What is the 5% CTR rule for Google Ad Grants?
By Jose Gomez, Jr., CEA, MVTAAdapted from Chapter 2 of The Nonprofit Ad Grant Handbook · Checked against Google's rules November 3, 2026Google requires Ad Grants accounts to keep a click-through rate (CTR) of 5% or more, measured across the whole account, every calendar month. If an account misses for two consecutive months, Google temporarily deactivates it. Accounts aren't reviewed until they're 90 days old, and only accounts that use Smart campaigns exclusively are exempt.
The rule
Click-through rate is the share of people who saw your ad and clicked it. Ten clicks from 200 impressions is a CTR of 5%.
What Google actually says. "Ad Grants accounts (who are not exclusively using Smart Campaigns) must maintain a 5% click-through rate (CTR) each month." Ad Grants account management policy, Google for Nonprofits Help
What each part of the rule means
Across the whole account. The 5% isn't judged keyword by keyword or campaign by campaign. Google adds up all the clicks and all the impressions for the month and divides. A brilliant campaign can carry a weak one, and a weak one can drag down the whole account.
Every calendar month. The clock resets on the 1st. A bad March doesn't spill into April, and a great April doesn't make up for March. Each month has to clear the line on its own.
Two misses in a row. One month under 5% is a warning. Two consecutive months under 5% is when Google deactivates the account. Deactivation is temporary, but in the meantime your ads don't run at all.
The 90-day grace. A brand-new account isn't reviewed until it's 90 days old. That gives you room to build and learn. It doesn't give you room to ignore the number, because CTR also affects how often your ads show, from the first day.
A month, worked through
An illustration from the handbook. The arts council is a composite, not a real organization; the numbers work the way Google's rule does.
An arts council ran three Search campaigns: one for its name, one for its classes, and one for its summer festival. In February the account's CTR was a comfortable 7.2%. In early March, someone added a fourth campaign for "events," with broad keywords like "things to do this weekend." By March 12, the month so far looked like this:
| Campaign | Impressions | Clicks | CTR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand | 600 | 120 | 20.0% |
| Classes | 1,900 | 110 | 5.8% |
| Festival | 1,100 | 60 | 5.5% |
| Events (new) | 4,400 | 75 | 1.7% |
| Account | 8,000 | 365 | 4.6% |
Nobody looked. March closed at 4.6%. April, with the events campaign still running, closed at 4.8%. In May the account was deactivated, in the middle of the council's busiest season.
On March 12, the fix would have taken twenty minutes. Pause the events campaign, or cut its broad keywords, and the remaining three campaigns would have finished the month well above 5%.
Check month-to-date CTR every week. Anything under 6% gets attention that week. The 1-point buffer above Google's line is there because a month can slip quickly, and you want room to act.
Finding your number
- In Google Ads, open Campaigns and set the date range at the top right to This month.
- Make sure the CTR column is showing. If it isn't, choose Columns, then Modify columns, and add it under Performance.
- Look at the total row at the bottom of the table. That's your account's month-to-date CTR.
- To see Search on its own, add a filter for campaign type and choose Search. The total row now shows Search CTR.
When it's under 6% in the middle of the month
Don't start pausing things at random. First, find the campaign doing the damage: sort the campaigns table by impressions, and look for one with lots of impressions and a low CTR. Then check the account's change history for anything new in the last few weeks, such as a new campaign, new keywords, a wider location, or a switch to broad match. The cause is often the most recent change.
If the account as a whole is struggling rather than one campaign, it's time for the CTR rescue in Chapter 10 of the handbook. The earlier in the month you act, the more days you have to pull the average up. Late in the month, the rescue may not be enough on its own to save that month, but it still sets up the next one.
Performance Max and other edge cases
Smart campaigns. The only accounts Google exempts are those using Smart campaigns exclusively. A single Search campaign puts the whole account under the rule.
Performance Max. Google's policy exempts only accounts that use Smart campaigns exclusively, and it says nothing about Performance Max. Several agencies say Performance Max is excluded from the CTR calculation. Our own evidence is one account, a museum, whose account-wide CTR fell to 3.3% and then 4.7% in two consecutive months while its Search campaigns alone stayed at 5.4% and 5.0%, and it was not deactivated. That's consistent with Performance Max being left out. It isn't proof. So until Google says otherwise, we watch Search CTR on its own and keep it above 5%.
Very small numbers. Low volume makes CTR noisy. Read impressions before you react to CTR. A rate built on a handful of impressions tells you very little.
Questions
Is the 5% measured per keyword or per campaign?
Neither. Google adds up all the clicks and all the impressions in the account for the month and divides. One campaign can carry another, or drag the whole account down.
Does one month under 5% deactivate the account?
No. One month under 5% is a warning. Two consecutive months under 5% is when Google temporarily deactivates the account.
Are new accounts exempt?
Accounts aren't reviewed against the rule until they're 90 days old. A low CTR still affects how often your ads show during that time.
Does Performance Max count toward the 5%?
Google hasn't said. Its policy exempts only accounts that use Smart campaigns exclusively. Until Google says otherwise, keep your Search campaigns above 5% on their own.
See something wrong or out of date? Tell us
Jose Gomez, Jr., CEA, MVTAJose Gomez, Jr., CEA, MVTA, is the CEO of 3nity. He founded the company in 2001 to serve the people who serve people, after working as Internet Director at a media network. He built a career website that was acquired by Salem Communications in 2004, and created the 3nity Web Presence Platform. Through Nonprofit Marketing Center, a division of 3nity, he and his team help churches and nonprofits of every kind bring resources and awareness to their missions, including by helping them get the most from the Google Ad Grant.