The Soundtrack to my Dating Days.

It is just over a week since Keith Flint from The Prodigy sadly left us. His fans and much of the music world are still reeling from the tragic news.

My husband is a HUGE fan of the band and much of The Prodigy's music formed the sound track to our dating days, and still features when he in charge of the play list! Keith's decision surprised and shocked everyone, it seemed no one, not even those closest to him knew how he was suffering.

This tragedy brings to our attention the silent fight many people have with mental illness. It's not something that can instantly visibly been seen like a broken leg, and is not easy to fix with a cast. It is far more complex and generally less understood than that.

One organisation that tries to help people thought difficult times which often contribute to mental health issues is The Samaritans. The Samaritans has provided an emotional support helpline for many years and helps, in part, to reduce mental health issues which can lead suicide. The support helpline is available for free, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and is run by 20,000 volunteers. What is disturbing and impressive at the same time is that the support channels (phone, email and face to face) are contacted every 6 seconds and over half a million people are reached through their community work each year.

However, not content with this already high volume service, The Samaritans wanted to increase their awareness to aim to further reduce the number of suicides. They turned to Google Ads Grants to supplement their already paid for Google Ads. They used conversion tracking and Google Analytics to identify how effectively their ad clicks led to ongoing customer activity such as phone calls, donations, app downloads, newsletter sign-ups etc.

The results were impressive. Google Ads drove 10 % of donations, 11 % of all fundraising and had 1,796 new volunteer sign ups, which is incredible!

The awareness campaign was a success helped by using Google Ad Grants and making the most of utilizing analytics. The Samaritans are an established and large organisation with a supportive donor database. They could have continued with their regular campaigns via Direct Mail, Face to Face, Community donations etc, but they chose to explore a new route of online in collaboration with their other channels. And it worked! Online is not an alternative but a compliment to, if used correctly, and this example demonstrates the impact that can be achieved if you just give it a try.

To find out more about how to make the most of Google Ad Grants and how it can help your organisation, please click here.