Most nonprofits have never seen their Google Ad Grants account from the outside. The award resets every month. The rules tighten every year. Nobody sends a note when the budget goes unused or the account slips toward deactivation.
An audit is a reading of the account in plain words: eligible or not, spending or not, safe or not. Done well, it ends with the first thing to fix. Here is what a good Ad Grants audit covers, so you can judge any audit you are offered, including ours.
Check one: eligibility, and whether the website passes
Everything starts with two questions. Does the organization qualify, and does the website meet Google's policy? Google awards up to 10,000 dollars a month in Search advertising to eligible 501(c)(3) organizations. Governmental entities, hospitals and health care organizations, and schools and universities are excluded, with narrow carve-outs for their charitable and philanthropic arms. Verification runs through Goodstack, Google's current validation partner. Our eligibility checklist walks through each rule.
The website is where most applications and many active accounts fail. Google's website policy expects a domain the organization owns, a security certificate, substantial content that explains the mission, working links, reasonable load times, and no advertising or commercial activity that outweighs the mission. An audit reads the site the way Google's reviewer does, then names the gaps. If the site needs work before the grant can be used well, a good audit says so rather than selling you a grant you are not ready to run. Our guide to getting a nonprofit website approved covers the fixes.
Check two: what the account actually spends
If you already hold the grant, the second check is the number nobody likes to look at. Google awards up to 10,000 dollars a month, which works out to about 329 dollars a day, and whatever goes unused expires on the first of the next month. A typical unmanaged account uses only a few hundred dollars. The audit compares budget to spend, then looks for the causes.
The usual causes are few keywords with real search volume, manual bidding held under the 2 dollar cap, geo-targeting that is too narrow or too wide, ads and landing pages Google ranks poorly, and campaign types nobody turned on, such as Performance Max and Google Maps placements, which Google now allows in Ad Grants accounts. We explain each one in why most of the Ad Grants budget goes unspent.
Check three: what puts the account at risk
The third check reads the account against Google's account management policy, the rules that trigger deactivation.
- A click-through rate of at least 5 percent at the account level every month. Two months below it and the account is temporarily deactivated.
- Valid conversion tracking recording at least one meaningful conversion a month.
- Keywords with a quality score of 1 or 2 paused. No single-word or overly generic keywords.
- Specific geo-targeting on every campaign and at least two sitelink assets.
- Conversion-based Smart Bidding on every campaign for accounts created on or after April 22, 2019.
- A response to the program survey Google sends periodically.
An account can be live and spending and still be one month from deactivation. The audit says which rule is closest to the line and how close.
An audit is not a sales document. It is a reading of the account you can act on whether or not you hire anyone.
The first fix, and why the audit ends with one
An audit that lists thirty problems is a report. An audit that names the first fix is a plan. The first fix is the change that removes the nearest risk or unlocks the most budget for the least work. For one account that is pausing twelve keywords to lift the click-through rate above the floor. For another it is installing conversion tracking so Smart Bidding can lift the bid cap. For a third it is a security certificate on the website, because nothing else matters until the site passes.
Ours is written by a person on our team, delivered within one business day, and it covers exactly these three checks plus the first fix. Request your written audit. No meeting required, no pitch, no obligation.
How to prepare
You do not need much. Have your website address, your organization's legal name, and an answer to one question: do you already have the grant, and if so is it running, suspended, or lost? If the account exists, knowing who holds the admin email helps. You will not be asked for passwords. An outside review of an existing account is done through Google's own access controls, never through shared logins.
How to judge an audit you are offered
Ad Grants management is a crowded field, and audits are the usual door in. Five tests separate the useful ones.
- It is written. A phone call that ends in a proposal is a sales call. A document you can forward to your board is an audit.
- It is specific to your account and your site. A generic checklist is not a reading of your account.
- It names the first fix. And says why that one comes first.
- It carries no obligation. You should be able to take the report and act on it yourself.
- It promises no results. Nobody can guarantee what Google will approve or what a campaign will raise. Be cautious of anyone who does.
Questions nonprofits ask about Ad Grants audits
Is there a cost?
Ours is at no charge and carries no obligation. The written report is yours whether or not you ever speak to us again.
Do we need an Ad Grants account already?
No. If you have never applied, the audit covers eligibility and the website, which is what Google reviews first. If you have the grant, it covers all three checks.
Will you need our Google Ads password?
No. If a deeper look at an existing account is useful, access is granted through Google's own account controls and can be removed at any time.
What happens after the audit?
You read it. If you want it explained live with a plan for the next thirty days, you can book fifteen minutes. If you would rather act on it yourself, the report is written so you can. The full path from audit to live campaigns is in our complete guide to Google Ad Grants.
Get your written audit
Tell us where to look: your nonprofit, your website, and whether you already have the grant. Within one business day you will have a written audit covering whether you qualify, what is unused, what puts the account at risk, and the first thing to fix. Get your Google Ad Grants audit, call (313) 364-8828, or write to leads@nonprofitsengine.com.
Zoya Syal is Content and Production Manager at Nonprofits Engine, where she leads the content and testimonial work for a team that helps small nonprofits get set up and funded.
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