We launched updated Ad Grants policies in January, 2018 to provide more guidance on running a high quality account. Follow these recommendations to comply.
The instructions below are based on the new Google Ads experience. Check what Google Ads experience you’re using.
No single-word keywords permitted
Under Ad Grants’ Mission based policy, single keywords aren’t permitted. Your own brand keywords, approved medical conditions and some other cases are deemed an exception to this policy. To pause single keywords you can use a filter.
Filter for single keywords and pause them:
Sign in to your Google Ads account.
From the page menu, click Campaigns. On the filter bar above the statistics table, select Campaign status and All enabled.
From the page menu, click Ad groups. On the filter bar above the statistics table, select Ad group status and All enabled.
From the page menu, click Keywords. On the filter bar above the statistics table, select Keyword status and All enabled.
Click the filter button Filter above the statistics table. Choose Keyword text from the list of options and does not contain. In the text box enter a space by pressing the spacebar on your keyboard once. Click Apply to see a list of single keywords.
Check the select all checkbox, click Edit and then Pause, unless it’s your brand term, an excepted medical term or a listed exception.
No overly generic keywords permitted
Ad Grants’ Mission based policy requires overly generic keywords that don’t indicate the intent of the person searching to be paused or removed, for example: ‘“free videos”, “e-books” or “today’s news”.
Your landing page experience is a good indication of whether your keyword is too generic. If a keyword has a landing page experience below average, this indicates that users weren’t finding the content that they were looking for when they searched. Consider rewording these keywords or adding keywords found in the Search Term report that show a strong CTR.
No keywords with a quality score of 1 or 2 permitted
Ad Grants’ Mission based policy requires keywords with a quality score of 1 or 2 to be paused or removed. Check your quality score on a regular basis to pause non-permitted keywords. You can also setup an automated rule so the system automatically pauses these keywords for you.
How to check your keywords’ quality score
The quality score can be found in a column in your Keywords tab. However, it may not be showing in your account as default. If you don’t see a Quality Score column in your keywords tab, you can add it:
Sign in to your Google Ads account.
To see data for a specific period, click the date range selector on the top corner of the page and select the time period you’d like to analyze.
Click Keywords in the page menu.
Click the Columns icon Columns above the statistics table and select Modify columns from the drop down.
Select Quality Score in the modify columns menu.
Click Apply to add the column Quality Score to your Keywords table.
Quality scores marked as “—” are exempt from this policy and not monitored.
Pause keywords with quality scores of 1 or 2 with an automated rule
You can setup an automated rule so the system regularly pauses keywords with a quality score of 1 or 2 for you when the condition is met.
Click Keywords in the page menu to reach the keywords page, and click the 3-dot icon.
Select Create an automated rule.
For Type of rule select Pause keywords.
For the Apply to keywords selection choose All enabled keywords.
For the Condition selection choose Quality Score, then < and 3. Ensure the checkbox for Include keywords with quality scores of “—” is deselected.
For Frequency set Daily, time as 11:00PM and using data from Same day.
Choose if you wish to receive an email notification, enter a rule name and click Save Rule.
How do I comply with Ad Grants' policies? An automated rule can help
The Ad Grants Mission-based campaigns policy requires active keywords to have a quality score of 3 or higher (on a scale of 10), meaning keywords with a quality score of 1 or 2 should be paused or removed. An automated rule is the best way to avoid compliance challenges related to quality scores. This video provides step-by-step instructions on how to set up an automated rule to stay compliant with this policy.
Must maintain a 5% click-through rate (CTR) each month
Failing to meet 5% CTR for two consecutive months can result in temporary account deactivation.
To correct your CTR before your account is temporarily deactivated, or once your account is temporarily deactivated, follow these steps:
Set the date range to the past 7 days that your account was active. If your account was deactivated or campaigns were paused, set the date range to the last 7 days that your ads accrued impressions.
From the page menu on the left sidebar, click Campaigns. On the filter bar above the statistics table, select Campaign status and All enabled.
From the page menu, click Ad groups. On the filter bar above the statistics table, select Ad group status and All enabled.
From the page menu, click Keywords. On the filter bar above the statistics table, select Keyword status and All enabled.
Order by top impressions down by clicking the column header Impr. at the top of the statistics table.
