Google Grant Suspended? Fix it with Google Ad Grant Management and Compliance.
One of the biggest issues facing nonprofit organizations is how to get the word out about their cause and raise money. With the Google Grant, you can check off both boxes.
Google Ad Grants, which is part of the Google for Nonprofits program, gives approved nonprofit advertisers up to $10,000 per month in in-kind advertising dollars.
Google Grants is a Game Changer
Google Grants are a big deal – even for novice non-profit marketers who may not understand every single detail of Google Grant Administration.
Google Grants are an excellent way for a non-profit with minimal resources to gain visibility on search. With all of that said, with the ongoing requirement to fine-tune bids, keywords, and budgets it can become a significant challenge to meet Google’s requirements for keeping the grant.
If you’re just starting out with Google Grants, you should know the following:
Who’s not eligible for the Google Grant?
- Schools
- Childcare centers
- Academic institutions
- Universities
- Government entities and organizations
- Hospitals and healthcare organizations
- Philanthropic branches of educational organizations, although those may be eligible for a subsidiary of the Grant called Google for Education.
Once you confirm your eligibility, you have to apply for a Google for Nonprofits account. This is the account that will allow you to login and enroll in the Google for Nonprofits program. Once your main account is approved, you’ll have to enroll in Google Ad Grants and set-up your AdWords account. Do it right or your Google Grant account will be suspended.
Get set up for Google Ad Grant Management
Google offers two different AdWords account options: traditional AdWords, which allows you to manage the ins and outs of your campaign, or AdWords Express, an automated approach that is much easier to run on your own.
Google has detailed instructions on how to setup Adwords for each type of account in order to get it approved for Ad Grants. If you’re a beginner, AdWords Express is probably the best option, but you’ll miss out on the opportunities of traditional Adwords management.
Regardless of what you choose, pay close attention to the type of account you decide to set-up. Ignoring Google’s warnings, rules and regulations will quickly get you out of compliance.
Creating a traditional AdWords account will take a little more time – about 2-4 hours according to Google. Here are the detailed instructions on setting up a traditional AdWords account. There are a few things to keep in mind during campaign setup:
- Ignore all alerts to add billing information
- You must use US Dollar as your currency
- Only advertise on the Search Network.
- Uncheck “include search partners”
- You must manually set your bids
- Your default bid cannot be higher than $2, so make sure you do your keyword research
- Your total daily budget must not exceed $329 – that means you have to split budgets accordingly if you have multiple campaigns running
- Once you’ve finished setting everything up, you must submit the account for approval. You should get an email in about 5 business days to confirm whether or not your account has been approved.
Google Ad Grants Management Requirements
But wait, there’s more. Once you get the setup done, you’ll need to make sure you’re managing the account according to Google Ad Grant Requirements. By enforcing these requirements, you assure yourself of greater success within your Adwords campaigns.
- You must have geo-targeting enabled and must set target locations relevant to your organization
- Every campaign must have at least two active ad groups.
- Every ad group must contain at least two active text ads.
- Every ad group must contain highly-relevant keywords.
- You must use at least two site link extensions
- Your account must maintain a 5% click-through rate (CTR) every month: If your account is at risk of falling below 5%, you will receive a warning. If your account does not achieve a 5% for two consecutive months, your account will be suspended.
If you need to fix a suspended Google Grant, or if you need help managing your nonprofit Google Adwords account, take a look at our Google Ad Grants Rescue Guide or get in touch. We can help you get your suspended Adwords account reinstated. Reach out to us today to speak about our PPC management services.
OTHER RESOURCES
- Learn more about Macon Raine’s Google Ad Grant Management services.
- Google Grants Case Studies – Travel Industry
- Google Grants Case Study – Trade Association
- Google Grants Case Study – Non-Profit
- What to do if your Google Ad Grant is Suspended
New to Google for Non-Profits? Here’s How To Get Started.
Step 1: Tech Soup For Non Profits
Google uses TechSoup to confirm that all organizations applying to Google for Nonprofits are charitable nonprofit organizations in good standing. TechSoup is a nonprofit with local partners around the world. Their mission is to equip non-profit, non-governmental organizations with technology solutions and skills.
