Maximising Impact: Understanding Google Ads Grants vs. Paid Accounts

Receiving a USD 10,000 Google Ads ad grant is a great opportunity for any charity and can make a big impact in promoting your cause. Sounds good at first glance but unfortunately, expectations and reality often differ when it comes to what you can and can’t do with such a Grant account.

A Google Grant account is not like a standard, paid account that’s fuelled with free budget each month – it is, in fact, an entirely different type of Google Ads account with various restrictions and requirements. You can’t event create a Grant account yourself but have to apply for it (read more on how to get a Google Grant account).

There are significant differences between a Grant and a paid Google Ads account and it is important to understand them to set the right expectations regarding performance and results.

This post explains how a Grant account differs from a paid account and what to keep in mind when integrating the Grant into your overall digital marketing strategy.

	Google Grant Account	Paid Google Ads Account
Campaign types	Search only	All campaign & ad types
Performance requirements	Minimum monthly performance benchmarks	No performance requirements
Compliance requirements	Additional requirements to keep the account active	Standard Google Ads policies
Competitiveness	Less competitive than paid ads account	Highly competitive (if set up well)

In more detail:

Search campaigns only

First of all, Grant accounts allow Search campaigns only. No other campaign types are allowed such as Display (= image ads), Video (=YouTube ads), Shopping, App or Performance Max.

You can always create a separate, standard account if you want to use these other ad types but you will have to pay the cost yourself.

Performance requirements

Google gives you a generous amount of money each month and wants you to spend it wisely. Therefore, you need to manage and optimise your account regularly and meet certain performance benchmarks such as minimum conversion numbers, CTR (click-through rate) or Quality Score.

If performance requirements aren’t met over a prolonged period of time, you will receive a warning and your account may be suspended.

Additional policy requirements

In addition to the standard policies, there are specific policies in place for Grant accounts. Many are centred around the setup and settings of your account and campaigns. The most important ones are the requirement for conversion tracking setup, restrictions around single-word keywords and a minimum of two ad groups per campaign, two ad variations per ad group and two sitelinks.

Take a closer look at them in our blog post about Google Grant policy requirements.

Grant accounts are less competitive

While the previous three points are relatively easily manageable, this last one requires some more consideration. A Grant account ad will always appear below a standard, paid account in the auction system if a regular account bids on the same keyword.

The two account types bid in entirely different auctions, not against each other. In other words, a Grant account is less powerful and competitive and its ads usually appear in a lower position on the Search results page than a paid account’s ads.

No matter how well set up your Grant account is, it can’t outperform a standard, paid account. The key to handling this is to understand that a different approach is required when choosing keywords (go for the less competitive ones) and when embedding the Grant account into your overall digital strategy. 

For example, a Grant account can be used for top-of-funnel user acquisition and brand awareness with the goal of bringing as many (relevant) visitors as possible to your website. In the next step, more competitive channels like paid Google Ads or paid social are used to guide people down the funnel and complete the transaction. Paid ads don’t have to be “always on” but can support you in busy times of the year, such as EOFY giving or Christmas.

Conclusion

Grant accounts follow their own set of rules and can’t be compared 1:1 with standard, paid Google Ads accounts. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be a big asset of your digital marketing strategy though but it is crucial to understand the limitations and how to work around them.

If you are struggling to make the Google Grant work for your charity, get in touch with us or ask for a free Grant account audit.