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10 Years Managing Google Ad Grants for Charities: My 2027 Wishlist and Tips
When I first started managing Google Ad Grants as a service in 2016, I wrote lots of helpful blog posts. Over time, that slowed to a trickle of about one per year. This happens to be my first post since 2024. I’ll be honest: I don't love writing blogs, I prefer to down tools and watch The Chase at 5pm. I'm mostly doing this to prove my website still has a pulse but that doesn’t mean it's not crammed with lots of useful information.
The opinions, insights, lessons and ideas in this are 100% mine but full disclosure, I’m using Google Gemini to help me re-word this so it becomes an absolute joy to read, rather than me running out of steam and publishing it half finished.
AI automation is coming but it’s slower than I expected
When I started in 2016, I honestly thought I might only get a few years out managing Google Ad Grants and providing training as a business. I could already see automation rolling out through Google Ads, and I figured the algorithms would eventually take over.
Yet here we are 10 years later, and I’m still doing this. While AI features have definitely ramped up inside Google Ads, it hasn't taken the reins yet. I'm still not seeing the massive advantage. Maybe I’m naive, but to illustrate AI hype, in the last year alone, I’ve been approached by two different subscription platforms claiming to have built an "AI that manages your Google Ad Grant account" but they both needed my experience to actually make it work. To me, that sounds like an unfinished product, and they certainly shouldn’t be charging nonprofits a fee to use it until they've figured it out. I think I’ll continue plodding along in my manual dinosaur ways until I'm really not needed anymore, then take up a job which is AI proof, such as a wine taster.
Tip: be skeptical about tools or sales people that offer to run your Ad Grant account using AI. If you do, make sure you can cancel at any time and do not take out a 12 month contract.
What is the actual point of PMax for Google Ad Grants?
When it was first introduced to Ad Grantees, there was a genuine selling point: you could use it to get your ads to show up in Google Maps, which was great for charities with a physical venue like a charity shop or museum. But, that feature was stripped away. Now, Grantees using PMax are left with nothing but basic Search ad functionality. We already had perfectly capable Search campaigns to do exactly that, so pushing us toward PMax feels entirely redundant. It's essentially dressing up an old tool in new AI clothing without offering any actual benefits to charities.
Tip: Ignore using PMax for Ad Grantees until you have done all you can possibly do with Responsive Search Ads.
What’s the difference between AI Max and PMax?
Yeah sure, let AI write your headlines and choose your landing pages it might save some time but I've seen it scrape the absolute bottom of the barrel. The AI will confidently pick the most redundant, low-value pages on your website and build campaigns around them. Sure, those ads might actually get some impressions, but the only reason those ads are showing is because the AI is bidding on obscure, junk keywords that no human would bother competing for. It’s the illusion of performance, not actual strategy.
One example that I now use in my training is how a charity used PMax and it bid on a famous person's name because one of their staff members on their team page shared that same name. Very useful!
Search Engine Land recently suggested AI Max is being enabled by default in Google Ad Grantee accounts. I haven’t experienced this but it's worth keeping an eye on, as this type of sneeky change is commonplace for Google Ad Grantees.
Tip: turn off AI_Max
Ad Grantee bidding strategies still not fit for purpose
You're stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, you can choose Maximize Clicks and you’re handcuffed to a $2.00 bid cap, which makes you completely uncompetitive. On the other hand, you can surrender entirely to automated strategies like Maximize Conversions or Target CPA. Sure, the bidding algorithm is allowed to bypass the cap and bid up to $20.00, but you lose absolutely all control over what you're actually paying per click. It’s a frustrating choice!
Recently, Google Support told me one of the accounts I manage was not compliant for using Maximise Clicks. This is not true to Ad Grant policy but I gave up arguing and bent the knee just to get the account reactivated again.
Tip: Use Maximise Clicks when you first create a campaign. Give it 5-7 days, then switch to Maximise Conversions. If you aren’t getting any impressions try using Target CPA ($300). Repeat this cycle until you get an impression.
