How charities can maximise Google Ad Grants

For many charities, marketing budgets can be limited, and visibility is more important than ever. That’s where Google Ad Grants can become a powerful tool for growth, awareness, and engagement. 

At Arke, we help charities unlock the full potential of Google Grants and create strategic campaigns that support fundraising, awareness, education, recruitment, community impact and more.

Many charities may know these grants exist but be unsure about the nitty-gritty details of how to apply, get approved, and use this powerful tool. 

In this article, Arke’s Brand and Content Marketing Executive, Sasha Klepitskaya, breaks down the details and explores how strategic, creative campaign management can help charities maximise the results of their grant funding. 

What is Google Ad Grants?

Google Ad Grants is a programme that provides eligible charities with up to $10,000 USD per month (about £7,500) in free Google Search advertising. This allows charities to appear in Google search results when people search for relevant topics, support services, or causes online, increasing the number of people who are exposed to your mission and familiarised with your brand. 

Essentially, it’s free paid media ad credit for your charity that can help to reach new supporters, increase awareness, and drive more traffic to their website without impacting marketing budgets.

How Ad Grants can help charities

Google Search campaigns target users with existing intent, meaning charities will appear when people are already searching for relevant information or support.

They can help charities:

• Increase website traffic
• Raise awareness
• Promote services and campaigns
• Increase audience reach
• Improve event attendance
• Share educational resources
• Reach underserved communities
• Boost online donations

Like any paid media, Google Grants require the right mix of audience research, strategic copy, and continuous optimisation. Getting this foundation spot on is what will lead to your mission getting out in front of the right audience at the optimal time. 

How to apply for Google Ad Grants

To qualify as an eligible charity in the UK, you must meet the following requirements:

• Hold valid charity status
• Be registered with Google for Non-profits
• Own a high-quality, secure (HTTPS) website with substantial, mission-aligned content

Not eligible if your organisation is:

• A governmental entity or organisation
• A hospital or healthcare organisation
• A school, academic institution or university

Google Grant Limitations

Although Google Ad Grants can be a powerful resource for charities, they aren’t without restrictions. Some of the key limitations include: 

1. Text-only ads

This is as simple as it sounds. Ads can not include images, videos, shopping ads, or be shown in apps.

   2. A maximum $2 manual bid cap (about £1.50)

This applies to manual bidding and can cause issues when bidding for highly competitive keywords. However, this limit is removed when using smart bidding strategies like maximise conversion.

   3. A mandatory 5% CTR requirement

If your ads drop below a 5% CTR for two consecutive months, your account can temporarily be suspended. 

   4. Exclusions on broad keywords

No overly generic keywords can be used like “free videos” or “todays news”. Google does run quality checks regularly to ensure the keywords you’re using fit within this rule and are considered to have a quality score of 1 or 2. 

   5. Must have valid conversion tracking

Accurate conversion tracking means that you are reporting at least 1 conversion per month. Also means that if your conversion rate is high, tracking must be accurately setup and due to strong performance of a meaningful conversion. Your total number of clicks should not nearly equate to your total number of conversions (e.g. page views).

   6. Must have at least 2 ad groups per campaign

Create at least 2 ad groups per campaign with a set of highly relevant and tightly knit keywords

  7. Must have at least 2 sitelink assets.

Sitelinks provide the person searching more opportunities to click directly from your ad to landing pages on your site

  8. Must respond to program survey

All grantees must complete an annual program survey. The survey is sent by Google via email, usually at the start of the year.

These limitations aren’t barriers to success; they’re simply considerations that need to be factored into your strategy. With the right approach, Google Ad Grants can deliver significant visibility and value at no additional media cost.

Maximising your Google Ad Grant

Google Ad Grants provide a valuable opportunity for charities to access paid media at scale. But to get the most from the programme, it’s important to go beyond simply spending the budget. Success comes from aligning campaigns with organisational goals, continuously optimising performance, and working within the programme’s limitations. With the right approach, Google Ad Grants can become a powerful channel for raising awareness, driving engagement, and generating meaningful impact.

A Google Ad Grant doesn’t have to work on its own; it can complement other marketing campaigns to bypass its limitations and be used alongside channels such as Meta, TikTok, Reddit and other Google campaigns. This integrated approach helps charities extend their reach, reinforce messaging across platforms, and maximise overall campaign performance.

How Arke supports charities to maximise their Google Grant

There’s a lot to take in when considering applying for and running Google Grant ads. That’s where we come in – we have helped several organisations make the most of their grant through a strategic approach and continuous optimisation. We will assist you every step of the process, from applying to putting your ads in action, so you can focus on spreading your important cause whilst we champion you in the background.

Our work with Brighton Festival did just that: because Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival hold charity status, we were able to secure a Google Grant to utilise free search advertising. We leveraged this to promote the festival at a brand-level approach, as well as particular events and shows. We used a bespoke keyword strategy, including both brand and event-specific keywords, to create precision targeting which led to an increase in search visibility, clicks through to the website, and increased CTR. Through Google Grants, we generated over 6k high-intent clicks through to event landing pages, greatly contributing as a driver of revenue for the campaign and helping to fuel retargeting audiences.

We’ve also supported Built It International in launching paid search activity for their Hands Up 4 Zambia campaign, with the strategic objective of improving search visibility and capturing high-intent audiences at key moments of interest. 

We also assisted BFI with their ongoing Google Ad Grant activity as part of a wider, multi-channel paid media strategy for an award-winning campaign that delivered measurable impact for the organisation. This included utilising their Google Grant to complement paid Google Search activity, bidding across a carefully selected mix of film-specific and brand keywords to drive qualified traffic to the site. This approach not only strengthened search coverage, but also helped build relevant audience pools that could be retargeted across paid social, creating a more connected and efficient user journey across channels.

So, Are Google Ad Grants worth it?

Effective use of Google Ad Grants can help charities position themselves effectively online and connect with audiences that are already actively searching for support, education, services, and causes to engage with. 

But true impact requires more than simply activating a grant account: it requires strategy, creativity, consistency, a clear understanding of how users behave online and the skills and tools needed to optimise as needed. 

At Arke, we help charities see the opportunities they have and maximise their Google Ad Grants by learning your business goals, creating a strategic and curated plan to optimise your results, whether that’s fundraising or raising awareness, ultimately unlocking $10,000 of free media investment every month.

Whether you need support applying for Google Ad Grants, improving campaign performance, or creating a full digital strategy, we are here to help. Get in touch today to explore how we can support your charity’s digital growth through Google Grants. 

Do you want to find out what securing a Google Ad Grant could do for your organisation? We’re ready to help.