Grant-funded mission reach and consulting pipeline growth for a national policing research and consulting institute
- Google Grant
- Paid Social
The challenge
The National Policing Institute had a Google Ad Grant reaching practitioners but no paid media strategy to reach the law enforcement executives and institutional decision-makers who drive its consulting pipeline.
The results
Cordelia Labs scaled the Grant from 23% to 82%+ budget utilization while simultaneously launching LinkedIn ads targeting law enforcement leadership — building a two-channel program that serves both NPI's public mission and its consulting growth goals.
-
16.58%
Google Grant CTR
Account-wide CTR peaked at 16.58% in April 2026 — more than triple Google’s required 5% compliance minimum.
-
$2.40
Cost per conversion (Grant)
Google Grant campaigns delivered 2,894 tracked conversions in a single month at $2.40 each, connecting practitioners with NPI’s training, research, and policy resources.
-
74,017
LinkedIn impressions (April 2026)
LinkedIn reached law enforcement executives and institutional buyers with 74,000+ impressions in just the second month of the campaign.
-
23% → 82%
Grant budget utilization
Monthly grant spend climbed from $2,332 (23% utilization) in June 2025 to $8,149 in April 2026, putting nearly the full $10,000 monthly grant to work.
The challenge
The National Policing Institute serves two distinct audiences with very different needs. The first is practitioners — law enforcement professionals searching for de-escalation training, policing research, community safety resources, and policy guidance. The second is institutional buyers — police chiefs, agency executives, and university leadership who engage NPI's consulting practice for staffing studies, organizational assessments, and strategic advisory work.
NPI had a Google Ad Grant in place, but it was underutilized and not structured to reach either audience effectively. In June 2025, the account was spending $2,332 — 23% of the available $10,000 monthly budget — with no campaigns targeting the consulting pipeline at all. And there was no paid channel reaching the executive-level decision-makers NPI's advisory services depend on.
The approach
Cordelia Labs rebuilt the Google Ad Grant account around NPI's actual program portfolio: de-escalation training, policing strategy and research, community safety initiatives, topic-specific content areas, and consulting services. Each campaign was structured around how its target audience actually searches — practitioners looking for training resources, researchers seeking policing data, institutions exploring consulting partnerships. Conversion tracking was tightened to measure meaningful actions, not just clicks.
In March 2026, Cordelia launched LinkedIn ads as a purpose-built B2B layer alongside the Grant. Where Google captures practitioners actively searching for NPI's resources, LinkedIn reaches the law enforcement executives and institutional decision-makers who aren't necessarily searching yet. Campaigns were segmented by agency size — targeting organizations with 100 to 249 employees and 250 or more — and optimized toward consulting inquiries. Early results confirmed the targeting was right: a 20% conversion rate on initial LinkedIn traffic, with four of the top five engaging organizations in the 250+ segment being universities, validating NPI's reach into higher education institutions as consulting clients.
The results
The Grant account scaled steadily from $2,332 in June 2025 to $8,149 in April 2026 — 82% utilization — while sustaining CTR well above Google's 5% compliance floor throughout. CTR peaked at 16.58% in April, with the De-Escalation Training campaign alone generating 612 clicks and 1,824 conversions in a single month. Across all Grant campaigns, April produced 2,894 tracked conversions at $2.40 each, connecting practitioners and researchers directly with NPI's training programs, publications, and policy resources.
LinkedIn, in its second full month, delivered 74,017 impressions to a tightly targeted audience of law enforcement leadership and institutional buyers — an audience that Google Search doesn't reach. The two channels do fundamentally different work: the Grant drives high-volume, cost-efficient practitioner traffic in service of NPI's public mission; LinkedIn builds consulting authority and pipeline with the decision-makers who engage NPI's advisory practice. Together, they give NPI a paid media program proportionate to both sides of what it does.
Their team takes the time to truly understand their clients, identify the most effective strategies, and walk alongside them through implementation. I’ve not only seen the impact they’ve had with other organizations but also experienced it personally. What I value most is their commitment to not just doing the work, but also teaching and empowering us along the way.
About the client
National Policing Institute
The National Policing Institute is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit dedicated to advancing excellence in policing through research, training, and advisory services. Founded in 1970, NPI works with law enforcement agencies across the country on issues ranging from de-escalation and use-of-force policy to organizational strategy and staffing studies.