What happened to the Ad Grants compliance warnings?
Google used to warn you if your account fell out of compliance with Ad Grant policies. Not anymore. Today, you have to spot that your budget spend has dropped to $0. That sudden drop is your only clue that your $329 daily budget has been quietly revoked until you fix whatever rule you broke.
This is a bit of insight I have now worked into my Google Ad Grant training because often I’m approached by Ad Grantees that can’t understand why their ads aren’t working and often it’s because their budget has been reduced to $0 without them knowing.
Tip: create a branded keyword ad group. You should get 10/10 Quality score for this. If your account has zero impressions for this Ad Group, it’s a pretty good signal your account budget has been reduced to $0. Reach out to Google to reactivate it.
The ads.google.com interface is very glitchy
If you’ve spent any time in it lately, you already know the pain:
The redesigned walkthrough is broken: It actually forgets to give you the option to name your ad group.
Publishing is a gamble: It is almost guaranteed to freeze or fail to save right at the exact moment you need to publish a new campaign.
Random 2FA interruptions: Two-factor authentication will kick in out of nowhere, forcing you back a step and disrupting your flow.
Aggressive, crash-prone AI: AI suggestions pop up constantly to "help" write your ads, but they usually just slow down your work and crash the interface.
In a world where AI is supposed to be making workflows faster, the last year feels like it's been making Google Ads worse.
Tip: when your campaign fails to save at the moment of publishing and the “publish” button doesn’t appear, click back one step in the left hand side navigation menu (probably budget) and move forward again. You might need to do this once or twice to make it save and allow you to publish.
Beef up your website security!
Remember how I just mentioned Google will silently tank your ad spend to $0 without warning? One of the biggest culprits right now is your own website. Malware infections and dodgy WordPress plugins are a massive reason for sudden Ad Grant deactivations. Google's bots crawl your landing pages, detect something shady from an outdated plugin you forgot about three years ago, and instantly pull the plug on your ads. Keep your backend clean (no pun intended) and update your plugins, or you'll lose your grant.
Tip: don’t use Wordpress! Most charity websites could just be using Squarespace or Wix and save yourself a ton of hassle and money.
Coincidently, within 24 hours of me writing my first draft of this blog, An AI found a massive security flaw with PHP, which affects most Wordpress websites.
Ad disapprovals are common and often wrong
If you run an Ad Grant account, you already know that ad disapprovals are incredibly common and worse, they are frequently incorrect. Google's automated review bots are notoriously heavy-handed and lack context, often misinterpreting standard nonprofit messaging. A straightforward campaign about a health charity or humanitarian aid can easily trigger automated flags for restricted policy violations that make absolutely no sense. It forces account managers into a constant, tedious cycle of submitting appeals to manually override the algorithm's mistakes just to keep compliant campaigns running.
Tip: keep appealing, don’t give up hope!
Google Ads Account “specialists” are relentless
Their outreach has become incredibly annoying, and based on how hard they push, you would assume they are working on commission. They mostly recommend broad match keywords and automated bidding strategies that are designed to spend more budget. The problem is, sometimes they mistake Ad Grant accounts for commercial paid accounts, relentlessly pushing tactics that aren’t appropriate.
Tip: don’t answer phone calls you don’t know. I’ve started screening calls on my mobile, if it’s that important they will leave a message and I can assure you the Google Account specialists will.
Poor SEO is the biggest point of failure
I do a lot of 1:1 training with charities, and I can tell you exactly why most of them fail to get any real value out of their Google Ad Grant. It almost never has to do with the ads themselves—it comes down to a complete lack of understanding of on-page SEO. You can build the most structurally perfect Google Ads campaign in the world, but if you're sending that traffic to a poorly optimized page with thin content and a confusing user journey, it’s going to bomb. The Ad Grant isn't a magic wand that fixes a bad website.
