Making the most of your Google Ad Grant

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Making the most of your Google Ad Grant

Google offers advertising grants for charities

Times are tough for charities, now more than ever, and many are struggling to stay afloat with an increase in demand for services, and usual means of fundraising not possible since the COVID19 outbreak. 

However, thousands of nonprofit organisations, serving a wide variety of causes such as health, education and humanitarianism are benefiting from Google Ad Grants. 

A Google Ad Grant offers charities, in 67 countries, free advertising spend to amplify their mission, generate much-needed donations and get their message in front of those who matter the most.

What it could mean for your organisation

A Google Ad Grant provides charities with $10,000 (USD) to utilise each month across text-based ads (display and video advertising is currently unavailable for Grants accounts). Organisations can use this budget to drive donations, attract volunteers, raise awareness or reach those who are in need of their service.

If this sounds like it could benefit your charity or initiative, simply request a Google for nonprofits account by filling in the online eligibility form. As long as your organisation is active, registered and holds valid charity status, you should hear back within 3 working days. Get ready to leverage Google’s technology to spread the word about your mission.

Key considerations for your ad grant

In order to maintain eligibility, you’ll need to ensure that your account meets certain criterias set out by Google –

  • Your account will need to maintain a CTR (click through rate) of 5% or above (individual keywords may be lower than this, but the total account must maintain >5%). New accounts are given a 90-day grace period and accounts will only be flagged if the minimum CTR has not been achieved for 2 consecutive months, giving you plenty of time to take action if your CTR starts to fall. 
  • All keywords will need to maintain a Quality Score of 2/10 or above. Any keywords below this should be paused immediately to avoid deactivation. 
  • Single word keywords are prohibited, unless the keyword is an owned brand term, a medical condition, or very closely relates to your organisation. For example, use of the keyword ‘homeless’ would be permitted for a homelessness prevention charity. 
  • Location settings must be applied to target the audience most relevant to your organisation. For example, a charity preventing homlessness in London, should choose only to show their ads in the London area. 
  • Minimum of 2 active ad groups containing at least 2 active ads and sitelink extensions must be utilised.
  • New accounts (or those created after April 2019) will need to harness Google’s automated bidding strategies. Choose from Maximise Conversions, Maximise Clicks, Target CPA (cost per acquisition)  or Target ROAS (return on ad spend).
  • Website domains must be approved through the Google Grants enrolment process, and conversion tracking must be set-up (if applicable), reporting at least one, meaningful conversion per month. 

Some top tips for making the most of your ad grant

  • Use an automated rule to pause keywords with a quality score of 1 or 2.
  • Utilise all match types and don’t be afraid to test highly-relevant full broad keywords if spending the full budget is proving tricky – but remember to have a robust negative list in place.
  • Utilise scripts to send automated alerts whenever your account is at-risk of falling below the minimum thresholds. 
  • Build your campaign structure with automated bidding in mind. Categorise campaigns to ensure that conversion data is consolidated into fewer campaigns. The more data per campaign, the better Google’s machine learning functionality will work.
  • Take advantage of  Google’s library of resources created specifically for grantees.  

If you’d like to get more from your Google Grants account contact us to find out how we could help:


Get in touch