Google Ad Grant Management
Specialists
If you’re a non-profit organisation registered as a charity, you may be eligible to receive $10,000USD in Google advertising spend each month.
This means you will be able to generate traffic to your website through search ads whenever your target audience search for relevant keywords on Google, without paying a cent! At PN Digital, we help charities create effective campaigns, drive highly relevant traffic that is likely to convert, and set up all the measurement techniques so we can accurately determine the value it is driving your organisation.
Campaigns for Google grant accounts work in almost the same way as for paying advertisers, however there are a few additional restrictions that need to be adhered to, otherwise you can be at risk of losing the grant. When PN Digital manage your grant, we partner with you to ensure you remain compliant with all restrictions.
GOOGLE AD GRANT MANAGEMENT & STRATEGY
Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Website
Our PPC and Google Ad teams work with NFPs to help them secure and manage their Google Ad Grant.
Get Started – enquire now.
What is a Google Ad Grant &
How Do They Work?
Google Ads helps to connect your organisation with your target audience whether this be donors, users of your services, their family members etc. For example, an animal welfare charity would want their ad to show when users were searching online for dogs to adopt in their geographic area. By targeting the keywords “dog adoption” and “cat adoption” etc. we can show your ad at the top of the search results.
When the user clicks this ad, advertisers pay a fee to Google – (unless you have a grant account of course!). The cost is different for every single keyword and is determined through an auction. Clicks can range from $0.01 to $30, depending on what other advertisers are willing to pay. The clicks and costs accrue, and advertisers are billed at the end of the month. Grant accounts can accrue $10,000USD worth of clicks per month, which resets on the 1st of each month.
At PN Digital we always aim to make full use of this grant spend so you’re getting as much traffic as possible, while ensuring it is the right traffic.
Application & Eligibility Requirements:
Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it! I’m sure you’re asking how do I sign up? First things first, we need to find out if you’re eligible. PN Digital can assist with the entire application process on your behalf. Here are the primary requirements:
- Your non-profit must hold a valid charity status
- Government entities, hospitals school and universities are not eligible, but philanthropic arms of educational institutions are
- Your organisation must have a high quality website
- You must agree to Google’s required certifications regarding non-discrimination and donation receipt and use.
Google Ad Grant Rules and Restrictions:
Google have a long list of requirements that grant recipients need to adhere to.
These are in place to ensure Google remains a user friendly platform that is delivering value. What this means in reality, is that you can only target keywords that are extremely relevant to your organisation, often restricting the amount of traffic you can get and the budget you can spend.
PN Digital are specialists in managing grant accounts and can ensure that we will be utilising the grant budget as best as possible. Furthermore, failure to adhere to any of the restrictions can result in your account being suspended, and ultimately being removed from the grant program. To ensure this does not happen, PN Digital will look after the compliance regulations.
These include:
- Google Ad Grant accounts must maintain a click-through-rate (CTR) of 5% each month. If the CTR requirement isn’t met for 2 consecutive months, your account will be cancelled.
- Google Ad Grant accounts must have specific geo-targeting settings to show ads in locations that are relevant.
- Google Ad Grant accounts must have:
a. At least 2 active ad groups per campaign each consisting of a set of closely related keywords and 2 active text ads.
b. At least 2 sitelink extensions. - There is a $2 maximum bid cap for keywords, unless you are using the “maximise conversions” bidding strategy.
- Google Ad Grant accounts must now keep their quality scores above 3 at the keyword level.
- Google Ad Grant accounts cannot use keywords that are not specific to your organisations primary mission. Therefore the following keywords are not permitted:
a. Branded keywords that you don’t own (i.e. Google or YouTube).
b. Single-word keywords (excluding your own brand name or acronyms).
c. Overly generic keywords (e.g. free videos, e-books, today’s news, easy yoga, download games, job alert, names of places or people).
Google Ad Grant Management and Support:
At PN Digital, we love working with non-profits! We get a real kick out of helping organisations that are doing good in the world and making their job easier where possible. We pride ourselves on our expertise in Google Ad grant accounts, ensuring they remain compliant and optimising them so they deliver as much benefit as possible. The Google platform is regularly changing, and it is our job to keep up with these constant updates to ensure we can serve you better.
Mel is our in-house Google Ads Guru. With over 9 years specialising solely on Google advertising, she knows what is best for your campaign before Google do! Proactive and enthusiastic, your well-crafted ads will be at the top of Google in no time. It’s time to make a real impact on that “How did you hear about us” survey.
GOOGLE AD GRANT FAQS
Am I eligible for the Google Ad Grant?
To be eligible for Google Ad Grants, your organisation must hold a valid charity status. You also must have a high quality website. The full eligibility requirements can be found here.
How do I apply for the Google Ad Grant?
We can help with that! We’ve done this many times before and can help make the application quick and easy for you. Applications begin here.
How is the Google Ad Grant different to regular Google Ads?
Participants of the grant program receive $10,000USD per month to spend on text ads. Regular Google Ads requires that a credit card is linked to the account and are charged each month for the corresponding traffic they accrue. Grant participants also have to adhere to strict regulations to maintain the grant.
What are the Google Ad Grant restrictions?
The most pressing restrictions include:
- Ensure your organisation only targets keywords with a quality score of a minimum of 3/10
- Maintaining a click-through-rate of 5% for the entire account
- Not targeting single word or overly generic keywords
- Using at least 2 ad groups per campaign
- Using at least 2 sitelinks
- Only targeting relevant geographic areas.
Do I have to spend the $10K every month to keep my Ad Grant?
No, and it’s quite common to spend less than this because we are limited to targeting keywords that adhere to the above policies.
Is it okay to have an Ad Grants account and a standard, paid Google Ads account at the same time?
Yes and this is often recommended so your organisation can make the most of other networks such as display, remarketing, YouTube and shopping.
Do Ad Grants campaigns compete with paid Google Search campaigns?
No, Ad Grants ads appear only on Google search results pages, either independently or in positions below paid ads.
I accidentally created a standard, paid Google Ads account instead of a grant account. What do I do?
It is likely you were approved for the Grant, but did not accept the account invitation (hint: search your Gmail for an email titled “invitation to access your Google Ad Grant account”).
You’ll first need to deactivate your Google ads account (Tools & settings > setup > preferences > deactivate account).
Then remove your access to your account (Tools & settings > access & security > remove access under “actions”).
Try to accept the invitation in the email again. If it has expired, use this form to request an invitation to your Google Ad Grant account to be resent to you: https://support.google.com/grants/contact/grants_account_access_no_info.
