What should we check in our Ad Grants account every month?
By Jose Gomez, Jr., CEA, MVTAAdapted from Chapter 9 of The Nonprofit Ad Grant Handbook · Checked against Google's rules November 3, 2026Once a month, confirm that the account meets every Ad Grants rule. Check last month's click-through rate, single-word and generic keywords, Quality Score 1 and 2, structure, sitelinks, locations, conversions, bidding, the program survey, your website, and disapprovals and notifications. Then read the search terms and write a short report on what happened.
One museum's routine
An illustration from the handbook. The history museum is a composite, not a real organization.
On the first Thursday of every month, the operations manager of a small history museum sits down with a coffee and the monthly checklist. She works through it line by line, writes a note against anything that needed fixing, and saves the result in a folder with the previous months'. It takes her a little under an hour. And because the checklist covers the same numbers the board asks about, her quarterly board report mostly writes itself from those notes.
The rules, line by line
1. Click-through rate for last month. Google requires grant accounts to keep a click-through rate of at least 5% each calendar month, judged at the account level. Two months in a row below 5% leads to the account being deactivated.
To check, set the date range to last month and read the account's click-through rate. If you run Performance Max, read the Search campaigns' rate separately as well, and treat that as the number that must stay above 5%. If last month was below 5%, this month is the one that counts. Don't wait. Run the CTR rescue today, and check that every other line on this list is clean too.
2. Single-word keywords. These aren't allowed, except your brand words, recognized medical conditions, acronyms and Google's list of exceptions (charity, charities, donate, donation, ngo, ngos, nonprofit, nonprofits, volunteer, volunteering).
In the keywords view, filter for keyword text that doesn't contain a space, and review what's left. Pause any single word that isn't exempt. If it was bringing useful traffic, replace it with two or three phrases from the search terms report that carry the same meaning.
3. Overly generic keywords. Keywords with no clear intent, or that are just the name of another organization, a place, an event or a person, aren't allowed.
Sort keywords by impressions and read the top of the list. Generic keywords usually show themselves through very high impressions and very low click-through rates. Reword them into phrases with clear intent, or pause them.
4. Quality Score 1 and 2. Google's policy says to pause or remove keywords with a Quality Score of 1 or 2. Keywords with no score yet, shown as a dash, are exempt.
Add the Quality Score column to the keywords view and filter for scores below 3. Pause what you find, and ask why they scored so low. Usually it's a mismatch between the keyword, the ad and the page.
5. Structure. At least two ad groups in every campaign, and at least two ads in every ad group.
Look at the ad group count for each campaign and the ad count for each ad group, and add whatever is missing.
6. Sitelinks. At least two sitelinks, pointing to different pages.
Open the assets view, check that the sitelinks are enabled and approved, and click each one. Pages move, and a sitelink to a missing page still counts toward the rule while sending people nowhere.
7. Locations. Specific, mission-relevant locations, and local services shown only in their local area.
Look at each campaign's location settings, especially any campaign created or changed this month.
8. Conversions. Accounts covered by the conversion rule must have valid tracking and at least one conversion each month. Goals such as time on site or homepage visits should not be counted as conversions.
Clicks shouldn't nearly equal conversions, which usually means something is being counted that isn't a real result. In the Goals section, check that each primary conversion recorded at least one conversion last month, and compare total conversions with total clicks.
9. Bidding. For accounts created on or after April 22, 2019, every campaign must use Maximize conversions, Maximize conversion value, Target CPA or Target ROAS.
Look at the bid strategy column in the campaigns view, and change any campaign that fails to a compliant strategy. Google will do it automatically if you don't, and you'd rather choose.
10. The program survey. Google sends grant accounts a program survey, and a thoughtful response is required.
Look for it in the notifications and in the email of each person who signs in to the account.
11. Website. Your site must keep meeting Google's website policy, with your own domain, secure pages, substantial content, clear mission and contact details, and working navigation and donation links.
Click through your main landing pages on a phone, and check that the donation page works.
12. Disapprovals and notifications. Every standard Google Ads policy applies.
Filter ads for disapproved status, and read every notification in the bell. When an ad fails this line, fix it, appeal or apply for approval. Don't just pause.
Section 9.4 of the handbook works through each line with what to do when it fails, and Appendix A is the monthly checklist.
Then the housekeeping
Once the rules are checked, two more jobs complete the month.
Search terms. Read the last 30 days of search terms. Add negatives for patterns of waste, and note searches that converted and could become keywords.
The short report. Write five or six lines for whoever needs to know. Include click-through rate, conversions by type, how much of the grant was used, what was fixed, and what's planned.
What usually goes wrong
Most months, almost every line passes. The failures we see most often in the accounts we review are slow ones. A keyword drifts to a Quality Score of 1 or 2 while taking a large share of the impressions. A conversion action starts counting page views instead of results. A feature such as AI Max gets switched on without anyone choosing it. Left alone for a few months, they add up to an account that's steadily getting worse. The checklist exists to catch them while they're still small.
Questions
How long does the monthly check take?
In the handbook's example, a little under an hour.
Last month's CTR was under 5%. What now?
This month is the one that counts. Don't wait. Run the CTR rescue today, and check that every other line on the list is clean too.
What if a survey notice stays after we've answered it?
Google may not have matched the response to your account. Submit it again with the correct customer ID.
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.