The Limits of Google Grants

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Understanding the Restrictions, Uses, and Why Standard Google Ads Win the Auction Every Time

For nonprofit and mission-driven organizations, Google Ad Grants can feel like a no-brainer. On the surface, it appears to be a gateway to meaningful visibility at zero cost. However, in practice, the performance, reach and relevance gap between grant accounts and standard paid search accounts is significant.

What Are Google Grant Ad Accounts?

Google Grants are an entirely free program run through Google that is built exclusively for verified, registered charities and nonprofit organizations. This program allows them to enter the advertiser space by receiving a grant up to $10,000 per month in ad budget. However, as with anything that is free, it comes with some restrictions.

Restrictions of Google Grants

Grant ads are text-based ads, and only eligible to run on the search network. This means they do not have access to using any Display, Shopping, or YouTube campaigns. Additionally, there is a long list of compliance that needs to be met, as well as several limitations that make the account high-touch and oftentimes difficult to maintain.

• 5% minimum CTR required; falling below this can risk account suspension
• Bidding restrictions
• Campaign structure adherence
• No Single keywords, generic terms, or keywords with quality scores below 3
• Budgets do not roll over
• Strict compliance with Google policies
• Website content and ranking compliance
• And others

All of these restrictions do not apply to a standard Google Ads account, making it an easier choice for advertisers.

Grant accounts struggle to show up on competitive, high-value keywords and queries because they operate in a secondary auction. These ads often show far below the standard ad auctions or only when others in the auction have exhausted their budget.

With Google Grants, your website also has a large impact on performance. If your website is poorly designed, not mobile friendly, has minimal content, not ranking organically, or is focusing on content that is too broad or donation focused, your ads will struggle to receive traffic. Your website also must be entirely mission focused. This means that any commercial calls to action cannot be the primary focus of the site. CTAs that are allowed are similar to:

• Donate Now
• Register for Event
• Shop Our Cause

While CTAs that cannot be prevalent on your site may be similar to:

• Start Your Free Trail
• Shop Now & Save
• Get a Free Quote

Testing Grants vs Standard Google Ad Accounts

When a client wanted to eliminate budget from a standard account and only use the Grant account, we decided to put it to the test before making any definitive decisions. We set up Branded search in the Grant account as a standalone campaign, while pausing Brand traffic in the standard campaign. We were looking to see if the Grant account would be able to capture users in the Brand net for future replacement of Brand budget in the standard account. We ran this for six weeks and compared the data to that of the previous six weeks in the Standard account.

We went into the test with the hypothesis that running Branded search through a Grants account would not generate the same volume of traffic and leads as a standard paid campaign. Six weeks later and the data confirmed this.

Data Results from Test

	Grants	Standard
Impressions	74	9,348
Clicks	8	305
Spend	$5.80	$714.67
CTR	11.11%	18.79%
CPC	$0.73	$2.34
Impression Share	35.84%	31.26%

The data shows that there’s competitiveness between the two when looking specifically at CTR, CPC and Impression Share. Without impression data, the Grant account could look like a viable option to many. The moment you add the impression data, the picture changes and you can see that the “free money” quickly turns into loss of visibility among target users. It is not contributing to measurable goals like phone calls or form fills. This means the true cost of the low volume of clicks and conversions is the missed opportunity to reach the user. ​

When looking specifically at Impression Share, the Grant account actually showed a higher percentage than the standard account. In reality, it proves the limitations of Grant accounts: the auction eligibility is dramatically restricted. A high impression share within a small eligible pool still means almost no real reach for the Brand. The campaign showed up well in the auctions that it was eligible to show for, it was simply eligible for many less of them.

When Do Grant Accounts Make Sense?

None of this means that a Grant account is worthless. It simply means that Grant accounts are better suited for the beginning of a user journey, rather than the end of one. Grants can also be helpful when your goal is to promote free programs or services, drive donations, volunteer signups, event registrations, and in some cases, build long term awareness without increasing spend.

At the End of the Day

• Never substitute a Grant budget for paid budget when lead generation or volume is the goal
• Branded terms in a Grant account can create the illusion of reach, but always layer in conversion data against performance
• Grants are best utilized for low-cost awareness building within the charity and non-profit space

The Grant campaign is suitable for low-cost and slow-paced top-of-funnel awareness but cannot substitute for paid investment when lead volume is the goal.