HeroBox - Google Ad Grant Case Study

Introduction To HeroBox

HeroBox provides care packages to deployed US military service members. They’ve supported more than half a million service members since they started. They help connect US citizens that want to support troops with troops that are looking to receive a taste of home in the form of a care package.

HeroBox also works with businesses and large groups to create HeroDay events where people can create dozens or even hundreds of care packages at once. These are especially valuable for HeroBox since they allow them to support so many service members at once. These events are also popular with corporations because they can be done remotely allowing for a wide range of team types and remote workers to volunteer.

Google Ad Grant Goals

HeroBox wanted to use the Google Ad Grant to:

• Connect with more active deployed military who want to receive a care package. Many service members receive care packages from family and friends but not everyone has that luxury and that’s where HeroBox comes in.
• Find more sponsors who want to send HeroBoxes to active service members. People are actively searching for ways to support the military and send care packages but they’re not sure how to do it. HeroBox wants to get in front of those people.
• Find more corporate volunteers to promote HeroDay events. These events have a major impact on HeroBox since these events allow them to send dozens (or hundreds) of care packages at once.

We have three distinct audiences which means we’ll have 3 distinct campaigns.

Overall Results

HeroBox had a Google Ad Grant account but the spend was sporadic and rarely broke $40 in a single day. Additionally, the account was technically noncompliant due to no active conversion tracking.

We were able to quickly scale the account from a few dollars a day to hitting $329 a day during the week with small dips in spend on the weekends.

You can see the final results for July here:


The 133 conversion actions are direct contact with HeroBox, starting the registration process, or making a donation. All three audiences (active military, sponsors, and corporate volunteers) are directed to register on the HeroBox website but many of the larger potential HeroBox sponsors make direct contact with HeroBox rather than registering first.

Because we have a heavy emphasis on corporate sponsors, we have a slight dip in spending that occurs each weekend (the green line) but we’re still utilizing just under 90% of the Google Ad Grant. We also see a relatively high average cost per click at $15.24, again a result of targeting corporate sponsorships.