Campaign Structure Rules for Google Ad Grants: Ad Groups, Ads, Sitelinks, and Geo-Targeting

Two ad groups per campaign. Two ads per ad group. At least two sitelinks. Specific geo-targeting. Search only. Those are the structural rules Google enforces on every Ad Grants account, and an account that misses any of them can be deactivated without a warning email.

The rules are not arbitrary. Each one exists to make ads relevant to the person searching, which is also what keeps the click-through rate above 5 percent and the budget spending. Here is what Google requires, what a structure that meets the rules looks like, and how to build one that also performs.

What Google requires

Google's Ad Grants policy compliance guide and account management policy set the structural rules.

• At least two ad groups per campaign, each built on a tightly related set of keywords that align with two associated ads and their landing pages.
• At least two sitelink assets, so the ad offers more than one place to click.
• Specific geo-targeting that shows ads where people will find your services useful, with local and national campaigns separated when the organization does both.
• Search inventory only. Google's campaign setup guidance has you deselect search partners and the Display Network.
• Conversion-based Smart Bidding on every campaign for accounts created on or after April 22, 2019.
• Mission-based campaigns, meaning keywords and ads must relate to the organization's own programs, services, and cause.

Miss the sitelinks or the geo-targeting and Google lists the fix as: bring the account into compliance, then request reinstatement. The recovery steps are in what to do when an Ad Grants account is suspended.

Campaigns: organize by goal

A campaign is where the budget and the location settings live, so campaigns should follow the goals your organization has and the places it serves. A common starting structure for a small nonprofit is three campaigns: one for the organization's own name and brand, one for programs and services, and one for getting involved through volunteering, events, or giving. Larger organizations add a campaign per major program and separate campaigns for local and national audiences. The daily budget, about 329 dollars in total, is divided across them, and can be moved as results come in.

Ad groups: one theme each

An ad group holds a set of keywords and the ads that answer them. The rule of two ad groups per campaign is the minimum; the practice that works is one ad group per theme, with keywords so closely related that one ad can speak to all of them. A campaign for a food pantry's programs might hold ad groups for emergency food, weekend meals for children, and senior grocery delivery, each with its own ad and its own landing page. An ad group that mixes those themes forces one ad to be vague, and vague ads earn low click-through rates and low quality scores.

Structure is relevance made visible. Every rule Google enforces here is a rule that makes the ad match the search.

Ads: two per group, written to the search

Google expects two ads per ad group. Responsive search ads let you supply several headlines and descriptions that Google assembles per search. Write the headlines to echo the keywords in the group, name the place and the program, and state the next step. Two ads let Google compare approaches, and the Search Terms report tells you which phrasing people actually respond to. Refresh the weaker ad quarterly rather than leaving both untouched for a year.

Sitelinks and the other assets

Two sitelinks is the floor. Four to six is the practice, because more relevant links make the ad larger and more useful. Point them at pages people would want next: a program page, a volunteer page, a donation page, contact and hours. Callouts, structured snippets, and a call asset with the organization's phone number are optional but cost nothing and raise the click-through rate. Every link must go to the organization's own domain.

Geo-targeting: follow the mission, not the map

Google's policy examples make the principle clear. A food bank or a house of worship should show ads in its own town. An organization doing relief abroad whose donors are in the United States should show its donation ads in the United States. A museum that wants visitors from across the country can run one widely targeted campaign for its city and name, while the rest stay local. The mistake in either direction costs the same: too wide wastes impressions and drags the click-through rate down; too narrow runs out of searches before the daily budget spends.

If you are not sure whether your structure meets the rules, that is one of three things our audit checks. Tell us where to look and our team writes back within one business day. Get your written audit.

Negative keywords: the structure nobody sees

A shared negative keyword list applied across campaigns keeps irrelevant searches out of every ad group at once: job seekers, students writing papers, people looking for a different organization with a similar name. Build it from the Search Terms report every week. It is the single habit that protects the click-through rate and the quality scores in a structure that is otherwise sound. Our article on choosing keywords for Ad Grants covers the keyword side in detail.

A structure check you can run in twenty minutes

• Every campaign has at least two enabled ad groups and specific location targeting.
• Every ad group has at least two enabled ads and keywords that share one theme.
• The account or each campaign carries at least two sitelinks, all pointing to your domain.
• Search partners and the Display Network are deselected on every campaign.
• Every campaign uses a conversion-based Smart Bidding strategy.
• A negative keyword list exists and was updated this month.

Questions nonprofits ask about campaign structure

Can one campaign hold everything?

It can meet the rules with two ad groups, but it cannot hold separate budgets or locations, and it usually produces vague ads. Separate campaigns by goal and geography as soon as the account has more than one of either.

Do sitelinks have to be on every campaign?

The requirement is at least two sitelink assets in the account. Applying them at the account level covers every campaign; adding campaign-specific ones on top makes the ads more relevant.

How many keywords should an ad group hold?

Enough to cover one theme and no more. When a group needs two different ads to make sense, it is two ad groups.

Does structure affect how much of the award we spend?

Directly. Tight ad groups raise quality scores, higher quality scores mean ads show more often, and more relevant impressions mean more of the daily budget reaches real searches.

Find out whether your structure passes

Structure is the check most accounts have never had done, and it is one of the quickest to fix. Tell us where to look and within one business day you will have a written audit: whether you qualify, what is unused, what puts the account at risk, and the first thing to fix. No meeting required, no obligation. Get your Google Ad Grants audit, or call (313) 364-8828.

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.