Commonly Asked Questions

Is Google Ad Grants Legit?

Google Ad Grants is legit and is a product provided by Google under its program Google for Nonprofits. More information can be found here.

How much do you get for Google Grants?

If your nonprofits are eligible for Google Grants, you will be given $10,000 USD per month to spend as your marketing budget on Google Search Ads platform. There is also a maximum spend amount of $329 USD per day for Google Grants accounts. Your Grants account maximum spend each month may differ if there are less or more days in the month.

What is the Google Ad Grants Program?

Google Ad Grants shows your message to people searching for nonprofits like yours. Each qualifying nonprofit has access to up to $10,000 USD per month in search ads shown on Google.com. Additional Google Ads may be purchased in a separate account. Nonprofits’ Grants accounts also have a maximum daily spend of $329 USD.

What is the monthly budget for Google Grants?

Google Grants’ monthly budget for nonprofits is $10,000 USD.

How do I get Google Ad Grants?

To apply for Google Ad Grants, you need to:

• Register with your country’s TechSoup affiliate
• Apply for Google for Nonprofits
• Once application is approved, accept invitation to create an Google Ad Grants account
• Talk to Advertience for a free consultation

Is Google Ad Grants for real?

Google Ads Grants is a real program that provides eligible nonprofits with $10,000 USD per month to spend on Google search ads.

What can I use Google Grants for?

The Google Ad Grants can go a long way in helping nonprofits to recruit volunteers and donors, promote their services and mission, reach the individuals they serve, and more. By providing up to $10,000 USD per month in free advertising credits, the Ad Grants enables organizations to increase their online visibility and attract more traffic to their website. This can lead to increased engagement with potential donors and volunteers, as well as greater awareness of the nonprofits’ mission and impact.

How do Google Ad Grants work?

Google Ad Grants works just like Google Ads online advertising, by displaying your message to people who are searching for nonprofits like yours. If you’re a qualifying nonprofit, you’ll receive $10,000 USD in in-kind Google Ads advertising every month.

Is Google Ads Grants $10,000 USD?

Yes, the Google Ad Grants provides a monthly budget of $10,000 USD and a maximum spend amount of $329 USD per day. The maximum spend amount may vary each month depending on the number of days in that month.

What is a Google Ad Grants?

Google Ad Grants shows your message to people searching for nonprofits like yours. Each qualifying nonprofit has access to up to $10,000 USD per month in search ads shown on Google.com. Additional Google Ads may be purchased in a separate account. Google Ad Grants accounts also have a maximum daily spend of $329 USD.

How much can a nonprofit get from Google Grants?

Each nonprofit is eligible to $10,000 USD per month from Google Ad Grants to use for paid search ads on the Google ads platform

What are the Google Ad Grants requirements?

To qualify for Google Ad Grants, your organization must be an eligible nonprofit, have a high-quality website that meets Google’s website policy, and be able to meet the program policies.

1. Be registered as a charitable organization in one of the countries listed below. All organizations must also be verified as a Non-For-Profit.
   • By Percent for organizations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand.
   • by TechSoup or the local TechSoup partner for organization in all other countries listed below
2. Meet the requirements in its own country. For Canada, you must be a Non-For-Profit with a registered charity number issued by the CRA.
3. Agree to the Google for Nonprofits Additional Terms of Service.

Is there a deadline to apply for Google Ad Grants?

If your nonprofit organization is interested in applying for the Google Ad Grants but doesn’t have the bandwidth to do so just yet, there’s good news: there are no deadlines! The Google Ad Grants team reviews applications on a rolling basis, which means that you can apply whenever you’re prepared. 

Once your nonprofits start the application process, you and your nonprofits can move through it at your own pace. If you need to pause for any reason, you can pick up where you left off whenever you’re ready. This flexibility allows nonprofit organizations to take their time and ensure that they’re submitting the best possible application.

Do Google Ad Grants campaigns compete with paid Google Search campaigns?

No, Google Ad Grants ads are restricted to Google search results pages and are displayed either on their own or below paid ads.

