Google gives approved nonprofits up to $10,000 a month in free search advertising. Shalom Orlando now has it. This page explains what it is, the rules that come with it, what is built so far, and what we honestly expect it to deliver.
Everything below was checked in the live accounts on 29 July 2026.
A parent can now request a tour directly on the ECLC page, and that inquiry is counted automatically inside the advertising account. Before this there was no way to know which advertising produced which inquiry. That measurement is what everything else is built on, and it was proven with a real form submission rather than assumed.
This is the part that surprises people. The Ad Grant is genuinely free money, but it comes with restrictions a paying advertiser does not have. Every one of these is a Google rule rather than a choice we made, and breaking some of them switches the account off with no warning.
The grant pays only for text ads on Google search results. It cannot be used for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, banner ads or anything with a picture in it. Those are a separate budget.
Grant accounts cannot bid more than $2.00 for a click until they have collected enough inquiry data to switch on Google's automated bidding. Competitors paying real money bid $4, $6 or $8 and outrank us on the expensive searches.
This is the rule that ends accounts. If fewer than 5 out of every 100 people who see our ads click on them, Google suspends the grant. Ordinary paid accounts average around 3 percent. It means we have to stay deliberately narrow and turn down traffic that looks tempting.
We are not allowed to advertise on words like preschool, camp, gym or donate on their own. Every search we target has to be a specific phrase. It is a Google rule, and it is also the only way to hold the 5 percent above.
Ads may only send people to the domain the nonprofit owns and registered with Google. We cannot point an ad at a page hosted anywhere else, however good that page is. Doing it is an automatic suspension with no warning.
Google requires the account to record at least one meaningful action every month, such as a tour request. An account that sends visitors and measures nothing gets deactivated. This is exactly what was built this week.
When a paid advertiser and a grant advertiser want the same search, the paid one takes the higher position every time. On competitive searches we appear lower down, so fewer people see us whatever we do.
Ads cannot claim anything about the facilities that is not clearly true on our own website. An unverifiable claim counts as misrepresentation and is another instant suspension. It is why the wording in our ad copy is careful.
This is the question everyone asks, so here is the arithmetic rather than an opinion. The limit is not ambition or effort. It is the number of people in our area who search for what we offer.
Nationally competitive categories such as car donation have enough search volume to absorb the full grant. Shalom Orlando does not run a vehicle donation program, those searches would fail the 5 percent click rule, and chasing them would trade a preschool inquiry machine for one or two donated cars a year. We tested it and ruled it out.
The grant should be measured on tour requests, camp registrations and class sign ups, not on how much of Google's money we managed to use. A month with $1,800 spent and 30 tour inquiries is a far better month than $6,000 spent on people in Daytona Beach.
These are the numbers we are working to, tested against live search data for Maitland and Orlando. They deliberately do not flatter.
Prove the account is healthy and holding the click rate. Volume is meant to be small.
Enough inquiry data to switch on automated bidding and get past the $2.00 ceiling.
All four campaigns running, enrichment and camp pages feeding real sign ups.
Steady state, with two clear peaks in the year.
Searches for after school programs peak in January, more than four times their average. Searches for summer camp peak in May. Fall enrichment sign ups happen now, through July and August, but the single biggest opportunity in the year is January, and we are building for it.
Four campaigns, not nineteen. Google's automated bidding needs a reasonable number of inquiries inside each campaign before it works at all. This account will produce roughly 40 to 60 inquiries a month in total. Split nineteen ways that is two or three each, which is not enough for the system to learn anything, and the account would end up spending less, not more.
| Campaign | Who it reaches | Where it sends them | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Brand | People already searching for Shalom Orlando, the Roth Family JCC, Camp J or the ECLC by name | shalomorlando.org | Built, waiting on the security check |
| 2. Early childhood | Parents looking for a preschool in Maitland and the surrounding area | shalomorlando.org/eclc, with the tour form on the page | Next to build |
| 3. Youth enrichment | Parents looking for after school ballet, karate, swim, tennis and the rest | A page for each class on shalomorlando.org | Pages built, moving onto the main site |
| 4. Camp and facilities | Families looking for summer day camp, and for the pool, courts and fitness center | shalomorlando.org/campj and /fitness | Scheduled for the run up to January |
Nobody else bids on our own name, so those ads get clicked at fifteen to twenty five percent. That builds a cushion above the 5 percent survival line, which then lets the harder campaigns run without putting the whole account at risk. It protects the account rather than winning new families on its own.
| What | Where | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ad Grant account for the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando | Google Ads | Open and active |
| Measurement tag on every page of the website | shalomorlando.org | Live and verified |
| Website analytics connected to the advertising account | Google Analytics | Connected |
| Tour request form, directly under the hero on the ECLC page | shalomorlando.org/eclc | Live and tested |
| Tour requests counted automatically as the main result | Google Ads | Confirmed receiving |
| Brochure downloads counted separately, for information only | Google Ads | Live |
| 25 landing pages, one per enrichment class plus camp, aquatics, fitness and courts | Preview site | Ready to review, moving onto the main site |
| First campaign, with keywords, ad copy and site links | Google Ads | Built, one security step from live |
Three of these need someone at Shalom Orlando. Everything else is ours.
We will not put stock photography of somebody else's children on a page selling a Shalom Orlando class. A local parent spots it immediately, and it is the quickest way to lose trust at the exact moment they are deciding. Fifteen of the twenty five pages already carry a real photograph. The remaining ten need one photograph each, and until then those classes stay out of the advertising.
When a parent searches for a preschool near me, or swim lessons near me, Google shows a map with three local businesses above every advertisement on the page. That map listing is not limited by the $2.00 bid cap, not limited by the 5 percent click rule, and not limited by the size of the local search market. Shalom Orlando does not currently appear in it for most of the searches that matter. Fixing that is likely worth more than the grant itself, and it costs nothing.