What are Google Ads?

Google Ads are the paid listings on Google’s search engine results, these can come in many forms, but the main ones are text-based ads and marked as ‘sponsored’, these can also appear as shopping-based ads, plus display ads in other places online. The Google Ads grant for charities allows you to have a text-based ad for your non-profit, totally for free – pushing traffic to your website.

Is your Charity Eligible for a Google Ads Grant?

For UK charities to qualify for a Google Ad Grant, organisations must meet the following criteria:

• Be a registered UK charity or non-profit – in England or Wales this means you must be registered with the Charity Commission and in Scotland and Northern Ireland pass the ‘Charity Test’ as outlined by the OSCR. Non-profits must have charitable tax-exempt tax status with HMRC.
• Not be a governmental entity or organisation, hospital, school, academic institution, or university.
• Agree to the terms of service for Google for Non-Profits and Google Ads.
• Have a high-quality website with content that complies with Google’s website policies. This means that the website must be secured with HTTPS; not contain any broken links; have unique content; have clear descriptions of your organisation and its goals; clear navigation and calls to action.

Do you qualify?:

To be eligible for Google Grants charity PPC an organization must:

• Hold current and valid charity status (i.e. Registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales; and/or Registered with HM Revenue & Customs as a charity for tax relief.)
• Acknowledge and agree to Google’s required certifications regarding non-discrimination and donation receipt and use.
• Have a live website with substantial content.
• Governmental entities and organizations, hospitals and medical groups, schools, academic institutions and universities are not eligible for Google for Non-profits, but philanthropic arms of educational institutions are eligible.

How to stay qualified:

To maintain your eligibility for Google Ad Grants, your organisation must abide by program policies.

• All the ads in your account must link to the non-profit URL that was approved in your application process.
• You must be engaged and proactive in your Google Ads account by logging in to the account, at least, monthly.
• The ads you are promoting must reflect the mission of your non-profit. You can advertise to sell products as long as 100% of the proceeds are going to support your program.
• The ads you create cannot point to pages that are used to primarily send visitors to other websites.
• Your ads cannot offer financial products, such as mortgages or credit cards.
• Your ads also cannot be asking for donations in the form of large goods such as cars, boats or property donations. Keywords related to this activity are also not allowed.
• Your website cannot display ads from Google AdSense or other affiliate advertising links while participating in Google Grants
• A daily budget set to £329, which is equivalent to about £10,000 per month
• A maximum cost-per-click (CPC) limit of £2.00 (without bid strategies)
• Paid adverts will always appear above grants adverts.
• It is limited to the search market. You cannot run ads in the display market.
• Ad Grantees may only promote mission-based ads and keywords in their Google Ads account.

The fine print:

• Maintain a 5% Click through rate (CTR). CTR is the ratio showing how often people who see your ad end up clicking it. If your account doesn’t achieve at least a 5% CTR for two consecutive months, your account will be cancelled.
• Non-profits cannot buy branded keywords they don’t own.
• Keywords must have quality scores of 3 or higher.
• Campaigns must have at least two ad groups with at least two ads running in each.
• Accounts also must have at least two sitelink extensions active.
• Accounts must have geotargeting.
• Most single-word keywords are prohibited, the idea being non-profits should choose well-targeted keywords.
• Contact us to help you with the management of your campaigns and get the best return for this amazing opportunity.

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