HOW TO MAINTAIN GOOGLE GRANTS COMPLIANCE
Google recently changed their policy toward Ad Grant Adwords programs. If you want to keep your Google Ad Grant account healthy and active, please read this post or forward this post to the person in your organization that manages your Grant. For a comprehensive review of Google Grant Rescue Techniques, visit our Google Grant Rescue Guide. If you are concerned about Google Grants Compliance, here are the most significant changes to the Google Ad Grant policies.
- Keywords and queries no longer permitted
- Branded keywords that you don’t own (like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram)
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- Names of newspapers
- Names of other organizations
- Single-word keywords
- There are a few exceptions – please see this small list of other exception keywords
- Terms with dashes, periods or special characters are not treated as single words
- Generic keywords like “free videos,” “download games,” names of places and names of historical events/people.
- Keywords with a quality score of 2 or less (learn more about your quality score here
- You must use geo-targeting
- You must have:
- At least 2 active ad groups per campaign each containing a set of closely related keywords and 2 active text ads
- At least 2 sitelink ad extensions
- IMPORTANT – All Ad Grants AdWords accounts must maintain a 5% click-through rate each month.
- You must respond to the annual Ad Grants program survey. Failure to do so will cause your account to be suspended or canceled. Completing the survey will initiate a review for account reinstatement that will take up to 10 business days.
- All of these policy changes are effective January 1st, 2018, so it is extremely important that you make any changes to your account ASAP!
- Read the full set of policy changes here.
For non-profits, Google Ad Grants are designed to help promote their missions, attract volunteers, and get donations, and build awareness. Qualified nonprofits can make a major impact with the Google Grant – after all – who can’t use an extra $120,000 per year in online advertising.
ADDITIONAL 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
Mission-Based Google Grants Compliance Requirement
In addition, your Ad Grants account must clearly reflect the organization’s mission, programs, and services. This means your messages should be relevant! Check your quality scores to see how Google is comparing your ads to your landing pages!
IMPORTANT – Website Requirements
What hasn’t changed is the domains your organization wishes to use must be approved during the Ad Grants enrollment process or through the additional website domain(s) request form. What has also not changed is the use of approved domains. Approved domains must abide by following criteria:
- Your organization must own the domains being used in your ads.
- Your organization’s website must not contain broken links
- Your organization’s website must function well and have a clear description of your organization and its mission.
Ad Grant Restrictions
There are certain restrictions that come with the Google Grants program 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, 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
