Major Changes To Google Ad Grants Program For Nonprofits On January 1st

Last week, Google emailed Google Ad Grants program participants to let them know about some major changes that are coming to the program. These changes go into effect on January 1, 2018, so it is critical that organizations participating in the program understand what is happening!

The Big Changes By Category

Keywords

Keyword bidding rules are changing for Google Grants advertisers. Specifically, the following policies will be in effect as of January 1st:

• Bidding on terms you do not own (like Google or another organization's name for example) is prohibited
• Bidding on keywords deemed "overly generic" is also prohibited
• Single word keywords may not be bid on (except for your own brand and a small list of exception words)
• Keywords with a Quality Score of 2 or lower may not be used

Full documentation can be found here for these policy changes.

Account Structure

There are changes to the way your campaigns must be structured. All campaigns must meet the following requirements:

• Contain at least two ad groups per campaign
• Contain at least two text ads per ad group
• Enable two sitelink extensions per campaign (may use same sitelinks for multiple campaigns)
• Have appropriate geo targeting relevant to your organization

Full documentation on these polices can be found here.

Account Performance - This Is A Big One

All Google Grants AdWords accounts must maintain an average account Click Through Rate (CTR) of 5%. Failure to meet this average will result in your account being cancelled.

Full documentation on this policy can be found here.

$2 Bid Limit Lifted (Under Certain Circumstances)

The $2.00 bid cap/limit will be lifted IF you use the Maximize Conversions automated bidding in AdWords.

In order to use the Maximize Conversions bidding you must:

• Set up and enable Conversion Tracking on your web site
• Have each campaign on its own budget (no shared budgets)

With this bidding strategy in place, bids may be over the previous $2 threshold if your conversion history warrants higher bids.

Conversion tracking documentation can be found here.

Advertising On Your Web Site

You may not run AdSense on your web site and participate in the Google Grants program. Other advertising is likely also prohibited if it functions similarly to AdSense.

Full documentation can be found here for these policy changes.

Don't Ignore The Annual Google Grants Survey!

From the policy page:

"We'll send an annual Ad Grants program survey, and will expect your response to participate in the program...

 If you miss the survey deadline and your account is cancelled, just fill out the survey. Completing the survey will initiate a review for account reinstatement that will be addressed within 10 business days."

Don't Wait To Address Your Account

Despite the timing being terrible for nonprofits in the throes of end of the year campaigns, this is something that must be addressed before the end of 2017.

All of these changes go into effect as of January 1, 2018 (although the bidding cap removal is already in place). Notices to accounts that are out of compliance with the new policies will begin to be sent as early as January 1st. Be sure to monitor the email account associated with your Google Grants account so that you don't miss important communications about the status of your account.

Need help managing any of this stuff? Call us - 484-341-8181 or email us [email protected].