Step 2: Google For Non Profits
The Google for Nonprofits Program offers eligible organizations access to Google products and special features designed for nonprofits. These tools help nonprofits find new donors and volunteers, work efficiently, and drive more awareness and action for 501(c)(3)s.
Step 3: Setup AdWords & Ad Grant Enrollment
Imagine what your non profit could do with $10,000 USD of paid advertising every month from Google AdWords. You could find more volunteers, get more donations, raise awareness, educate, and share your story with the right audiences everywhere.
Before enrolling in Ad Grants, you must establish a new AdWords or AdWords Express account that meets certain requirements. Confused or need help? Give us a call.
Step 4: Launch & Management
Once we’ve launched the AdWords Ad Grant account for your 501(c)(3), we’ll have a 30 minute discovery meeting with you to discuss strategies that will benefit your 501(c)(3) and how you can best utilize your grant. We’ll put together a successful strategy to fast track your initiatives and build out your campaigns. We provide in depth keyword research on you and your competitors and we will work with you to maximize your $10K per month ad grant spend and find true value for your non-profit.
Ad Grant Restrictions
There are certain restrictions that come with the Google Grants program, including new restrictions as of January 1, 2018, but Macon Raine is experienced in launching, growing, and maxing out the monthly grant of $10K/Month. Some of the program restrictions include daily budgets are set to $329.00 USD, costs-per-click are limited to a max bid of $2.00, keyword only (search network) campaigns, and only text ads. Learn more about all Google Ad Grant restrictions here: https://support.google.com/grants/answer/1689506
What should you do if your Google Grant was suspended?
It helps to know Google’s new Ad Grant policies:
- If your click-through rate falls below 5% for two consecutive months, it will be suspended.
- With a few exceptions, single word keywords are banned.
- Keywords must reflect your mission – don’t try to use every keyword just to drive traffic.
- Geotargeting is mandatory.
- Poor quality scores are bad
- Each campaign must have at least two ad groups.
- Your account needs at least two site links.
If you get a warning from Google – JUMP. Fix things ASAP or your Google grant will be suspended.
Remember, Google’s focus has always been on ad quality. Google makes money when people find things easily. Your ads should help people find exactly what they want. Be useful and make your ads useful. When you use your Adwords grant to help the right people find you, Google is happy.
Next – quality matters. If your quality was low, you probably lost impressions. If your quality score was high, you probably saw an increase in CTR and a reduced CPC. Same goes for your website, iif your website has lots of broken links, you saw a drop in traffic.
If you use Adwords Express…
Relax, these new rules don’t apply to you. The Ad Grants team stated that their aim is not to push nonprofits into using Adwords Express, but it’s a viable option if you don’t have the capacity to run a full Adwords account.
The 5% CTR
If you don’t have a 5% CTR, you should be worried. Luckily, this applies to your account as a whole, not individual campaigns or keywords. You are allowed to fall below 5% for one month, but not two consecutive months. Here are some practical tips:
ACTION ITEMS
- Your first task should be to identify those keywords getting a lot of impressions but a low CTR and delete them.
- Cut, cut, cut keywords that are not performing. The further away from 5%, the more you should cut.
- Put your top performing keywords into single keyword groups. Ads in those groups must contain the exact same keyword in the ad text.
- Focus on your quality score. Is the wording of your ads similar to the keywords that trigger them? If not, you are likely to get a low CTR, and also a low Quality Score which makes it less likely your ads will get shown.
- Create an ad group tightly focused on your brand, with your branded keywords including the name of your organization. This competes with organic search but it will generate a high CTR.
- Focus. Don’t throw every keyword at the wall, build your campaigns slowly and match the language they use in searches.
- Kill any keyword with a low quality score.
MAXIMIZE CONVERSIONS
Do you struggle to get impressions because your organization works in a competitive field where other advertisers can afford to bid much more? You are no longer limited to the Manual bidding strategy, where you specify a bid amount of $2. You can now use the Maximize Conversions bidding strategy, and the good news is that if Adwords thinks you’re worthy enough, your keywords can automatically bid well above $2. From my personal experience, approximately 8% of keywords bid over $2—enough to make it worthwhile.
GOOGLE GRANT SUSPENDED? WE’RE HERE TO HELP!
