Website: www.americares.org

Americares saves lives and improves health for people affected by poverty or disaster so they can reach their full potential.

Health for All Accounts: Ads and Analytics to Respond to Disaster 

Americares sought extra support in the management of their ad grant, especially during times of disaster so they could direct people to relevant information around the impact, response, and recovery efforts in the disaster area. They were also looking to expand their reach and maintain traffic consistency through a site relaunch.

Big Wins:

• Maxed Google Ad grant spend

• Raised $1,450 from Google Ad Grant campaign following Hurricane Dorian

• Increased average view rate on YouTube disaster preparedness video to +37%, while reducing CPC and CPV by +25%

What we did

Ads Ready at a Moments Notice

Whole Whale worked with Americares to craft a Current Disasters Google Ad Grant campaign template. This allowed the Americares team to leverage the high search volume following a disaster to help people access Americares’ critical online resources and on-the-ground support services during moments of crisis. Whole Whale created an easy-to-use keyword generator so that the Americares team didn’t need to spend more than 10 minutes to identify dozens of disaster-relevant, high volume keywords for their Google Grant campaign. This campaign sat ready to apply these relevant keywords and turn on at a moment’s notice whenever disaster strikes. This campaign was put into action with Hurricane Dorian in August 2019.

Hurricane Dorian Campaign (August 2019)

• Increased account-wide spend by 731% compared to the weeks prior
• Drove 13,000+ sessions to the website following the disaster

• Resulted in 1,300+ priority goal completions, including $1,475 in donations raised to support efforts on the ground.

Whole Whale wanted to make sure that Americares utilized as much of their grant as possible, even when there wasn’t an active disaster. By organizing their account into different disaster types with highly specific keywords and ad copy driving to key website content, Whole Whale was able to maximize spend of the Grant over the course of several months.

Sharing Vital Disaster Preparedness Videos

Whole Whale worked with Americares on a YouTube advertising campaign during peak hurricane disaster season to promote disaster preparedness. Americares had run several YouTube campaigns in the past, but were looking for a fresh, timely strategy to get some high-quality eyeballs on some of their existing YouTube content. We used channel and custom audience targeted advertising to gain 18,000 30+ second views of Americares’ disaster preparedness videos. We improved viewer retention and increased the average video view rate on YouTube by +28%, while decreasing average CPV by 25% and cutting CPC by more than half.

Increasing Site Visibility 

Following Americares’ migration to a new content management system, Whole Whale conducted reports on traffic and technical SEO to ensure the site was still accessible through search engines and receiving quality traffic. This support helped Americares identify and remove 404 errors, increase site speed, and uncover new opportunities to improve user experience and Americares.org’s ranking on search engine results pages.

Reporting on Success

Whole Whale configured Google Analytics tracking and goals so Americares could measure and track key actions on site, such as email signups and donations. Whole Whale also created a master Data Studio dashboard to make real-time dynamic reporting to their team on topics like website traffic, user journeys, social media, and Google Ad grant performance easy. Whole Whale also customized our Facebook Fundraisers dashboard so their team could track their peer-to-peer fundraising revenue and easily reach out to thank their community on the platform.  

People are saying…

“The folks at Whole Whale have exceptional range when it comes to marketing. IF you’re looking for a strategic partner to kickstart or transform SEM, SEO, and Adwords opportunities — look no further! Their time with us has led to increased quality traffic across the board with their ability to mine and leverage data.” – Michael O’Connell, Web Designer at Americares

“Our needs were many and our internal resources were limited as we navigated a major website migration. Whole Whale jumped into the mix with an impressive team approach to multiple initiatives and problem-solving.  The value they brought to the process was impressive and exceeded our expectations. And their speed of execution and timely communications made it all so much easier. Whole Whale delivers.” — Ted Davis, Senior Web Director