Tip: learn about on-page SEO. Try a free trial of Moz Pro, then if you like it, claim the charity discount.
Paid Ads are needed for important charity goals
There’s a common misconception that having a $10,000 Ad Grant means you never need to spend real money on search ads. However, for highly competitive goals like volunteer recruitment, a supplementary paid account is often essential. Google runs a dual-auction system where paying advertisers automatically get first priority for the prime spots at the top of the search results. Ad Grant accounts are relegated to a secondary auction, meaning your free ads only ever show up in the leftover inventory below the paying customers. It doesn't matter how perfectly optimised your campaign is; if a paid advertiser (this includes charities!) is bidding on your crucial volunteer keywords, they will always beat your Grant ad to the top. The Grant is great for free visibility, but for competitive goals, you have to pay to play.
Tip: if you use paid ads, start with a very small budget and increase as you get good results. This is the opposite approach to Google Ad Grants, where you start big and spend as much money as possible, then refine.
Donations almost always come from branded search
There is a persistent myth that bidding on keywords like "donate to …." is going to fill your fundraising pipeline. It won't. The hard truth of search marketing is that direct donations almost entirely come from branded search. People don't type a phrase into Google, and blindly donate to a charity they just discovered. They donate to charities they already know, trust, and are specifically looking for. If you're chasing generic terms expecting a flood of direct revenue, you're going to be severely disappointed.
Tip: look in Google Search Console to see what “donate” queries your website ranks organically for.
Set up your Key Events in GA4
Many charities are still not implementing Key Events in Google Analytics 4. A Key Event is how you track valuable user actions, whether that's a macro conversion like a donation or a micro conversion like a file download. If you aren't properly configuring these in your analytics, you will find it hard to measure or improve your results. This is not just for Google Ads but for all other forms traffic to your website including social media and email marketing.
Tip: spend some time thinking about and planning how you will track all the valuable interactions across your website and if you can give them similar names. An Event called contact could be for many methods e.g mailto: and tel: link clicks but also a contact form_submit or contact pageview.
Is Google AI overview going to kill off Google Ads?
Google Ads are not going anywhere. Google is a business, and they aren't going to destroy their main cash cow. But for Ad Grantees, the landscape is getting uglier. AI Overviews are actively gobbling up nearly half of all informational searches, answering the user's question directly at the top of the page. So those broad awareness keywords charities love to bid on? They are generating fewer clicks because the user never needs to visit your website. Your ads are still there, but they're being pushed further down the page below a massive block of AI text.
Tip: never underestimate how much money Google is making from Search Ads.
Understanding search intent is critical
For organizations with physical locations like charity shops, community centers, or animal shelters. When a user searches for a local entity, their primary intent is usually navigational—they want to find a physical address, not read a landing page. Recognizing this intent, Google prioritizes the local Map Pack at the top of the search results. If your Ad Grant strategy relies solely on standard text ads, you will miss this high-intent traffic entirely.
You also need to understand the difference between commercial and transactional intent. Commercial intent is the research phase—someone searching "how to help homeless in London." They are looking for information, not a checkout page. Transactional intent is when they type "donate to Shelter." They are ready to give. If you treat these searches the same—serving "Donate Now" ads to people who are just researching, or vague informational pages to people ready to donate—you will lose them. You have to meet the user exactly where they are in their decision-making process.
Tip: read some blogs about search intents.
Keywords planner is so woke
If you rely heavily on the Google Keyword Planner to find new search terms for your charity, you're missing a massive chunk of your audience. The Planner actively restricts and hides data for any keywords it considers "sensitive"—which unfortunately includes almost everything related to health conditions, financial hardship, addiction, or personal struggles. If your charity helps people in crisis, the Planner will just throw an error or show zero volume for the exact terms your beneficiaries are searching for. To actually understand what your audience is looking for, you have to look elsewhere. Your best free tool is Google Search Console. It shows you the actual, unfiltered search queries people are typing in to find your website right now, letting you bypass the Ads filter entirely.
