Part 4: Advanced Google Ad Grants Techniques
This is the last part on a 4-part series. Read the rest of the series here:
In part four of our comprehensive guide to Google Ad Grants for charities and nonprofits, we are going to look at some of the more advanced techniques you can use to optimise your Ad Grants account for maximum performance.
Below you’ll find some quick and easy things you can do to boost performance or save time. At Anuncia, these techniques help us squeeze the best results out of the account for our clients.
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4.1 Automated Tools:
Rules
When you create an automated rule, you allow it to make changes in your account automatically based on your chosen conditions and actions.
It’s useful for Ad Grants accounts because you can:
- Pause campaigns when they spend a certain amount
- Pause low-quality keywords
- Pause keywords with low ad relevance
- Pause ads with a low CTR
- Send email alerts for things like low CTR or high spending campaigns
To create a rule, visit “Tools and Settings” in your Ads account dashboard. Click “Rules” under “Bulk Actions”.
Select which type of item you want to be affected by the rule, the action and the specific items that will be affected once the rule is live. Add your conditions and define the frequency you want your rule to run.
One very useful, simple rule idea: set up an automated rule to run daily and email alert and/or pause keywords with a quality score below 3 out of 10.
Keywords under this level have to be paused or removed, as they are against Google’s Ad Grants rules (and suggest the keyword is a poor choice for your organisation to target).
An email alert is useful as you can then look into the keyword’s performance in more detail to see if there are changes you can make to improve its performance, such as choosing a better-suited landing page or changing the ad copy.
Scripts
Scripts are a way to automate actions in your account. Like rules, they’re a way of automating simple tasks across your account. Unlike rules, scripts are more versatile and can be used in more complex ways.
Scripts are written in JavaScript and can be applied at an account or manager account level.
They are useful for Ad Grants accounts because you can:
- Add a script that checks your account is compliant with every rule and emails you the results
- Add a script that will identify all converting search terms and add them into a spreadsheet so you can later add them as keywords
There are lots of free scripts you can find and experiment with online. If you want to create your own, you can use Google’s developer page as a guideline:
https://developers.google.com/google-ads/scripts-legacy/docs/start
4.2 Keeping the Ad Grants Compliant
Google has very specific rules to make sure all nonprofits use their grant for good purposes. The Ad Grants’ core purpose is to promote charitable causes, events, and raise awareness and funds for organisations.
So it’s very important to follow the Ad Grants policy compliance guide. These are the things that can get your Ad Grants account deactivated:
- You don't have at least one Search Campaign active
- You don't have at least two active Ad Groups and two Sitelinks for each campaign
- You don't have at least two ads for each Ad Group
- Your click-through rate (CTR) has been lower than 5% for two consecutive months
- Your account uses single-word keywords or overly generic terms
- You're targeting a location that is not related to your organisation
- You have live keywords with a quality score lower than 3/10
If you do get your account deactivated, we recommend you fix the issue that has made your account non-compliant and then fill in this form: https://support.google.com/grants/contact/Request_for_reactivation
The time it takes for your account to be reviewed and reactivated if it is compliant once again varies, so you will need to be patient.
Here’s a list of some of the most common issues an account might be deactivated. Given what we’ve spoken about earlier in this part of the guide, are there rules or scripts you could use to help with some or all of these?
1. How to improve your account’s Low CTR (click-through rate)
Pause keywords with lots of impressions but low CTR:
- Viewing all active keywords, set a “last week” range
- Pause keywords that have a 4% CTR or less
- Negative irrelevant search terms that are triggering your keywords but don’t get clicks
- Refresh your ad copy to be more compelling to increase CTR
- Make sure your ads contain your keyword in their headline or description
- Check that your landing page is as relevant as it can be to the target keyword
2. How to improve low-quality keywords
Replace broad or generic keywords with more specific terms or phrases:
- Check the keywords with low quality score, are they too broad?
- Pause the keywords with 3/10
- Create new related keywords using more relevant terms
- Check your keywords with the highest quality score, which match type are they using?
- Use the best match type for your new keywords
- Increase your CPC bid (if possible)
- Refresh your ad copy
- Make sure your ads contain your keyword on their headline
- Your landing page should be relevant to that keyword
3. How to raise bids without breaking the limit of $2.00 USD
- If you use manual bidding, your CPC can’t be higher than $2.00
- Using Smart Bidding strategies allows you to have a higher bid (Google decides what the bid should be)
- While selecting a Smart Bidding, keep in mind your account’s goal, but we usually recommend Ad Grants to use Maximise Conversions
- Maximise Conversions sets bids automatically to help you get more conversions while spending only your budget
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