Pause keywords with high impressions (see Impr. column) and low CTR (see CTR column) by clicking the checkbox to the left of the keyword, click Edit and then Pause. This step will increase the average CTR of all enabled keywords.
Continue until the CTR metric for the total bar on the statistics table, called Total: filtered keywords, reads at least 5%.
If your account has already been temporarily deactivated, after following the above steps, and correcting any other outstanding Ad Grants policy issues, fill out this form to request reactivation.
Check out our additional suggestions to improve CTR.
Must have valid conversion tracking, if applicable
Ad Grants policy requires that accounts created since January 2018 and advertisers in the program using Smart Bidding strategies must implement accurate conversion tracking.
Accurate conversion tracking means that you are reporting at least 1 conversion per month (see the Conversions column) and that if your conversion rate exceeds 15% (see the Conv. Rate column), it's 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.
If you haven’t received at least 1 conversion last month, please try one of the following options:
Create a goal in Google Analytics and import it into Google Ads (recommended) or add a new conversion directly in Google Ads.
If you’re using Google Ads conversion tracking already but not reporting conversions, troubleshoot your conversion tracking tag.
If you have Google Analytics goals setup and imported into Google Ads already, then troubleshoot your Goals setup.
If your conversion rate is higher than 15%, please confirm that it's due strong performance for a meaningful conversion. Top fixes include:
Consider changing your settings to suit the type of conversion and “count one” instead of “count every” conversion where appropriate (see counting options)
Consider tracking a ‘thank you’ page where possible using Google Ads conversion tracking or a Destination goal with Google Analytics.
If you don’t have a ‘thank you’ page to track on your site, try a Google Analytics Smart Goal
Increase the barrier to what counts as a conversion:
If using a Destination goal or conversion, ensure the page you’re tracking isn’t a frequently visited, common page, but instead one that’s accessed after someone completes a meaningful action, i.e. a ‘thank you’ page.
If using a Duration goal, consider increasing the minimum amount of time spent on site.
If using a Pages/Screens per session goal, consider increasing the minimum amount number visited.
Optimization tips and troubleshooting steps can be found in our Ad Grants Conversion Tracking guide.
Must have at least 2 ads per ad group
Invest in building out your campaign structure with at least 2 ads per ad group, leading to relevant landing pages and set the ad rotation to Optimize. This setting optimizes your ads for each individual auction using signals like keyword, search term, device, location, and more.
Learn how to create ads.
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 that align with the 2 associated ads and destination landing pages. Check out your Search Terms report to see what multiple word searches have gained a good CTR and add these.
Learn how to create ad groups.
Must have at least 2 sitelink ad extensions
Sitelinks provide the person searching more opportunities to click directly from your ad to landing pages on your site. Consider what specific pages might be most valuable to people searching and add these as sitelinks, for example a campaign page for a fundraising campaign.
Learn how to add sitelinks.
Must respond to program survey
All grantees must complete an annual program survey. The survey has been sent to the login email addresses on each Ad Grants account earlier in the year. If you have submitted it but receive a notification that it still needs to be completed, then we haven't been able to successfully capture your submission based on the customer ID entered and please resubmit.
The survey link can be found here. Pay careful attention to entering your customer ID in the format of 10 digits "XXXXXXXXXX" so we can identify your submission.[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label="Source" _builder_version="3.27.4"]Source: https://support.google.com/grants/answer/9042207?hl=en[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.1"][et_pb_column _builder_version="4.1" type="4_4"][et_pb_text _builder_version="4.1" admin_label="Google Ad Grants" hover_enabled="0"]
Google Ad Grants
URL: g.co/AdGrantsReviewDashboard
Section 1: Summary
Account policy compliance
Account best practices adoption
Account quality above average
Approved domains
Your website is secure (HTTPS)
Section 2: Compliance Policies
Conversions
Bidding
Click-through-rate (CTR)
Account structure
Location settings
Non-compliant locations
Ad extensions
Survey submitted
Does not have single or generic keywords
Non-compliant keywords
Does not have keywords with quality score of 1 or 2
Low quality keywords
Section 3: Best Practices
Conversions
Bidding
Has enough keywords per account
Has enough negative keywords per account
Tracking different values
Attribution model
Extended attribution window
Has a good cost per action (CPA)