What kind of ads can I run? Can I run Display ads as well?

Google only allows text-based ads on Google search result pages. Google Search Partners and Display Network are not available to be targeted.

Can small organizations compete with large organizations on Google.com and see benefits from running Google Ads via the Google Ad Grants program?

Relevancy is highly valued by Google Ads. In fact, small local Grantees that use location-specific keywords and targeting may appear ahead of larger national organizations. Due to the highly competitive advertising landscape, many Grantees operate in. Nonprofits can consider investing in a paid Google Ads account during critical times of the year, such as year-end giving season, to bid on competitive keywords and increase their reach and visibility.

Why are CPC capped at $2?

A manual bid limit prevents auction inflation so that nonprofits can earn more clicks with their Ad Grants budget. Accounts using a conversion-based automated bidding strategy like Maximize Conversions, Target CPA and/or Target ROAS may bid over the manual limit.

How is the CPC cap at $2 going to affect my ad performance?

Due to the CPC cap at $2, noprofits are often unable to bid on higher cost keywords such as “donation”, “donation to non-profits”, “donation for holidays”, or “donation for tax receipt”, etc. This makes it very difficult for nonprofits to utilize the $10,000 USD given by Google given the cap. However, Advertience has created an algorithm that overcomes these restrictions and captures keywords with CPC at an average of $7-$10. With Advertience’s solution, non-for-profits can now reach their target audience more effectively and efficiently than ever before.

Is the CTR (5% or above) policy requirement at the account level?

Yes. Some individual keywords for nonprofits may have a lower CTR, but the total clicks divided by the total impressions in an account each month must be at least 5% to comply with policy.

Do paused keywords impact CTR?

Yes. Pausing keywords for nonprofits that are not as relevant to the website or ad copy will be helpful in increasing overall CTR.

Can I create ads that target my competitors?

Eligible not-for-profit organizations are only allowed to promote through their  branded keywords or generic keywords, It is no longer allowed to target competing brands or non-relevant keywords.

What kind of ads can I run? Can I run Display ads as well?

Google only allows text-based ads on Google search result pages. Google Search Partners and the Display Network are not available for Google Ad Grants accounts to target.

Will there be any consequences if I spend less than $10,000 USD each month? What if I spend more than $10,000 USD?

There won’t be any consequences if Google Ad Grants accounts spend less or more than $10,000 USD per month. Some nonprofit organizations may spend more than $10,000 USD, which is great news. Since Google Ad Grants accounts are never billed, so there is no worry about spending more than $10,000 USD a month.

Is there a chance that I might get suspended or lose my account?

Google reserves the right to suspend your account and pause your ads if you fall out of compliance with the Ad Grants Policies. Some of these policies include:

• Maintaining a 5% click-through rate each month
• Optimizing at least once a month
• Not using one-word or generic keywords
• Minimum quality score of 3
• Having at least 2 ads per ad group and 2 ad groups per campaign

How much should I optimize my campaign?

Google requires one optimization for Ad Grants accounts per month, which could include changing bids, adding or pausing keywords, modifying ad copy, and more. However, as advertisers, we know that this is not always sufficient since the market is constantly changing.

Can I add a second domain to my Ad Grants account?

Yes, your nonprofits organization is permitted to utilize only those website domains that have been approved via the Ad Grants enrollment process or the request form for additional website domains.

What is the grace period for new accounts to get in compliance? 

Yes, new Google Ad Grant accounts have a grace period of 90 days to attain the minimum CTR level of 5%, as we understand that it takes time to increase and refine performance.

Do Ad Grants campaigns compete with paid Google Search campaigns?

As Google only allows one ad per domain in the search ad on Google SERP, if both your Google Grant and O-O-P (out of pocket) campaigns are on the same domain, there will be only one ad showing either from Google Grant or OOP account, depending on the available budget combined with quality score.  However, this is not considered competition as they are not inflating each other’s CPC, instead, we consider Google Grant and OOP account will complement each other with a combined higher budget.