Don’t Lose Your Google Ad Grant!
The Google Grant program has made some major changes effective as of January 1, 2018. The changes include:
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Maintaining a 5% click-through rate (CTR) minimum.
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Non-profits cannot buy branded keywords they do not own.
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Keywords must have quality scores of 3 or higher.
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Campaigns must have at least two ad groups with at least two ads running in each.
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Accounts must have at least two sitelink extensions active.
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Accounts must have geotargeting.
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Most single-word keywords are prohibited, the idea being non-profits should choose well-targeted quality keywords.
Under the new rules, if an account does not comply with these requirements for 2 consecutive months, the account will be suspended. Accounts may be reinstated only after adjustments have been made to meet requirements.
These new policies might seem daunting to address, but they’re worth putting in the extra work to acquire higher quality website traffic and spend your ad budget more effectively.
Here are some quick tips to implement immediately across your campaigns:
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Remove any keywords with a quality score below 3.
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Remove any competitors branded keywords.
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Remove any non-branded single word keywords and focus on long-tail keywords.
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Turn on at least 2 sitelinks at the account level. Setting sitelinks up at the account level will save time and avoid the need for sitelinks for each individual campaign.
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Take advantage of the removal of the $2 bid cap! Make sure conversion tracking is set up in your account and switch your campaign bid strategy to “Maximize Conversions.”
If you feel your organization does not have the capacity to spend time strategizing higher quality AdWords campaigns, contact us at info@sankyinc.com. Sanky is a Google Ads certified partner with highly qualified search specialists ready to help.
