How a Not-for-Profit Capitalized on Their $10,000 Google Ads Grant

Return-It

The Company

Return-It is a federally incorporated, not-for-profit organization dedicated to product stewardship, with a primary focus on beverage container management. Our mission is to design, oversee, and enhance systems that collect used packaging and end-of-life products from consumers, ensuring they are properly recycled rather than sent to landfills or incinerators.

The Challenge

Return-It secured a $10,000-per-month Google Ads grant but faced challenges in measuring its impact on consumer recycling behaviors. To maximize the grant’s potential, they sought expert digital marketing strategy and execution to drive meaningful user intent toward beverage container recycling. As a not-for-profit, it was also crucial for them to transition the Google Grant campaign management in-house, allowing them to allocate more of their marketing budget toward high-priority initiatives rather than administrative overhead.

The Goal

In response to this challenge, the company sought to:

  • Establishing precise conversion goals to measure user intent to recycle accurately
  • Optimize ad spend to attract the highest-intent users and drive more visits to recycling facilities
  • Leverage the full potential of the Google Grant to maximize visibility and engagement
  • Gain deeper visibility into campaign performance across specific regions in British Columbia
  • Upskill and train an in-house team member to independently manage, optimize, and scale campaigns for long-term success.

The Results

Return-It partnered with the Performance Marketing Team to audit and launch new campaigns. After the implementation of conversion goals to measure user intent to recycle, we optimized their campaigns, and the results were remarkable:

Increased their collection site locator usage on the website by 107%

Decreased their cost per site locator usage by 22%

Increased their Google Grant ad spend by 151%

Our Key Responsibilities

Able & Howe partnered with Return-It to fully leverage their $10,000/month Google Ads grant, ensuring every dollar was optimized to drive meaningful impact. Our approach included:

  • Comprehensive Audit & Strategy Development – Conducted an in-depth analysis of existing Google Ads performance and designed a targeted Search campaign strategy, providing clear visibility into performance by region and container type.
  • Enhanced Conversion Tracking – Implemented robust tracking to measure user intent to recycle, including:
    • Site locator usage
    • ‘Get Directions’ button clicks
  • Campaign Optimization – Refined campaign structure and targeting to increase high-intent traffic and drive more conversions.
  • In-House Team Enablement – Provided training and upskilling for Return-It’s internal team, empowering them to manage, optimize, and expand their campaigns independently.

How it Happened

After our team learned more about Art of Skin Care’s business concerns, we initiated on several projects in order to prioritize and address areas where we can increase revenue output.

Evaluate

  • Google Ads Audit: Conducted a Google Ads audit to identify opportunities for boosting campaign performance and maximizing revenue generation within the allocated budget.
  • Exported and analyzed customer data to establish benchmarks for customer repeat order rates, churn rates, and other key metrics. Identified key factors that strengthen retention and enhance customer lifetime value.

Create

  • Shifted from a non-targeted overall Google Ads performance campaign to a brand-specific new customer acquisition strategy.
  • Transformed non-profitable Meta campaigns into revenue-generating investments.

Evolve

  • Converted Google Ads strategy from a non-targeted overall performance campaign to a brand-specific new customer acquisition strategy
  • Converted non-profitable Meta campaigns into revenue-generating investment

Activate

  • Successfully launched various new brands in the store, achieving a positive advertising ROAS of 4.0 or higher within two months.
  • Restructured and launched Google Ad campaigns that generated a ROAS of 7.0 or higher.

Enable

  • Achieved significant efficiencies, allowing the brand to spend 50% less on ads while generating the same revenue.
  • Redirected ad spend savings towards developing a more user-friendly website experience and enhancing the email marketing strategy.