The National Science and Technology Medals Foundation runs on a $10,000-a-month Google Ad Grant. E11 manages the account, and over the past year we rebuilt it so the free budget goes to the Foundation’s laureate stories instead of cheap filler traffic.
The Challenge
In summer 2025, more than half of the account’s spend ($9,125 of $17,361 from June through August) went to a single low-intent campaign that produced about two conversions. The account was also leaving a large share of its grant unspent every month, which for an Ad Grant is money that simply disappears.
What We Did
We kept that campaign but cut it to about $533 a quarter at a $0.10 click, where it still does its one useful job: keeping the account above Google’s 5% click-through requirement for Ad Grants. The budget it freed up went into Performance Max campaigns built around individual laureates and their stories, which is what the Foundation exists to share.
Comparing June through August 2026 with the same months of 2025, tracked conversions rose from 331 to 1,657 and the cost per conversion fell from $52.45 to $18.46. The account now uses effectively its full grant: $30,584 over those three months, up from $17,361 a year earlier. Most of the gain was already in place by last winter, so this is a twelve-month result, not a one-quarter spike.
We also redesigned the Foundation’s website; that project is on our NSTMF website redesign page. For how we run Grant accounts generally, see Google Ad Grants management.
