The Complete Google Ad Grant Compliance Checklist for 2026

Your Google Ad Grant provides up to $10,000 USD per month in free search advertising, but it comes with a set of compliance requirements that are stricter than a standard paid Google Ads account. Fail to meet them, and Google can temporarily suspend your account without prior notice.

The challenge is that these rules are spread across multiple Google support pages, and they've changed several times since the major policy overhaul in January 2018. This article consolidates every compliance requirement into a single, actionable checklist so you can verify your account meets all standards in one place.

Whether you manage your Grant in-house, through an agency, or you're new to the program, bookmark this page and check it monthly.

Key Takeaways - There are 11 core compliance areas that Google monitors - CTR, keyword quality, and conversion tracking are the most common causes of suspension - Some rules apply only to accounts created after specific dates (January 2018 and April 2019) - Suspension happens automatically and without warning in many cases - Regular self-auditing is the best prevention

The Full Compliance Checklist

Here is every compliance requirement organized by category. Each rule includes what Google requires, why it matters, and what happens if you violate it.

1. Click-Through Rate (CTR): Maintain 5% or Higher

Requirement: Your account must maintain a minimum 5% click-through rate at the account level each month.

How it works: CTR is calculated by dividing the total number of clicks by the total number of impressions across your entire account for a given month. If your CTR drops below 5% for two consecutive months, your account will be temporarily deactivated.

Exemptions: Accounts that exclusively use Smart Campaigns are exempt from the CTR requirement. Performance Max campaigns are also exempt from the CTR calculation. New accounts have a 90-day grace period to reach the 5% threshold.

Why this matters: Google holds Grant accounts to a higher standard than paid accounts (where the average CTR across industries is roughly 3.5%). The 5% requirement ensures Grant ads are relevant and useful to searchers.

For specific strategies to maintain or improve your CTR, see our deep dive on the 5% CTR requirement.

2. Keyword Quality Score: All Keywords Must Be 3 or Higher

Requirement: All active keywords in your account must have a Quality Score of 3 or higher. Keywords with a Quality Score of 1 or 2 must be paused or removed.

How it works: Quality Score is Google's 1-10 rating of the overall quality of your keyword, based on three factors: expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience. Google's system will automatically flag or pause keywords that fall to QS 1-2. Keywords that show a Quality Score of "-" (no data yet) are exempt.

What to do: Set up an automated rule in Google Ads to pause any keyword with a Quality Score below 3. Check Quality Scores weekly, especially for newly added keywords. For detailed improvement strategies, see our Quality Score guide.

3. Single-Word Keyword Restriction

Requirement: Single-word keywords are not permitted in Google Ad Grant accounts, with specific exceptions.

The approved exceptions (as listed by Google):

• charity, charities
• donate, donation
• ngo, ngos
• nonprofit, nonprofits
• volunteer, volunteering
• Your organization's own brand name (if it's a single word)
• Recognized medical conditions (e.g., "diabetes," "asthma," "cancer")

Additional note: Terms with dashes, periods, or special characters are not treated as single-word keywords by Google. So "t-shirts" or "e-book" would not violate this rule.

For a full breakdown including workarounds, see our single-word keywords guide.

4. No Overly Generic Keywords

Requirement: Keywords must not be overly generic or fail to indicate the searcher's intent.

Examples of prohibited generic keywords: "free videos," "e-books," "today's news," "best apps," "things to do." These terms don't reflect a nonprofit's mission and attract irrelevant traffic.

How to assess: If a keyword's landing page experience is rated "Below Average" by Google, that's a strong indicator the keyword is too generic. The searcher isn't finding what they expected, which means the keyword doesn't match your content.

5. Conversion Tracking: Active and Meaningful

Requirement: Your account must have valid conversion tracking set up, with at least 1 meaningful conversion recorded per month.

What counts as meaningful: Donations, ticket sales, membership registrations, email sign-ups, volunteer sign-ups, form completions, petition signatures, phone calls to your organization, and meaningful content engagement.

What does NOT count as a primary conversion: Homepage visits and general page views should not be configured as primary conversion actions. If you include these, set them as "secondary" conversions using the "Other" category so they're excluded from the "Conversions" column and don't interfere with Smart Bidding.

Red flags Google watches for: If your conversion count is suspiciously close to your click count (suggesting nearly 100% of visitors "convert"), Google will flag this as improperly configured tracking. Legitimate conversion rates for nonprofits typically range from 2-10% depending on the action type.

Applies to: All accounts created after January 1, 2018, and any account using a conversion-based Smart Bidding strategy (which, per the bidding requirement below, is now effectively all Grant accounts).

For setup instructions, see our GA4 setup guide and our guide on conversion tracking compliance.

