Christy Turek Rials for Getting Attention Video Testimonials

Speaker: Christy Turek Rials

Christy Turek Rials: Hi, my name is Christy Turek Rials, and I am the Director of Training and Outreach at A Window Between Worlds, and we are a small nonprofit that utilizes healing art workshops to help folks heal from trauma. And the way that we do that is we provide training, curriculum, and resources so that service providers can have everything they need to utilize healing art expression and the work that they do as we have found that art is a powerful tool to transform trauma and to support overall wellness not only for trauma survivors but also for the staff that are providing those services and also to engage with the community at large to really inform them about these important issues that these nonprofits are dealing with and help create positive change as art is a wonderful tool to anchor journeys of change.

Christy Turek Rials: The challenges that we faced with the Google Grant Ads before working with Getting Attention were immense. First, we tried internally to manage the Grant Ads, but we quickly recognized that we don't have the time or the expertise in order to do so. So we hired a company that specifically works with nonprofits and worked with them for many years. And while they provided a very high level of engagement and there was indeed a large quantity of engagement. The quality isn't what we were looking for. We had all this volume of engagement. However, it wasn't what we were looking for and it didn't translate into folks registering for our training and folks donating to the organization, folks coming forward to volunteer for the organization which were really the metrics that we were focused on attaining so we found Getting Attention as we were looking for a company that could really put forward those quality results rather than solely focusing on the quantity.

Christy Turek Rials: When I think about what most stands out for me regarding our time working with Getting Attention is the stellar engagement that we have with our grant manager. Shout out to Daniel. So Daniel's brilliant at monitoring trends, analyzing past performance of Grant Ads, and making thoughtful adjustments to really make sure that we're getting what we're wanting out of our Grant Ads. He's also very responsive. I know that if I email Daniel, he's going to take care of it with in a timely manner and also with great thought and care. And it's invaluable to have him staying ahead of all of the changes that Google makes, which I mean it's dizzying from PMax campaigns to AI driven campaigns, and he's brilliant at really evolving our strategy and also leveraging his experience with his other clients that he's working with to help better inform our grant ad performance and what we can do to improve it.

Christy Turek Rials: If I was to pick one word to describe the support that we've received from the Getting Attention team, it's proactive. I love that I know that our Grant Manager is on top of things. If we release a new blog post, if we have a new event that we want to advertise, we know we can get that information out to our Grant Ad Manager. He's gonna get those set up and he's also going to make sure to check in with us about the campaign and make sure that it aligns with our goals and the messaging that we really want to put out there. Also included in our plan is monthly meetings that is something that was not included with our previous grant management team we were able to meet with them every other month, which was lovely, however, it really didn't empower us to stay on top of all of the different elements and the different levers that are constantly being pulled within the Google Grant landscape and environment. And so these monthly meetings are fantastic. Also, Daniel, our Grant Manager, records them, sends them after. So if any team member is not able to be there, we can access those, which is great. I was had to miss a meeting earlier this week and I was able to check that recording and prior to the meeting, Daniel always sends his agenda so that we can look at that and come to the meeting prepared so that we make sure we maximize our time together.

Christy Turek Rials: In my role, I've directed our Google Grant Ads for our nonprofit for over 4 years, and the landscape is ever evolving, particularly now with the emphasis and incorporation of AI into the Google Grant Ads. And so over the last few months our engagement dipped dramatically and Daniel, our Grant Ad Manager, was very proactive, restructured campaigns, added new ad groups, and optimized keywords, and as a subsequent result our ads been utilization rebounded to nearly 90%, which is incredible and it's just been such a pleasure to really problem solve all of these things as they come forward with Daniel as he's extremely knowledgeable, resourceful, and is constantly teaching myself and my team about all of these new things. Really empowering us to evolve our understanding and our expertise in regards to Google Grant Ads.

Christy Turek Rials: If I was talking to another nonprofit about working with Getting Attention and my experience, the first thing that comes to mind about what I would share is that our program is very nuanced and our Grant Manager is very adept at creating ad groups that reflect our mission, our vision, and our philosophy. Which is not an easy thing to understand and he's great about also after he makes those ad campaigns sharing them in a Google sheet that way we can very easily go in, make edits give input so that we really represent what we want to put forward in a way that aligns with our mission. And also our branding. And also Daniel's been great about helping us understand things that maybe look bad from the outside but actually aren't. So for example, one of the things he's taught us is even if perhaps in one month we have a lower click through rate, that isn't a bad thing if our conversions, which is the real goal, are increasing. Sometimes there can be a direct correlation between a lower CTR and a higher level of conversions, which goes back to what we're looking for, is meaningful results. It's not the quantity of results, it's the quality of results and getting what we're looking for out of our ads.

Christy Turek Rials: In the last year, Google has made tremendous changes to the way the Google Grant Ads work and the environment and what they reward and what they don't, and so what we used to really rely on to get good results no longer was something that Google supported in that same way and so we saw our engagement dip dramatically and it was very much. We were just all lost in the dark. We didn't know what direction to go. I mean, all of this was happening so quickly and what's great is that our Grant Manager was really adept at finding information about how to pivot to respond to these changes and ensure that we could get back to those same levels of engagement and really figure out new strategies that we could implement to ensure that we were getting good engagement going forward, that it wasn't just this band-aid over this large gaping wound, if you will. And so for example, we used to rely heavy on keywords and folks doing certain keyword searches and the way that Google engages in that way and puts forward our um digital ads to folks. Now I will mention right now my fumbling around talking about this is because I'm still trying to wrap my brain around this. But luckily our Getting Attention Manager knows all of this stuff, so I don't have to worry about it. It's fabulous. But so he was great around, OK, let me figure out how to pivot, how to keep that engagement going, and as a subsequent result we have regained all of those losses that we had and we now have a new structure and a new strategy that really is responsive to this ever changing landscape that we never would have had otherwise without our Google Grant Managers, a depth, responsive, resourceful management.