Tip: research some other keyword research tools. I like Keywords Everywhere but they keep putting the price up so I’m trying out some other options. Keyword Surfer is a free Chrome Extension but it's not as good.
Stop logging into Google Ads with a shared email address
Stop using a shared generic login like marketing@charityname.org to access your Ad Grant. Every person in your team who uses the Ad Grant account needs to log in with their own individual work email address. Not only is sharing credentials a massive security risk, but it's also a logistical nightmare. Remember those glitchy Two-Factor Authentication prompts I mentioned earlier? Good luck passing a 2FA check when the verification code goes to a shared inbox or, worse, a former employee's personal phone.
Tip: I’ve created a very scrappy presentation on how to associate your work email address with a Google Sign In because I get asked about it a lot.
Fix your Google Consent settings
In March 2024, Google made Consent Mode v2 completely mandatory for advertisers. This applies heavily to traffic in the UK, the European Economic Area (EEA), and Switzerland, but it is effectively becoming a global standard.
If your Google Ads or Google Analytics 4 (GA4) setup is flagged as non-compliant, it is usually because you are either missing Consent Mode v2 entirely, or it is configured incorrectly. When your account is non-compliant, you face severe consequences: Google will block your ability to build remarketing audiences, turn off ad personalization, and stop tracking your conversions properly
Tip: for me, Cookie Yes and Cookie Hub seem to be the easiest to work with but Google recommends a bunch of CMP Partners so find what works best for you.
My 2027 Google Ad Grants wish list
1. Allow Google Shopping Ads
If a charity operates an online store—selling branded merchandise, charity Christmas cards, or ethical products—they are currently shut out of the most effective eCommerce placement: Google Shopping. Ad Grantees are restricted entirely to text-based Search ads.
Allowing Shopping Ads for nonprofits would instantly unlock a massive, highly converting revenue stream for organizations that rely on retail. Unfortunately, Google tends to keep highly commercial placements strictly for paying advertisers, so this remains a long shot.
2. Allow YouTube Ads (But on non-monetised content)
Visual storytelling is the most powerful tool a charity has. Showing a 15-second video of the actual impact a charity makes is infinitely more compelling than three lines of text. Currently, Grantees have to open a paid account to run YouTube ads.
Allowing Ad Grantees to place ads on YouTube content that isn't yet eligible for monetisation would give nonprofits access to vital video inventory without cutting into the revenue Google shares with established creators. Google could go a step further by allowing its content creators to opt into donating a chosen amount of their ad revenue to Ad Grantees who want to show ads on their channel.
3. Bring Back Google Maps
When Performance Max (PMax) was first introduced to Grantees, it allowed charity ads to feature as Promoted Pins in Google Maps. It was an incredible feature for charities with physical footprints, like local charity shops, food banks, or animal shelters.
Then, Google stripped that capability away, restricting PMax for Ad Grants back to just standard Search functionality. Bringing Map placements back would be the single biggest win for local, community-based nonprofits who need to capture foot traffic.
4. Allow Gmail Placements
Placing ads directly at the top of users' Gmail inboxes could be a great way to drive newsletter sign-ups and individual giving. Opening this up to Grantees would give charities a much-needed alternative to the increasingly crowded and AI-dominated Search results page
5. Increase Max Clicks Bid Limit to $20
The current $2.00 bid cap on manual bidding strategies (like Maximize Clicks) is a relic. A $2.00 bid makes a charity completely uncompetitive in almost any meaningful auction.
To get around this and actually win clicks, charities are forced to surrender control to automated strategies like Maximize Conversions or Target CPA, which are allowed to bypass the cap and bid higher. Raising the manual bid limit to $20.00 would finally give account managers their control back, allowing them to compete for high-value traffic without having the daily $329 budget gobbled up on $20.00 keywords.
