Ad Grants

Free AdWords budget for NGOs and NPOs

Since SALZ focuses on NGOs and NPOs in its portfolio as well, SALZ also successfully implements campaigns for its customers with the Google Ad Grants program. To the portfolio of NGOs and NPOs.

Google Ad Grants is a fund-raising program that enables nonprofit organizations in over 50 countries to place free ads on the Google search engine. Participating non-profits are entitled to search ads worth up to $300 per day.

How SALZ also scores karma points.

Requirements for participating

Who is eligible to participate in the Google Ad Grants program?

Do good and talk about it

Prove charitable status

In Germany, Google works closely with stifter-helfen.de to check the non-profit status. In most cases, you only need to submit the certificate of exemption.

Set up website

The second requirement is a corporate website that contains relevant content about the non-profit organization and / or the project. In addition, the landing page must be free of linked advertising (for example AdSense).

Certifications required

The certifications requested by Google with regard to receiving and using donations, as well as the principle of non-discrimination, must be confirmed.

Need help setting up your website and your ad grants campaign?

Contact our advertising agency in Berlin

5% click-through-rate

Do I have to worry about my campaign?

The magical 5 percent

There have been some changes to Google Ad Grants program policies since 2018. Various innovations have been introduced to prevent misuse of the program. Campaign ads may not drop below a CTR of 5%, otherwise the Ad Grants account will be disabled. But that shouldn't be a cause for concern, because

  • The 5% rule only is applicable after two consecutive months. So there is a time buffer to optimize the  displays.
  • Even then you will only get a "warning" and the possibility to reach the click rate of 5% by adapting your campaign and your landing page.
  • AdGrants are rated and displayed differently by Google than normal ads in the search network.

Need help optimizing and maintaining your ad grant campaign?

Contact the advertising agency in Berlin

Budget

What happens if the budget is exceeded?

Sky is the limit

The daily budget available to Ad Grant users is $329, about $10,000 per month. However, the maximum cost-per-click (CPC) of $2.00 often prohibits you from making full use of this budget. Depending on the company and campaign it may also be worthwhile to activate the smart bidding strategy to maximize conversions. With this bid strategy, as many conversions as possible are achieved within the budget and the $2.00 limit is omitted.

  • In general, the error message "Your ads are checked" appears when the daily limit has been reached.
  • No payment information is required, as the invoice carrier in an Ad Grants account is Google itself. Theoretically, if the budget is actually exceeded, Google could only charge itself. It is therefore not possible for the limit to be exceeded by mistake and for Google to issue an invoice or a formal warning.

Need help optimizing and maintaining your ad grant campaign?

Contact the advertising agency in Berlin

Ad design

Are there any differences to "normal" Google ads?

Same same but different

Unfortunately, the Ad Grants program only allows a reduced version of the capabilities that Google Adwords offers to regular customers.

The main differences:

  • Only keyword-related campaigns can be run (even if other ads can be created - they will not be displayed).
  • Only text-based ads are possible, ads with videos or pictures cannot be placed.
  • Ads appear only on Google's search results pages, not on the Display Network.
  • The ads are placed below the ads of paying advertisers.

Companies that also wish to place image and video ads are welcome to do so in addition to their Ad Grants account, though these are subject to a charge. In many cases, however, you can draw conclusions from the results of ad grants ads in the search network and transfer them to other formats and the SEO strategy.

Need help optimizing and maintaining your ad grant campaign?

Contact the advertising agency in Berlin