Nonprofit
Dirty Freehub
How We Put a $10K Monthly Ad Grant to Work and Launched the Store Behind It
- Annual page views, up 18.8% year over year
- 552.4K
- Total users, up 19.1% year over year
- 128.6K
- Gross revenue from the new digital guide store
- $12.42K
About the project
Dirty Freehub provides detailed gravel bike routes with maps, podcasts, and guides that inspire riders to explore hidden gems and connect with local culture. By encouraging dispersed riding, supporting small-town economies, and promoting wildlife stewardship through responsible route planning, Dirty Freehub fosters sustainable, inclusive cycling experiences.
Dirty Freehub partnered with Vizionality to maximise their $10,000 per month Google Ad Grant. We performed an in-depth audit of their campaigns and identified improvements in ad targeting, keyword selection, and landing page optimisation. By aligning the strategy with their mission, we developed a data-driven approach that significantly boosted click-through rates and engagement. Additionally, we built a custom Looker Studio dashboard to monitor key performance metrics in real time, empowering rapid, data-driven optimisations.
Through continuous performance reviews and agile adjustments, we optimised the grant's value, resulting in increased website traffic, enhanced brand visibility, and improved conversion rates. Our focused approach not only maximised the ad budget but also amplified Dirty Freehub's mission, driving lasting benefits for local communities and inspiring more cyclists to explore hidden routes.
Data-Backed Growth: eCommerce, Tracking, and Fundraising
To further support Dirty Freehub's mission and long-term sustainability, we launched their eCommerce store, allowing them to sell digital gravel bike guides directly through their website. This new revenue stream not only supports operations but also deepens user engagement by offering tangible value to their growing cycling community.
We implemented enhanced tracking across the store using Google Tag Manager and GA4, capturing key events such as product views, add-to-cart actions, purchases, and content interactions. These insights now help Dirty Freehub better understand user behaviour and refine their offerings based on real-time data, all visualised through a custom Looker Studio dashboard for easy performance monitoring.
In addition to eCommerce, we prepared for the year-end giving season by launching a dedicated donation campaign through the Google Ad Grant. With tailored messaging and optimised landing pages, this campaign focused on increasing visibility and contributions during a critical fundraising period.
The challenge
Dirty Freehub was only utilising about 10% of its $10,000 monthly Google Ad Grant, leaving a significant portion of the budget untapped and limiting its potential reach. The existing campaigns were underoptimised, resulting in low engagement and missed opportunities to attract new cycling enthusiasts and further their mission. To overcome this, Dirty Freehub needed more targeted and efficient campaigns that could fully leverage the grant, refining ad targeting, optimising creative assets, and employing a data-driven approach to increase website traffic and boost overall community engagement.
What we did
- Audited the existing ad setup end to end, then reconfigured targeting and creative strategy to align with the organisation's mission.
- Segmented audiences around avid cyclists and the local communities the routes pass through, with tailored messaging for each.
- Rolled out Performance Max, newly available to nonprofits in 2024, to reach across multiple inventory sources at once.
- Launched an eCommerce store for digital gravel guides, instrumented with GA4 and Google Tag Manager for product views, add-to-cart, and purchase events.
- Built a custom Looker Studio dashboard so performance could be reviewed and adjusted in real time.
- Ran a dedicated year-end donation campaign through the grant, with optimised landing pages for the giving season.
Results
Summarized
Combined, the Performance Max rollout, the new store, and real-time reporting in Looker Studio created a fully integrated digital ecosystem. Page views reached 552.4K for the year, up 18.8% on the prior period, with 128.6K total users and 224.5K sessions, and route downloads reaching 12.5K.
The store added a revenue line that had not existed before, bringing in $12.42K in gross purchase revenue in its first year while giving the team behavioural data on what riders actually want. The full $10,000 monthly grant now works toward the mission: inspiring adventure, supporting local economies, and connecting cyclists to curated gravel routes around the world.
