How we helped Harvest achieve a 15X ROI with Ad Grants
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Founded in 1973 by Greg Laurie, Harvest has grown from a 30-person Bible study into one of the largest churches in America with more than 15,000 members. Today they reach millions of people through radio, television and online.
“Blue Tusk Digital has been an exceptional partner in managing our Google Ad Grant account since 2019. Their expertise has helped generate countless donations—including record-breaking months of revenue, all while achieving a 14.92% click-through rate, nearly three times Google’s benchmark. We’re incredibly grateful for their impact, responsiveness, and continued partnership.”
Austin Keisling
Marketing Manager
the challenge
Spending less than $2K with zero conversions to show for it
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Harvest had been managing their Google Grant account in-house and running into a wall. They couldn’t get close to the full $10,000 budget and the Ad Groups they had set up were too broad and disorganized to perform well. The bigger issue was conversion tracking. Without a proper connection to Google Analytics, they had no way of knowing which keywords were actually working. Before we stepped in, the numbers looked like this: $1,628 in ad spend, a 7.35% CTR, zero meaningful conversions and zero conversion value.
issue 01
Budget going unused
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Only $1,628 of the $10,000 monthly budget was being spent. Most of the grant was sitting untouched every month.
issue 02
Disorganized Ad Groups
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Campaigns were set up well, but the ad groups were too broad to drive any meaningful results.
issue 03
No conversion tracking
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Without GA4 integration, there was no way to tell which keywords were generating donations and which were wasting spend.
The Approach
Clean it up, then build it right
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Before anything else, the account needed to be organized so the data could actually be read. From there we dug into the keyword history, identified what had real potential and built a structure designed to convert.
solution 01
Proper management
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We got the account properly set up, campaigns correctly named, columns configured and labels added to Ad Groups and ads so everything was easy to track.
solution 02
Custom donor persona
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We built out a clear picture of who Harvest was trying to reach, so every campaign was speaking to the right audience.
solution 03
In-depth keyword research
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We went back as far as 2014 to find low-competition keywords with strong CTR and impressions, then used those as the foundation for new campaigns.
the results
15X ROI and a conversion rate that keeps climbing
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Once the account was organized and the SKAG structure was in place, results moved fast. Harvest hit new performance highs and kept building on them. The combination of sharp keyword targeting, donor-focused messaging and custom landing pages turned a stalled account into one generating real, measurable value every month.
15
X
kpi highlight
By pairing the right keywords with custom landing pages and a clear donor persona, every dollar of spend started generating returns that were actually trackable.
Increase ↑
186%
Click-through rate, up from 7.35%.
Increase ↑
529%
Total monthly ad spend, up from $1,628 toward the full $10,000 budget.
