Microsoft Ad Grant vs Google Ad Grant for Nonprofits

Most nonprofits, whether or not they have a Google Ad Grant, have at least heard of the program.

But not many know that Microsoft has a similar program (called Microsoft Ads for Social Impact, or as we’ll refer here, the Microsoft Ad Grant). 

It is much smaller, and much newer. And, in fact, at the moment, it’s not even an option for nonprofits that don’t already have one.

For those reasons, it’d be easy to just outright dismiss the Microsoft Ad Grant from your thoughts and plans.

We think that would be a mistake. Here’s why:

1. The Microsoft program is very likely to reopen. Microsoft has suggested as much.
2. When it comes to ad grants for nonprofits, Microsoft ads punch above their weight. For very little extra work, you can gain a disproportionately large return on your effort.

This article explores the Microsoft Ad Grant program, and contrasts it with its Google opposite number.

History of the Google Ad Grant program

Google Ad Grants was launched in March 2003, just a few years after Google AdWords (now Google Ads) was introduced. 

It was born out of Google’s desire to share the power of search advertising with the nonprofit world. Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin wanted to provide nonprofits with free ads using the AdWords platform, to help them reach a wider audience and make it easier for people to discover their causes.

Initially, Google built and managed the ad accounts for every nonprofit that joined the program. (This was a huge undertaking, considering there were only 500 Googlers at the time supporting thousands of advertisers.)

The program caught on fast. 

By 2010, Google had provided $600 million in advertising to nonprofits since the program’s start. By 2023, that number was $9 billion, with 115,000+ nonprofits in 50+ countries.

The key evolutionary stages have been:

October 2000: Google Ads (initially known as Google Adwords) begins, and invents the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) business model.

March 2003: Google Ad Grant program starts.

2010: Introduction of GrantsPro, allowing high-performing nonprofits to apply for an additional $30,000 per month, on top of their $10,000 Google Grants funding.

January 2013: Google implements significant policy changes, including a $2 max cost-per-click (CPC) bid limit, and adjusting the ad auction to ensure paid ads show before Grant ads.

September 2013: AdWords Express (now called Smart Campaigns) is launched for grantees in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, enabling simpler, automated campaigns.

June 2014: Google For Nonprofits (a bundle of various Google services) is launched in Canada.

August 2014: Google required grantees to sign in to their accounts at least once per month to maintain active status.

September 2016: Google closes GrantsPro applications. The maximum spend is $10,000 once again.

Today, the program follows a self-service model, with each nonprofit responsible for building and managing their own account and ad campaigns. Grantees are supported through educational webinars, a certified professionals community, partnerships with universities, and an active online forum.

History of the Microsoft Ad Grant program

The Microsoft Ads for Social Impact program (also known as the Microsoft Ad Grant or Bing Ad Grant) is Microsoft’s effort to compete with Google in providing advertising support for nonprofits, while leveraging its unique audience demographics and search properties.

It has a much shorter history than Google’s program, launching only in June 2022. This was Microsoft’s first pure grant program for nonprofits that did not require any financial investment from the organizations.

Its key features at launch included:

• Offer to eligible nonprofits of $3,000 per month in free advertising credits
• Ads could be displayed on Microsoft’s owned-and 
• -operated platforms, including:
  • Microsoft Search Network (Bing, Yahoo, AOL)
  • Microsoft Audience Network (Outlook.com, MSN, Microsoft Edge)
• Initially available to nonprofits in Australia, Canada, France, Israel, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and the United States

Eligibility requirements were essentially the same as Google’s. 

As of Sep 2024, the program is still relatively new and has not undergone major changes. 

June 2022: Microsoft Ads for Social Impact program begins, with a grant amount of $3,000.

April 2023: The grant amount is adjusted downward to $1,000.

Late 2023: The program temporarily pauses accepting new applicants.(Though Microsoft expressed plans to reopen/expand the program to more nonprofits in the future.)

While specific impact numbers are not widely published yet due to the program’s newness, Microsoft Advertising as a whole surpassed $10 billion in annual revenue in 2021, indicating the potential reach and impact of the platform for nonprofits.

Difference between Microsoft Ad Grants and Google Ad Grants

The Quantitative Differences

Key differences between the Microsoft and Google programs include:

• Smaller grant amount ($1,000, vs $10,000 for Google)
• Fewer restrictions on ad performance metrics compared to Google
• Microsoft allows you to use a single existing Microsoft Ads account; with Google, your Grant ads and paid ads are in separate accounts

The following table contrasts some typical Click-Through Rates (CTR) and Cost-Per-Click (CPC) for the two programs:

Google Ad Grants vs Microsoft Ad Grants Comparison Table

Google ad CTRs are typically 2X Bing’s. However, Bing’s CPC is typically 20X cheaper than Google’s.

When you account for the fact that Google grant amount is 10X higher than Microsoft, it works out that Bing ads often yield the same (or higher) results.

The Qualitative Differences

Nature of the ad account

Your Google Ad Grant account is fully a grant. 

You never input payment information. You never pay for any ads. You’re just limited to the grant ad spend amount of $10,000 per month (which equals $329 per day). Allowing for normal fluctuations, you can get a little over $10k/month if you’ve maximized it, But that’s it. Google doesn’t allow you any more advertising that month.

