Maintaining a Google Ad Grants account requires ongoing compliance with a set of rules that go beyond standard Google Ads policies. Unlike a paid account, where underperformance costs you money, an Ad Grants account that falls out of compliance can be suspended entirely — cutting off $10,000 per month in free advertising until the issues are resolved and an appeal is approved. Understanding every compliance requirement, and building regular checks into your account management routine, is the most reliable way to keep your account active and performing.
Account-Wide Click-Through Rate
Ad Grants accounts are expected to maintain a 5% account-wide click-through rate, measured on a rolling monthly basis across all active campaigns. Falling below 5% CTR alone will not trigger an account suspension — but it becomes relevant if your account is suspended for any other reason. Google may require CTR to be brought above 5% as a condition of reinstatement, meaning a low CTR can extend the time your account stays suspended even after the original violation is fixed.
Aim for 7–8% as a working target. This gives you a meaningful buffer and puts you in a stronger position if your account ever needs to be reinstated.
Maintaining healthy CTR:
- Check CTR regularly to spot downward trends before they become a problem
- Pause keywords with CTR consistently below 2% — they drag the account average down without contributing meaningful traffic
- Keep ad groups tightly themed so ad copy is genuinely relevant to every keyword in the group
- Write compelling headlines that reflect the searcher’s intent — relevance drives CTR more reliably than any other single factor
Keyword Quality Score Minimum
Every active keyword in your account must maintain a Quality Score of 3/10 or higher. This is a hard compliance requirement — not a performance guideline — and accounts can be deactivated for quality scores falling below this threshold.
Quality Score is Google’s rating of the relevance and quality of your keyword, ad copy, and landing page combination. It is evaluated on a 1–10 scale. Scores below 3 indicate that Google considers the keyword-to-ad-to-landing-page relationship too weak to serve effectively.
Managing keyword Quality Scores:
- Review Quality Scores for all active keywords on a weekly basis
- Pause any keyword with a Quality Score below 3 immediately — do not wait for a monthly review
- Investigate low scores by checking the three Quality Score components: Expected CTR, Ad Relevance, and Landing Page Experience
- Improve scores by tightening the theme of the ad group, including the keyword in ad headlines, and ensuring the landing page directly addresses the searcher’s intent
Single-Word Keyword Prohibition
No single-word keywords are permitted in any Ad Grants campaign, under any match type. Every keyword must contain at least two words.
This applies to broad match, phrase match, and exact match equally. There are no exceptions. Common single-word terms that nonprofits attempt to use — “donate,” “volunteer,” “hunger,” “shelter,” “education” — are all prohibited regardless of how relevant they are to your mission.
The solution is always a two-word or longer variant: “donate online,” “volunteer opportunities,” “hunger relief programs,” “homeless shelter,” “education nonprofit.” Build this habit into keyword research from the start and include a single-word keyword check in every account audit.
Advertiser Verification
Advertiser verification is a compliance requirement that must be completed at account setup. It is one of the leading causes of Ad Grants account suspensions, largely because it is easy to overlook during initial configuration and Google does not always make it prominently visible until an account is flagged.
Verification involves three steps: a funding disclosure form, an EU election ads confirmation, and organization and identity verification requiring official nonprofit documentation. All three must be completed before campaigns are considered fully compliant.
Two important account features — Business Name and Business Logo — are locked until verification is approved. Do not wait for a suspension notice to complete this. It should be finished before any campaigns go live.
Full details on the verification process are covered in the Advertiser Verification article.
Approved Domain Compliance
Every ad destination URL in your account must link to a domain that Google has formally approved for your Ad Grants account. Your primary organizational website is approved by default. Any secondary domain — a donation platform, a campaign microsite, an event registration site — requires explicit approval through Google’s Additional Domain Request Form before it can be used as an ad destination.
Using an unapproved external URL is among the fastest ways to trigger account deactivation. This applies to sitelinks as well as main ad destination URLs.
Review all destination URLs in your account any time you add new campaigns, update landing pages, or change donation or registration platforms. If a secondary domain is needed, submit the approval request before the campaign is built — not after.
Full details are covered in the Approved Domain Rules article.
Website Quality Standards
Google requires that all landing pages used in Ad Grants campaigns meet a baseline of website quality. Pages must use HTTPS, load reasonably quickly, function correctly on mobile devices, and provide content that is directly relevant to the ad and keyword that brought the user there. Pages that are broken, slow, poorly designed, or irrelevant to the ad copy create a poor user experience and will drag down Quality Scores and ad serving rates.
Beyond individual landing pages, your organizational website as a whole must maintain the standards required for Ad Grants eligibility — current content, working navigation, visible contact information, a privacy policy, and a mission that clearly communicates charitable purpose.
Conversion Tracking Requirement
Every Ad Grants account must have at least one active conversion action configured. This is both a compliance requirement and a practical necessity — without conversion tracking, Google’s algorithm has no optimization signal and campaigns will not perform effectively.
Conversion actions must represent meaningful organizational activities, not trivial website interactions. Accepted conversion types include online donations, volunteer application submissions, program registrations, newsletter signups, and contact form submissions. Engagement-based conversions such as time-on-site and multiple pages visited are also valid and recommended for early-stage accounts.
Ensure that imported conversions are set to Primary status and that Account Default Goals are assigned. Tracking configured incorrectly is treated the same as no tracking from a compliance and optimization standpoint.
Annual Survey
Google requires Ad Grants account holders to complete an annual survey, typically distributed in January or February. The survey covers organizational information, Ad Grants usage, and continued eligibility confirmation. Accounts that do not complete the survey by the stated deadline are suspended until it is submitted.
Set a calendar reminder for the annual survey period. When the notification arrives, complete it promptly — the deadline is firm and the suspension for missing it is immediate and entirely avoidable.
Consequences of Non-Compliance and Reinstatement
When an Ad Grants account is suspended for policy violations, it stops serving ads immediately. Reinstatement requires fixing the underlying violation, submitting an appeal through the Google Ad Grants Help Center, and waiting for Google’s review — a process that can take anywhere from several days to several weeks depending on the nature of the violation and review volume.
Every day a suspended account is not serving ads is a day of free advertising budget permanently lost. The most effective compliance strategy is prevention: regular audits, weekly metric reviews, and proactive checks before making any significant account changes.