Google refers to what were historically called ad extensions as ad assets — additional pieces of information that appear alongside your ads in search results. Assets expand your ad’s footprint on the page, provide searchers with more reasons to click, and are evaluated by Google as part of overall account quality. For Ad Grants accounts, several assets have minimum requirements that must be met. Getting them set up correctly, in the right order, is one of the more commonly skipped steps in account configuration.
Why Ad Assets Matter
Google’s ad serving algorithm evaluates accounts partly on asset completeness. An account with a full complement of well-configured assets is treated as more credible and professional than one with bare minimum or missing assets. This affects ad quality scores, serving rates, and overall account performance.
Assets also give searchers more information before they click — additional links to relevant pages, short descriptive phrases about your organization, and your brand name and logo. That additional context improves click quality, because users who arrive with a clearer picture of your organization are more likely to take meaningful action.
Start With Advertiser Verification
Before configuring certain assets, advertiser verification must be complete. Two of the most important assets — Business Name and Business Logo — are locked until verification is finished. Attempting to set them up before verification is approved will not work.
If you have not yet completed advertiser verification, do that first. Once verification is confirmed, return to asset configuration and proceed in the order outlined below.
Business Name and Business Logo
These two assets establish your organization’s brand identity within your ads. They appear in supported ad formats and contribute to recognition and credibility.
Business Name: Set this to your organization’s name exactly as you want it to appear in ads. Use your recognized public-facing name — the one your donors and supporters know. This is set at the account level and applies across campaigns.
Business Logo: Upload your organization’s logo in the required format. Google displays it alongside ads in supported placements. Use a clean, high-contrast version of your logo that reads clearly at small sizes. Square format is required.
Both are configured at the account level under Assets in your Google Ads interface. Set them immediately after advertiser verification is confirmed — they should be among the first things you configure in a new account.
Sitelinks
Sitelinks are additional links that appear beneath your main ad, each pointing to a specific page on your website. They are among the most valuable assets available — they increase ad size, give searchers direct paths to relevant pages, and typically lift click-through rates meaningfully.
Minimum requirement: At least 6 sitelinks at the account level to start. 10 or more is better. Google needs sufficient sitelinks to have options for different query contexts and device formats.
Where to set them: Start with account-level sitelinks, which apply across all campaigns. As your account matures and you have campaigns with distinct objectives, you can customize sitelinks at the campaign level to show more relevant links for specific ad groups and keywords.
What to include: Each sitelink has a short headline (25 characters) and two optional description lines (35 characters each). Use the description lines — they significantly increase the visual footprint of the sitelink and provide more context to the searcher.
Good sitelink destinations for most nonprofits include: Donate, Volunteer, About Us, Programs or Services, Contact, Events, Newsletter Signup, Annual Report, and any high-traffic program-specific pages. Choose pages that represent meaningful actions or information a first-time visitor would want to find.
Compliance note: All sitelink destination URLs must be on your approved domain. The same domain rules that apply to your main ads apply to every sitelink.
Callouts
Callouts are short descriptive phrases — up to 25 characters each — that appear beneath your ad and provide additional context about your organization. They do not link anywhere; they are purely informational. Think of them as concise trust signals or value propositions appended to your ad.
Minimum requirement: At least 6 callouts at the account level. Like sitelinks, more is better — having a larger pool gives Google options to show the most relevant callouts for each query and context.
What to write: Callouts should highlight what makes your organization credible, distinctive, or worth engaging with. Examples: “25 Years of Impact,” “Free to Apply,” “100% of Donations Fund Programs,” “Nationally Recognized,” “Serving 10,000 Families Annually,” “No Income Requirements,” “Volunteer Opportunities Available.” Keep them factual, specific, and varied.
Avoid vague or generic callouts like “Making a Difference” or “Helping Communities” — these add no meaningful information and waste the character limit. Specific claims, statistics, and program details perform better.
Structured Snippets
Structured snippets allow you to list specific values under a predefined header category. Common header types relevant to nonprofits include Services, Programs, and Types. For example, a food bank might use the Services header with values: “Food Pantry, Mobile Distribution, Senior Meals, Emergency Food Boxes.”
Structured snippets add specificity and depth to your ads and are particularly effective for organizations with multiple programs or service types. Add at least one structured snippet asset at the account level.
Image Assets
Image assets can be added at the account or campaign level and may appear in certain placements. Upload images that represent your mission, programs, or community — high-quality photography of your work in action performs best. Images should be clear, relevant, and avoid text-heavy compositions that render poorly at smaller sizes.
Image assets are not required for compliance but contribute to asset completeness scoring and are used by Performance Max campaigns.
Setting Assets at the Right Level
Assets in Google Ads can be applied at three levels: account, campaign, and ad group. For Ad Grants accounts, the right approach is:
Start at account level: All core assets — Business Name, Business Logo, sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets — should be set up at the account level first. Account-level assets apply everywhere and ensure full coverage from day one.
Customize at campaign level as needed: Once the account is running and you understand which campaigns have distinct audiences or objectives, add campaign-level assets to show more relevant sitelinks or callouts for specific contexts. A volunteer recruitment campaign might show different sitelinks than a donation campaign.
Ad group level: Rarely needed for most Ad Grants accounts. Reserve for situations where a very specific ad group needs assets that would be inappropriate to show more broadly.
Common Asset Mistakes
Skipping assets after advertiser verification: Verification gets completed and Business Name and Business Logo never get configured. Set them the same day verification is confirmed.
Too few sitelinks: Accounts with only 2–3 sitelinks have limited options for Google to work with and miss the CTR lift that a full complement provides. Six is the floor, ten is the target.
Generic callouts: Vague phrases add nothing. Every callout should communicate something specific and credible about your organization.
Not using description lines on sitelinks: Sitelinks without descriptions are smaller and less compelling. Take the time to write two description lines for each sitelink — they make a material difference in how the sitelink presents.
Sitelinks pointing to unapproved domains: Every sitelink destination must be on your approved domain. Review all sitelink URLs when auditing your account for domain compliance.
Want assets set up automatically? Ad Grants Pilot generates and configures account-level sitelinks automatically during onboarding — scraping your website and using AI to identify the best pages and write the copy, so your account launches with a complete asset foundation from day one.