6. Bidding Strategy: Smart Bidding Required

Requirement: Accounts created on or after April 22, 2019 must use conversion-based Smart Bidding for all campaigns (unless using Smart Campaigns).

Accepted bid strategies:

• Maximize Conversions
• Maximize Conversion Value
• Target CPA (cost per acquisition)
• Target ROAS (return on ad spend)

Important nuance: You can start with Maximize Clicks to gather initial data, but Google expects you to transition to a conversion-based strategy as soon as you have enough conversion data (typically 15-30 conversions in the last 30 days). Campaigns that don't comply with bidding policies are subject to automatic bid strategy changes by Google.

Why this matters beyond compliance: Smart Bidding removes the legacy $2.00 CPC cap that applies to manual bidding. With Maximize Conversions or Target CPA, your ads can bid $4, $8, or even $12+ per click, making them far more competitive in the auction. This is one of the biggest levers for spending more of your $10,000 budget.

For more on choosing the right bid strategy, see our bid strategy guide.

7. Account Structure: Minimum Campaign and Ad Group Requirements

Requirement: Your account must maintain a minimum structure:

Best practice vs. minimum: While 2 is the minimum, well-performing accounts typically have 3-5+ campaigns, 3-10 ad groups per campaign, and 6-8 sitelinks with descriptions. The minimums keep you compliant; going beyond them drives performance.

For detailed guidance on building an effective account structure, see our account structure requirements guide.

8. Geographic Targeting: Specific Locations Required

Requirement: All campaigns must have specific geographic targeting set. You cannot target "All countries and territories."

How to think about it:

• Local organizations (food banks, shelters, community centers): Target your city, metro area, or a radius around your location
• National organizations (advocacy groups, nationwide charities): Target your country or specific states/regions
• International organizations (humanitarian, development): Target the specific countries where your donors or service recipients are located, not the entire world

Common mistake: Many nonprofits set up campaigns targeting their entire country when they only serve a specific city. While this won't trigger suspension, it wastes budget on people who can't engage with your services.

Also check: The "Location options" setting. Choose "People in" your targeted locations rather than "People in or interested in" to avoid showing ads to people outside your service area who happen to search with location-related terms.

For targeting strategies by organization type, see our geo-targeting rules guide.

9. Website Policy Compliance

Requirement: Your website must continuously meet Google's website standards:

• HTTPS/SSL certificate active and enforced
• Mobile-friendly responsive design
• Fast load speed (test with Google PageSpeed Insights)
• Substantial original content (at least 5 pages with 300+ words of meaningful content)
• Clear mission statement prominently displayed
• No AdSense or excessive third-party advertising
• Working donation functionality
• No broken links on key pages
• You must own the domain that your ads point to

Critical note: Website violations can result in automatic suspension without warning. Google periodically reviews Grant participants' websites, and any changes that bring your site out of compliance (removing your SSL certificate, adding AdSense, letting the site go down) can trigger suspension.

For the complete website policy breakdown, see our website policy guide.

10. Annual Program Survey

Requirement: All Grant participants must complete an annual program survey when Google sends it.

How it works: Google periodically sends surveys to the email address associated with your Ad Grants account. The survey asks about how your organization uses the Grant, what results you've achieved, and how Google can improve the program.

Why organizations miss it: The survey notification often lands in spam folders, or gets sent to an email address that's no longer actively monitored (especially if the person who set up the Grant has left the organization).

Prevention: Ensure the email address associated with your Google Ads account is actively monitored. Opt into notifications from Google for Nonprofits. Add verifications@mail.goodstack.org and Google's notification addresses to your email safe senders list.

For more detail, see our annual survey requirement guide.

11. Mission-Relevant Advertising Only

Requirement: All advertising must be related to your nonprofit's mission. You cannot use the Grant to promote commercial products, run election ads in regions where verification is required, or advertise content that isn't connected to your charitable purpose.

What this means in practice: Every campaign, every keyword, and every ad should be traceable back to your organization's mission, programs, or services. A children's education charity shouldn't be running ads for generic office supplies, even if they sell them as a fundraiser.

Quick-Reference Compliance Table

How Often Should You Check Compliance?

The safest approach is a tiered monitoring schedule:

Weekly (5 minutes):

• Check account-level CTR (is it above 5.5%? Not just 5%, give yourself a buffer)
• Review any Google Ads notifications or alerts
• Scan for keywords with QS below 3

Monthly (30 minutes):

• Full checklist review against all 11 requirements above
• Review Search Terms report and add negative keywords
• Check conversion tracking is firing (at least 1 conversion recorded)
• Verify all campaigns are using approved bid strategies
• Test that your website still loads correctly with HTTPS

Quarterly (1 hour):

• Deep account structure review (enough ad groups? Enough ads? Sitelinks current?)
• Website policy audit (content still substantial? No new AdSense? Speed acceptable?)
• Keyword cleanup (remove underperformers, add new opportunities)

Annually:

• Complete Google's program survey promptly when it arrives
• Full account audit against all policies

If this feels like a lot of manual work, that's because it is. Tools like GrantMax automate compliance monitoring, running daily checks against every requirement and alerting you instantly when something needs attention. It's the difference between catching a CTR drop on day 3 versus discovering it at the end of the month when it's too late.

