusion & Next Steps The Google Ad Grant is a powerful tool for churches, and 2025’s updates make it even better . By avoiding common mistakes, leveraging Performance Max campaigns , and using AI strategically , your church can increase its online visibility and reach more people effectively. Coming Up Next Week: Many churches struggle with creating content-rich landing pages for their Google Ads. In next week’s post, we’ll cover: Why Google prioritizes websites with detailed content How to create engaging landing pages that convert Strategies for adding content without cluttering your site Stay tuned! And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out at hello@faithworksmarketing.com or join the Pro Church Marketing Facebook Group for more insights and support.