Your Microsoft Ad Grant account, on the other hand . . .

. . . is a normal paid ad account. 

To create it, you have to supply your credit card information. Microsoft auto-applies a $1,000 coupon to your account at the start of each month. 

If you unwittingly go over that $1,000 limit, guess who pays the difference? 

Correct. You do.

(This actually happened to one of our clients early on. We set a daily budget at a higher-than-normal limit, to encourage the platform to give us more impressions. The change was made on a Friday. We didn’t check back until the following Monday. 

Normally, it takes a bit of time for the platform to respond, so checking back on the following Monday or Tuesday is fine. Not this time! The client blew through their $1,000 coupon in just two days and by Monday were $1,400 OVER the coupon amount.

The mistake was ours, so naturally we paid for it, and never made it again. But this story points to one of the drawbacks of the Microsoft program: 

• You either have to set your daily budget so low that there’s no chance you’ll go over (say, a max daily budget of $30, coming out to $900 – $950 of your coupon), or . . .
• You have to manage the budget daily, to make sure you don’t overshoot your coupon.

It’s not user-friendly for nonprofits who lack the resources to actively manage the budget and optimize results daily.

B2B outreach

Because of Microsoft’s purchase of LinkedIn, Microsoft allows importing LinkedIn audiences for targeting. (Google does not.) This makes Bing ads particularly useful for B2B outreach, which is huge for businesses depending on their LinkedIn networks for marketing. (This includes many nonprofits.)

User demographics

Microsoft/Bing users tend to either be older or corporate employees. (Most big companies issue their employees with Microsoft hardware and software). Which means: 

1. Bing users (typically) have higher incomes compared to the broader Google user base. 
2. Bing users that actually click on an ad are more likely to be willing donors.

Ease of Use and Support

Google’s ad platform is generally more user-friendly and supported by a large online community, extensive documentation, and nonprofit-specific educational resources. Microsoft’s ad platform, while intuitive for simple campaigns, can feel “clunky” when handling larger campaigns, and its support for nonprofits is less established.

If ease of use is a priority, especially for organizations new to PPC advertising, Google Ads provides a more seamless experience. However, the ability to import existing Google campaigns into Microsoft Ads helps mitigate this issue for those looking to use both platforms.

User-friendliness

In Google’s favor is their platform’s ease of use. Microsoft’s user permissions, and their account management/nesting settings, are more “convoluted”.

And there is one more factor to bear in mind . . .

Leverage of Artificial Intelligence

At the time of writing, Google is not being as clever at leveraging the AI revolution as many watchers had been expecting. 

One very knowledgeable watcher is incredulous that Google was “first to the table” with Generative AI, yet their AI products are consistently being overtaken by smaller, nimbler competitors. Microsoft, conversely, is proving much more adept.

Furthermore . . . AI-enabled search is here. 

And it’s possible that this could significantly eat into Google Ad Grant impressions and traffic. Google has no desire to take away from their paying advertisers’ impressions and results – that’s their cash cow. But if putting AI-enabled results is more beneficial to them, or if it helps them stay competitive (vis-a-vis Grant ads) . . .

Then Grant ads could suffer, one way or another. It’s too early to tell how or when. 

But it is a space that all nonprofits would do well to watch.

Difference between Bing Ads and Google Ads

The table below presents the relative advantages and disadvantages of ads on the two platforms:

And here are some differences in the requirements between the two platforms:

What it means for the Nonprofit leader who wants to grow their subscriber base

Google is better at targeting ads to people who have every intention of clicking (hence the higher CTR).

But that’s not to say Microsoft is bad at it. 

AND because Bing’s CPC is 18-20x cheaper . . . Microsoft grants for nonprofits go a LOT farther.

PLUS … Microsoft’s flexibility with importing ad campaigns from Google means bolting Bing ad campaigns onto well-oiled Google campaigns is a no-brainer.

And because Bing ads are so much cheaper . . . nonprofits who are waiting for the Microsoft Ads Grant to return should consider experimenting with paid Bing ads. 

Even if your budget is only a few $100’s per month, it is worth testing paid Bing ads for 3-6 months, to see what kind of results they can bring. The chances are high that they will enable you to reach new donors.

Conclusion

Google still has the only open Ads Grant program in town. So if you’re a nonprofit leader ambitious to grow your subscriber base, that’s where you start.

But once you’ve got your Google Ad Grant working well . . .

. . . and if/when Microsoft reopens their program . . .

. . . adding a Microsoft Ad Grant is a must. It will give your nonprofit omnichannel marketing a huge boost for very little extra effort, AND it will allow you to diversify your marketing platforms, as things change with the Google Ad Grant program.

Beeline is ready to help clients apply as soon as it does reopen.

In the meantime, we recommend exploring the Google Ad Grant program with our suitability quiz here. 

Should the quiz tell you that the program IS suitable for your nonprofit, we explain the program in detail here.

And if you are curious about (and have the budget for) running paid Bing ads, they make sense for a LOT of nonprofits. Beeline can provide one-time coupon codes for Microsoft Ads to new clients, worth $500-$2,500 in the first 30-60 days.

Contact us for the details!