What are the Ad Grants rules for structure, locations and bidding?
By Jose Gomez, Jr., CEA, MVTAAdapted from Chapter 2 of The Nonprofit Ad Grant Handbook · Checked against Google's rules November 3, 2026Every campaign needs at least two ad groups, and every ad group needs at least two ads. Each account needs at least two sitelinks pointing to different pages. Ads have to target specific places that make sense for your mission. Accounts created on or after April 22, 2019 must use conversion-based Smart Bidding, and Search campaigns stay on Google Search.
Easy to meet, easy to break
These rules are about how the account is built. They're easy to meet when you set things up and easy to break later, usually when someone adds something in a hurry.
An illustration from the handbook. The youth orchestra is a composite, not a real organization.
A volunteer at a youth orchestra launched a new campaign for the spring concert with one ad group and one ad, "just to test it." The account was out of compliance from that campaign's first day, and stayed that way for a month until a routine check caught it. No penalty followed that time, though one could have.
The rules
Structure. Every campaign needs at least two ad groups, and every ad group needs at least two ads. That's the minimum Google's compliance guide sets, and it exists to make sure each campaign has some variety to test. Most accounts will want more than that.
Ad Strength. An ad group can have up to three active responsive search ads, and Google recommends that at least one of them reach an Ad Strength of Good or Excellent.
Sitelinks. Each account needs at least two sitelinks, the extra links that appear under your ad pointing to other pages on your site. They must be unique and point to different pages. The rule applies to Search and Performance Max alike. Sitelinks also make your ads bigger and more useful, so most good accounts have far more than two.
Locations. Your ads have to target specific places that make sense for your mission.
What Google actually says. "If you primarily serve your local community, your ads should be shown only in your town or local area, such as food banks and houses of worship."
Illustrations from the handbook. The food pantry, advocacy group and charity below are composites, not real organizations.
A food pantry serving one county targets that county. A national advocacy group can target the country. A charity that works abroad can target the countries where its supporters live. What the rule forbids is targeting broadly by default, because it's easier, when your work is local.
The location option. Under a campaign's location options you can show ads to people who are in, or regularly in, the places you target, or to people who are also just interested in those places. For a local service, choose the first.
If some of your services are local and others national, put them in separate campaigns with their own locations, ads and landing pages.
Bidding. Accounts created on or after April 22, 2019 must use one of Google's conversion-based Smart Bidding strategies on every campaign. Those are Maximize conversions, Maximize conversion value, Target CPA and Target ROAS. If a campaign is set to something else, Google may change it automatically. Older accounts can use other strategies, but those strategies cap every click at $2, which is too low to win many useful searches. Google Ads will still offer you Maximize clicks in places. In a grant account opened after April 2019, ignore it.
Networks. Search campaigns must stay on Google Search itself. The settings for search partner sites and the Display Network have to be switched off.
How these rules get broken
The mistakes here are almost always made in a hurry. A campaign gets copied from an old one and inherits its settings, including search partners switched on. A new campaign gets a single ad "for now." A location gets widened to the whole state to see what happens, and nobody sets it back. None of these is malicious, and the same habit catches all of them.
Check structure every time something new goes live. The orchestra's volunteer now runs through five questions before launching anything. Two ad groups? Two ads each? Sitelinks? Locations? Bidding? It takes two minutes.
Checking your own account
There's a quick way to see it all at once. In Google Ads, open Campaigns and add the columns for bid strategy type and networks if they aren't showing. Then open Ad groups, filtered to enabled ad groups, and check the ad count for each. Finally open Assets and filter to sitelinks. Three screens, five minutes, and you'll know whether every structural rule is met across the whole account.
Do it after any big change, and before the first of each month, when the monthly checks come due.
That's a lot of small rules, and nobody remembers them all. The handbook's answer is a short structure check whenever you add or change a campaign, and the full checklist once a month (Appendix A).
Questions
Can we launch a campaign with one ad just to test it?
No. Every campaign needs at least two ad groups, and every ad group at least two ads. A campaign with one ad group and one ad is out of compliance from its first day.
Our account was created before April 22, 2019. Do we have to use Smart Bidding?
Older accounts can use other strategies, but those strategies cap every click at $2, which is too low to win many useful searches.
Do the sitelink rules apply to Performance Max?
Yes. The rule of at least two unique sitelinks, pointing to different pages, applies to Search and Performance Max alike.
We're a national organization. Can we target the whole country?
Yes, if your work is national. What the rule forbids is targeting broadly by default when your work is local.
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.