A Monthly Google Ad Grants Checklist an Executive Director Can Follow in an Hour

One hour. Once a month. That is what it takes to keep a Google Ad Grants account compliant and spending, and it is the hour most accounts never get.

The rules are not complicated. They are numerous, they are enforced automatically, and they live in an account nobody opens between crises. This checklist puts all of them into a single sitting an executive director or a trusted volunteer can run without being a Google Ads expert. Print it, put a name and a date on it, and the account survives the year.

Before you start: what you need open

The Google Ads account, signed in as an administrator. The website, on a phone. Last month's checklist, if there is one. Set the date range in Google Ads to the previous full month. That is all. The hour below is divided into six blocks of ten minutes; the first three protect the account, the last three grow it.

Minutes 0 to 10: read what Google is telling you

Google primarily communicates non-compliance through in-product notifications, inside the account, and its policy states that violations can trigger suspension without an email. So the first ten minutes are reading. Open every notification and every recommendation flagged as a policy issue. Note each one on the checklist with what you did about it. Then check the account status at the top of the screen. If the account is deactivated, stop here and switch to the recovery steps for a suspended account. If it is active, keep going.

Minutes 10 to 20: the click-through rate

Open the Keywords tab, filter to enabled keywords, and read the total click-through rate for last month. Google requires 5 percent at the account level, and two consecutive months below it means deactivation. Write the number down. If it is under 6 percent, sort by impressions and pause the keywords with the most impressions and the lowest click-through rates until the total clears the floor with room to spare. Then open the Search Terms report and add the irrelevant searches you find as negative keywords. The full method is in the 5 percent click-through rule.

Minutes 20 to 30: conversions and the quality rule

Open the Conversions column. Google requires at least one recorded conversion a month, and an account that shows zero is out of policy. Write the number down. Then submit one real test action on the website, a form or a sign-up, and confirm during the hour that it registers. If the site changed this month, test every conversion action, because website changes are how tracking quietly breaks. Next, add the Quality Score column and confirm no enabled keyword sits at 1 or 2; pause any that do, or confirm the automated rule that pauses them is still running. Details are in the conversion tracking requirement.

The first thirty minutes keep the account. The second thirty minutes make it worth keeping.

Minutes 30 to 40: structure and settings

This block catches the quiet deactivations. Confirm the account has at least two sitelinks and that each still points to a working page on your domain. Open each campaign and confirm it has specific location targeting, at least two enabled ad groups, and a conversion-based bid strategy such as Maximize Conversions, since Google can change bidding automatically and accounts created since April 2019 must use it. Confirm search partners and the Display Network are deselected. Confirm the notification email on the account is a live, shared address, and check that inbox for Google's annual program survey. Our article on the quiet ways accounts get deactivated explains why each of these matters.

Minutes 40 to 50: feed the account

Now the growth work. From the Search Terms report, add the searches that earned clicks and conversions as new keywords, in the ad group that fits, as multi-word phrases. Aim to add a handful every month; the accounts that spend the award are built from hundreds of specific phrases across the five keyword families. In the ad group with the weakest click-through rate, rewrite the weaker of its two ads so the headline echoes what people actually typed. Update a sitelink if a program or event changed. If a campaign is spending well under its daily budget while others are constrained, move budget toward the one that is starved. Guidance for each is in choosing keywords and campaign structure rules.

If the hour keeps not happening, that is the clearest sign the account needs an owner outside the organization. Our team runs this routine every month for the accounts we manage, and it starts with a written audit delivered within one business day. Get your audit.

Minutes 50 to 60: the report

Write the one-page report while the numbers are in front of you: award deployed out of 10,000, the three compliance numbers, conversions by type, what changed this month, and the one thing to do next month. It takes ten minutes now and an afternoon if you try to reconstruct it later. The format is in reporting Ad Grants results to your board. Sign the checklist, date it, and file both.

Once a quarter, add thirty minutes

• Reread Google's account management policy and note anything new.
• Walk the website against Google's website policy: security certificate, working links, mission stated, no advertising.
• Review each landing page from a phone and ask whether it still answers its ad group's searches.
• Confirm who holds the admin role and that a second administrator exists on an organization-owned address.
• Look at the campaign types available. If Performance Max or Maps placements are not in use, decide whether they should be.

The checklist, in one place

• In-product notifications read and resolved. Account status: active.
• Account-level click-through rate written down. Above 5 percent with margin. High-impression, low-click keywords paused. Negatives added.
• Conversions last month written down. At least one. Test action submitted and recorded.
• No enabled keyword with quality score 1 or 2. Automated rule running.
• Two or more sitelinks, all working. Every campaign: specific locations, two ad groups, conversion-based bidding, Search only.
• Notification email live and shared. Program survey answered if received.
• New keywords added. Weakest ad rewritten. Budget moved where needed.
• One-page report written, signed, dated, filed.

Questions nonprofits ask about the monthly routine

Can the hour be split across the month?

Yes. Many organizations run the Search Terms review weekly for fifteen minutes and the rest at month end. What matters is that the click-through rate is checked before the month closes, while there is still time to act.

What if we miss a month?

Run it the first day you can. One missed month is recoverable; two consecutive months below the click-through floor is a deactivation.

Who should own it?

Anyone reliable, with the admin role on an organization-owned address and a named backup. The account fails when it belongs to a person instead of a role.

Does this replace reading the full policy?

No. The checklist covers the rules Google enforces most. The quarterly reread of the policy catches changes, because Google amends the program from time to time.

Find out where the account stands before the first hour

The first checklist is easier with a baseline. 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.