What Happens When You Violate a Rule

Not all violations are treated equally:

Automatic and immediate: Website policy violations, conversion tracking issues, and severe keyword policy violations can trigger suspension without warning. Google's systems monitor these continuously.

Two-month grace period: The 5% CTR requirement gives you two consecutive months below the threshold before suspension. This means you have time to fix it, but you need to be monitoring actively to catch the decline early.

Auto-corrected by Google: Some bidding policy violations result in Google automatically changing your bid strategy rather than suspending your account. This is less disruptive but can impact performance if Google switches you to a strategy that doesn't suit your goals.

Flagged for manual review: Some violations (mission relevance, commercial activity) may trigger a manual review by Google's Ad Grants team. These are less predictable in timing.

If your account is suspended, see our step-by-step reactivation guide and our list of the 13 most common suspension reasons.

Compliance Rules That Apply by Account Creation Date

This causes significant confusion. Not all rules apply to all accounts equally:

The practical takeaway: if your account was created after April 2019 (which covers most active Grant accounts today), all rules apply to you. Even for older accounts, Google strongly recommends following all rules since they're tied to performance, not just compliance.

International Considerations

Google Ad Grant compliance rules are the same worldwide. Whether your nonprofit is based in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, or any of the 50+ countries where Google for Nonprofits operates, the same policies apply. The $10,000 USD monthly budget, the 5% CTR requirement, the keyword restrictions, and the structural requirements are universal.

The main area where international differences come into play is eligibility verification (handled by Goodstack based on your country's specific charitable status requirements) and website language (your website content should be in the language of the audience you're targeting with your ads).

Audit Your Grant Compliance with GrantMax

Instead of manually checking 11 requirements every month, GrantMax audits your Google Ad Grant account against every compliance rule automatically. You get a compliance score, a suspension risk assessment, and specific recommendations for any issues found.

GrantMax checks your CTR trends, Quality Scores, keyword policy compliance, bid strategies, account structure, conversion tracking, geo-targeting, and website policy requirements. All in minutes.

Check My Grant Compliance - Free

Prefer to hand it off to an expert? Our Google Ad Grant management services handle everything for you, from setup to ongoing optimization. Explore Grant Services

Frequently Asked Questions

Will Google warn me before suspending my account? Not always. Google primarily uses in-product notifications to communicate compliance issues, but website policy violations and some keyword violations can result in suspension without prior warning. The safest approach is to self-monitor rather than wait for Google to tell you something is wrong.

Is there a difference between "deactivated" and "suspended"? In practice, most compliance violations result in "temporary deactivation," which means your ads stop running but your account and data are preserved. You can fix the issues and request reactivation. True "suspension" for severe policy violations (like promoting prohibited content) is rarer and harder to reverse. See our account status types guide for detailed definitions.

Do Performance Max campaigns need to meet the 5% CTR requirement? No. Performance Max campaigns are exempt from the account-level CTR calculation. This is one of the advantages of PMax for Grant accounts, as it won't drag down your overall CTR if it runs at a lower rate.

My account was created before 2018. Do I still need Smart Bidding? Technically, accounts created before April 2019 are not required to use Smart Bidding. However, Smart Bidding removes the $2.00 CPC cap, which dramatically improves ad competitiveness and budget utilization. Staying on manual bidding keeps you compliant but limits your performance significantly.

How quickly can I get reactivated after suspension? After you fix all compliance issues and submit a reactivation request, Google typically responds within 5-10 business days. In some cases it's faster. See our reactivation guide for the complete process.

Key Takeaways

• There are 11 core compliance areas that Google monitors for Ad Grant accounts
• CTR (5% minimum), Quality Score (3+), and conversion tracking are the three most common causes of suspension
• Rules differ by account creation date, but post-April 2019 accounts (the majority) must follow all rules including Smart Bidding
• Suspension can happen without warning for website and keyword violations
• Weekly CTR monitoring and monthly full-checklist reviews are the recommended prevention cadence
• Compliance rules are the same worldwide, regardless of which country your nonprofit operates in
• Automated monitoring tools like GrantMax check compliance daily and alert you before problems become suspensions

Published: March 2026 | Last Updated: March 2026 | Author: GrantMax Category: Compliance | Tags: Compliance, Checklist