Church World Service

• Religion
• 30. 07. 2025

About

Church World Service (CWS) is a faith-based nonprofit working to eradicate hunger and poverty and promote peace and justice worldwide. With a mission grounded in compassion and practical action, CWS provides relief, supports refugees, and strengthens communities through long-term humanitarian assistance and advocacy.

• Website: Church World Service
• Location: New York, United States
• Cooperation period: 2021 – 2025

Marketing Goals

• Restore Google Ad Grants performance after years of account inactivity.
• Ensure full policy compliance to maintain grant eligibility.
• Use the full $10,000/month grant to drive awareness, engagement, and support.
• Improve conversion tracking to focus on meaningful actions like donations and volunteering
• Launch rapid-response campaigns during sudden crises.

Initial Situation

Church World Service (CWS) first activated its Google Ad Grants account back in 2012, leveraging it periodically over the years to raise awareness and support for its global humanitarian initiatives. However, from 2016 to 2019, the account fell into inactivity – no campaigns were running, there was no consistent oversight, and the grant remained largely untapped.

By the time we assumed management of the account in March 2021, the online advertising landscape, and Google Ad Grants specifically, had undergone significant changes. In 2018, Google implemented a sweeping policy overhaul, introducing more rigorous compliance requirements. These included updated rules for campaign structure, keyword selection, minimum click-through rate (CTR) thresholds, and conversion tracking. CWS’s account, originally built under the legacy system and left idle for several years, no longer conformed to the program’s updated standards.

Although the account contained old campaigns with strong historical performance and solid quality scores, the overall structure was outdated and non-compliant. Without strategic intervention, the account was at the risk of suspension, and the organization was missing out on the full potential of its $10,000/month ad grant.

This situation presented both a challenge and an opportunity, to bring the account into compliance, rebuild the existing campaigns, and tap into the grant’s full potential in service of CWS’s mission.

Results Of Our Intervention

Campaign Audit & Account Restructuring

We began by auditing and adjusting existing campaigns. Following this initial clean-up, we set up and launched new campaigns alongside the old ones that aligned with the client’s goals and the website structure. This approach ensured that the account capitalized on existing performance history while remaining responsive to the organization’s current priorities. Once the new campaigns were in place and the old ones were refined, the account began to consistently utilize the full $10,000 monthly grant, a trend that continued uninterrupted through the duration of our cooperation, which concluded in early 2025.

In addition to evergreen initiatives, we regularly launched emergency response campaigns tied to active humanitarian crises such as natural disasters, refugee displacement events, or urgent fundraising appeals. These campaigns generated high engagement in short windows, thanks to high search intent and timely messaging.

Sample Ad:

• Campaign: Event
• Ad Group: Afghan Refugees
• Headline 1: Afghan Families Are In Danger
• Headline 2: They Deserve A Warless Life
• Headline 3: Help Us Protect Them & Donate
• Headline 4: Afghans Need Your Compassion
• Headline 5: Help Them Get A Place To Live
• Headline 6: Take An Action & Sponsor Them
• Description line 1: Taliban Offensive Escalates & More Than 18.000 Afghans Are In Urgent Need Of Resettlement.
• Description line 2: Help Us Provide Housing & Other Support For Them. We Can’t Do It Alone. Sponsor A Family!
• Description line 3: Taliban Regaining Control Of Afghanistan Puts Afghan Families In Serious & Pressing Danger
• Description line 4: Help Us Provide Asylum To Afghan Refugees Who Are In Need Of Resettlement. Donate Today!
• Final URL: https://cwsglobal.org/take-action/afghan-siv-and-refugee-program

Conversion Tracking

When we began managing the Church World Service Google Ad Grants account, conversion tracking had not been implemented, and campaign performance was evaluated solely based on click volume and cost-per-click (CPC). While this approach generated a relatively high number of clicks, the quality and relevance of those visits were low, as evidenced by weak engagement metrics in Google Analytics.

To shift the focus from quantity to quality, we immediately implemented comprehensive conversion tracking using Google Tag Manager (GTM) and Google Analytics (GA). We defined and tracked key actions that aligned with CWS’s goals, including:

(List of conversion actions configured for CWS)

This enabled us to gather meaningful performance data and optimize campaigns based on actual outcomes, rather than superficial engagement metrics.

With conversion tracking in place, we transitioned all campaigns to “Maximize Conversions” bidding strategies. As a result, even amid a long-term decline in overall click volume (driven largely by rising CPCs and increased competition) the number of tracked conversions steadily increased. This shift marked a pivotal improvement in campaign efficiency, ensuring that every dollar of the Ad Grant worked harder to support CWS’s humanitarian efforts.

Key Milestones

In December 2024, we nominated the Church World Service Ad Grants account for Google’s additional funding program, which offered select nonprofits access to higher monthly grant limits. The nomination was successful, and the account received an extra amount of grant for that month.

Leveraging this opportunity, we strategically scaled high-performing campaigns, resulting in the best month on record. Nearly $20,000 in ad spend was utilized (double the standard grant cap), and the campaigns drove over 1,500 high-intent website visits. Most notably, December 2024 also delivered a record number of conversions – 1,365.

Sustainable Handoff

In January 2025, the organization centralized marketing in-house. At the client’s request, we handed over the fully optimized account with all campaigns live and performing. Our team retained access for occasional consultation and support, ensuring long-term success.

Conclusion

Over nearly four years of collaboration, we transformed an underutilized Ad Grants account into a powerful fundraising and engagement engine. Through thoughtful campaign structuring, compliance adjustments, detailed conversion tracking, and responsive crisis campaigns, this international humanitarian organization:

• Maximized their full grant consistently
• Shifted strategy from clicks to conversions
• Built a sustainable account foundation
• Achieved record-breaking results during peak periods

With the refugee crisis and other humanitarian issues remaining top-of-mind globally, their campaigns, built on a solid performance history, continue to hold strong long-term potential.

Would you like to achieve similar results? Schedule a consultation with our team!