Google Ad Grants For Churches - Traffic Decreased Since March Algo Update?

[Kurt Steinbrueck]

Hi Everyone,

I have a church that is running Google Ads with a Google Ad Grant account. Up until the latter half of March, the church was getting a decent amount of traffic. Around the last week in March that changed. What was the bottom of the range for impressions (200-500/day) and clicks (12-50/day) is now the top of the range for impressions (40-150/day) and clicks (0-15/day) in April (after Easter). The change seems to line up with the March Google Algorithm Update.

It's strange, we didn't do anything to the Google Ads account other than turn off Easter ads, but those weren't on in January, February, or most of March so I would have expected traffic to go back to pre-Easter levels. Actually, even during Easter, the impressions and clicks were down compared to January, February, and most of March.

I spoke with someone else who has several clients that are churches on Google Ad Grants, and they saw drops, too. So, it seems more widespread than just my account.

I'm curious if anyone else saw a decrease in impressions and clicks in Google Ads after the March Google Algorithm Update whether you use Google Ad Grants or not.

Even if you didn't, do you have any thoughts on what may have happened?

Thanks.
Kurt

 

[ElizabethRule]

I do not work with ads much, and have never worked with a Google Ads Grant account but i will give my 2 cents anyway.

Perhaps there was a major shift in the SERP for that vertical, churches, after the algo update. Maybe Google is deemphasizing text ads on the SERP for the types of searches you and other church accounts are targeting. If fewer ad spaces are being offered in the auction that would mean fewer impressions/clicks to be had. Just a theory, curious to hear from people who work in this vertical or have seen similar drops.

 

[Kurt Steinbrueck]

I do not work with ads much, and have never worked with a Google Ads Grant account but i will give my 2 cents anyway.

Perhaps there was a major shift in the SERP for that vertical, churches, after the algo update. Maybe Google is deemphasizing text ads on the SERP for the types of searches you and other church accounts are targeting. If fewer ad spaces are being offered in the auction that would mean fewer impressions/clicks to be had. Just a theory, curious to hear from people who work in this vertical or have seen similar drops.

Thanks Elizabeth. I considered this, too, though I'm not sure how to find out if there are fewer ads in the vertical since I didn't think to log what Google was showing previously.

Loved - "curious to hear from people who work in this vertical or have seen similar drops."

 

[ElizabethRule]

If you have any SERP screenshots from before the drop for keywords you are targeting that might help

 

[Kurt Steinbrueck]

If you have any SERP screenshots from before the drop for keywords you are targeting that might help

I wish I did. I didn't think about tracking that before the drop.

 

[dave101]

Yes I have seen the same. I run adwords and since the recent update, I have noticed less traffic.
For example my budget was $50 a day, normally 8-10 clicks with 150 impressions. Now there are days I get 30 impressions and 2 clicks.

 

[Kurt Steinbrueck]

Yes I have seen the same. I run adwords and since the recent update, I have noticed less traffic.
For example my budget was $50 a day, normally 8-10 clicks with 150 impressions. Now there are days I get 30 impressions and 2 clicks.

I'm sorry to hear that, Dave. You don't happen to have any screenshots of the search results before mid-march, do you?