What Is A Google Ad Grant Account

Google Ad Grant is a fantastic program by Google where qualified non profits are granted a monthly 10000 USD Ad budget. Imagine how many new visitors, potential donors and volunteers you can reach with this amount!

Like any other search ad,  you will be found on top of the Google search engine page when someone looks for a service, product or cause you are advertising.

There are a few guidelines to be kept in mind. Here’s a guide of how to apply for Google Ad Grants and how to manage and setup the account. In case you spend more time than expected with the process or have no experience with Google AdWords, send us a message, we are happy to help!

• First things first, how to apply: Only certain countries are eligible for Google Ad Grants, but the community is growing and growing. So even if your country is not yet listed, it’s worth to check every now and then whether the list has been updated. Google outsourced this part to TechSoup, a global technology partner for non profits. This is the link to google’s list of eligible countries and their specific guidelines.
• You also have to register a Google Non Profit account, this is the respective link.
• Once you registered your account you can immediately start creating your campaigns. Again a few things to consider, but always keep in mind that we are your professional partner in case you wish support 🙂
  • To enroll in Google Ad Grants, your AdWords account must meet the following criteria:
    • Your account uses the US dollar (USD) as the currency, regardless of your location. Ignore all alerts to add other billing information.
    • Your account contains at least 1 active mission based Search campaign.
    • Your account contains at least 2 active ad groups, each containing a set of closely related keywords.
    • Your account contains 2 active ads per ad group.
    • For ad extensions, you must create at least 2 sitelinks for your ad. Callouts are also recommended.
    • Your ad uses relevant geo-targeting. This means that the non profit must be relevant to the location. It is limited to the country of your registered office!
    • Your ad links to a relevant landing page.
    • Your landing page is on a high-quality website
    • Your ad uses conversion tracking with defined conversion values (either in AdWords or imported from a linked Google Analytics account).
    • Keywords are subject to a 2.00 USD bid cap

• Managing the account, this can become a real minefield and suspensions happen often without any warning!
  • for example the following Keywords are not permitted:
    • Single-word keywords (excluding your own branded words, recognized medical conditions, acronyms, and a small number of exception keywords published like charity or NGO)
    • Overly generic keywords like “best videos”, “cool apps”, “e-books”, “today’s news”, “easy yoga”, “download games”, “things to do”, “job alert”, or names of other organizations, places, historical events, or people on their own
    • Allowed examples include “museums in [your city name]”, “emergency preparedness apps” or “YouTube video to learn English”, but not your city name, Android apps, or YouTube on their own
    • Keywords with a Quality Score of 1 or 2, so it’s best practice to set up an  automated rule to pause low quality keywords automatically.
  • Ad Grants AdWords account must maintain a 5% click-through rate (CTR) each month (at the account level, not necessarily each keyword)
  • Within a month of campaign activation, consider changing your bid strategy for your campaigns to Maximize conversions, Target CPA, or Target ROAS.  These conversion-based bidding strategies are not subject to the $2.00 USD bid cap.

Does this sound like too much effort or too complicated? Let’s talk Ping Marketing can help!