It's 2019, and the Google Ad Grants are still a thing. The rules have updated and evolved—Whole
Whale has spent over 5 million dollars of Google Ad Grant money, and we've updated our
tactics, and want to make sure you understand what we know! Website Requirements: From what
we've seen, just as a reminder, owned and operated website — ad can only be sent your
domain, and your sub-domains. Yes, you can add an additional domain that you prove that
you own but you cannot send traffic to your Facebook page, or even your YouTube page,
you must send to your own site. You must maintain a high-quality website — that means site
speed, that means updates content, that means good user experience and HTTPS for new accounts
to make sure it's secure. So there are some website requirements there. Commercial Activity
—this is a little nuanced, but it cannot be the main purpose of your site, and that
commercially related work must support your organization's overall mission. The brilliant
idea of having 50 popups show up on a page you sent Google Ads traffic to does not work
in general, but definitely does not work for the Grant. Other Requirements: As a reminder,
it's Search ads only, so not Display, not Network, not YouTube, just those Search ads.
It's a $2 bid max — unless you're using Maximize Conversions which optimizes for conversion
and lets you bid over that amount for a keyword. The ad quality requirements are maintained
saying that there is a relevancy for ad quality, usually measured by that 5% click through
rate, and making sure that they are relevant to the keywords that you have in there. It's
also required to respond to all Google surveys, so make sure that the email you've registered
for this account is actually being paid attention to — it's really sad the amount of times
we've seen this alert be ignored and you miss the window and your account is suspended.
You must update the account at least once every 90 days — ideally more than that
though. Google Ad Grant Policies: Specific geo-targeting — so you can't just globally
run ads. If you don't have relevant information for the good people of the Philippines, don't
advertise in the Philippines. Focus on the rivers and the streams that you're used to.
Minimum of 2 active ad groups per campaign, a minimum of 2 active text ads per ad group
(rule of 2, rule of 2, rule of 2), and a minimum of 2 site extension links are required. The
5% CTR is the average across — if 2 months go by and you are below the 5%, that is a
high probability of being suspended. You do have a 90 day grace period when you're firing
up this account to make sure to get your number up there. And a minimum keyword quality score
of 3 or higher — it's a 1-10 score, 1s and 2s, you gotta go, sorry. Conversion Tracking
Requirements: So if you're using Maximize Conversions strategy, it's important in this
case (Maximize Conversions), and Target Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) and Target ROAS (Return
on Ad Spend) OR if your account was created after Jan 1, you must set up proper conversion
tracking, so you need conversions set up in order to do this. Conversion tracking requirements
also dictate that policy does not require a certain number of conversions to go through,
but if it's too simple and too easy to trigger, so let's say it's a "after one pageview trigger
a conversion," that is not going to cut it, if it's firing for 100% or 50% of the traffic
coming to your site, it's too insensitive. It needs to be more focused, think about something
that's only to trigger a third or a quarter of the time, it could be any manner of goals
you're setting up inside of that Ad Grant setting. Remember "meaningful"conversions,
they're paying attention and will look at this, but it's super powerful because it's
optimizing and letting you compete for more powerful keywords. Keyword Requirements: Branded
keywords are not allowed, so you cannot advertise for Google or for YouTube or for blatant competitors,
so if you're Pizza Hut, you can not be advertising for Dominoes, just stay away from odd competitive
keyword overlaps. Other keyword requirements — single keywords, excluding branded words, medical
conditions, and other exception words, and generic keywords like "free videos" or "today's
news" are just going to get your account flagged from what we've seen. And a reminder, low
quality keywords help nobody — 1s and 2s you gotta go.