What's the single most important metric for my Grant?

CTR (Click-Through Rate). Google's official policy requires a minimum 5% CTR. The rule remains in place, though enforcement has been inconsistent in recent years. After CTR, monthly spend is the best indicator of overall Grant health.

Why do the numbers in Google Ads and GA4 sometimes differ?

Different attribution models, different counting methods, and different reporting time zones. Google Ads counts a conversion on the date of the click; GA4 counts it on the date of the conversion. Small discrepancies (5–15%) are normal.

Do these metrics and terms apply the same way globally?

Yes. Google Ads and GA4 use the same metrics, calculations, and terminology worldwide. The interface language may change, but CTR is CTR whether you're in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, or anywhere else.

I see a metric in my dashboard that's not in this glossary. What should I do?

Google Ads has hundreds of available metrics, and this glossary covers the ones most relevant to Grant management. If you see something unfamiliar, hover over the metric name in Google Ads; Google usually provides a tooltip definition. Or search our Resource Centre for the term.

Google Ads and Digital Marketing Metrics Glossary for Nonprofits

Every metric, acronym, and term you'll encounter in Google Ads, Google Analytics 4 (GA4), and Google Ad Grant management, explained in plain English. If you've ever stared at your Google Ads dashboard and wondered what CTR, CPC, ROAS, QS, RSA, or PMax mean, this glossary is for you.

Core Metrics

Impressions: The number of times your ad was shown to someone. One impression = one person saw your ad appear in their search results. Impressions tell you how much visibility your Grant is generating. If impressions are low, your keywords may be too narrow, your bids too low, or your targeting too restrictive.
Clicks: The number of times someone clicked on your ad. A click means they were interested enough to visit your website. Clicks are the fundamental unit of value from your Grant. Each click is a person visiting your website for free. More clicks = more potential donors, volunteers, service users, and supporters.
CTR (Click-Through Rate): The percentage of impressions that resulted in a click. Calculated as: Clicks divided by Impressions multiplied by 100. If your ad was shown 1,000 times and 80 people clicked, your CTR is 8%. Google's official policy requires your account-wide CTR to stay above 5%. A healthy CTR is 7-12%. Above 12% is excellent. Below 5% is below the official threshold.
CPC (Cost Per Click): How much you "pay" for each click. In a Grant account, you're not paying real money, but the CPC determines how quickly you spend your $10,000 monthly budget. Higher CPCs mean your budget is spent faster on fewer clicks. With Smart Bidding, CPCs in Grant accounts typically range from $4-$12.
Cost (Spend): The total amount your Grant has "spent" on clicks in a given period. This is the advertising value you're utilizing from your $10,000/month Grant. $5,000+/month indicates a well-managed account. $8,000+/month is excellent.
Conversions: The number of times someone completed a valuable action after clicking your ad. What counts as a "conversion" depends on how you've set up conversion tracking: it could be a donation, a volunteer sign-up, a contact form submission, a phone call, or any other meaningful action. Google requires Grant accounts to have conversion tracking set up and to record at least one conversion per month.
Conversion Rate: The percentage of clicks that resulted in a conversion. Calculated as: Conversions divided by Clicks multiplied by 100. A healthy range is 2-5% for donations, 5-15% for email sign-ups, 3-10% for volunteer sign-ups.
CPA (Cost Per Acquisition / Cost Per Action): How much you "spend" per conversion. Calculated as: Total cost divided by Number of conversions. Since the Grant is free, your CPA is technically $0 in real money. But the metric still matters because it tells Smart Bidding how efficiently your campaigns are converting.
Conversion Value: The total dollar value of all conversions. If you track donation amounts, this is the total money raised through Grant-driven traffic. Conversion value is the clearest measure of ROI.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): The revenue generated per dollar spent on advertising. Calculated as: Conversion value divided by Cost. Since the Grant is free, ROAS is technically infinite for any positive conversion value. But it's still useful for comparing campaigns.
Impression Share: The percentage of eligible impressions your ad actually received. If your ad was eligible to show 10,000 times but actually appeared 6,000 times, your impression share is 60%. Low impression share means you're missing opportunities. If your impression share is 40%, there are 60% more potential clicks available that you're not getting.

Quality and Relevance

Quality Score (QS): Google's 1-10 rating of the quality and relevance of your keywords, ads, and landing pages. It's calculated from three components: Expected CTR, Ad Relevance, and Landing Page Experience. Quality Score is a compliance requirement. Google auto-pauses keywords with a QS of 1 or 2 in Grant accounts. Aim for QS 5+ on most keywords and 7+ on your best performers.
Expected CTR: One of three Quality Score components. Google's prediction of how likely people are to click your ad when it shows for this keyword. Rated as Above Average, Average, or Below Average. If Expected CTR is Below Average, your ad copy isn't compelling enough for the keyword.
Ad Relevance: One of three Quality Score components. How closely your ad copy matches the intent behind the keyword. Rated as Above Average, Average, or Below Average. If Ad Relevance is Below Average, your ad doesn't match what the searcher was looking for.
Landing Page Experience: One of three Quality Score components. How relevant, useful, and fast your landing page is for someone who clicked the ad. If Landing Page Experience is Below Average, your website page doesn't deliver what the ad promised.
Ad Rank: A score Google calculates to determine where your ad appears on the search results page. It's based on your bid, Quality Score, and expected impact of ad extensions. Higher ad rank = higher position on the page.
Search Terms vs Keywords: Keywords are the terms you bid on in your account (what you tell Google to target). Search terms are the actual phrases people type into Google that triggered your ad (what real people searched for). The Search Terms report is essential for finding irrelevant searches that waste budget and discovering new keyword opportunities.

Bidding and Budget

Smart Bidding: A group of automated bid strategies that use machine learning to optimize for conversions or conversion value. Smart Bidding is a compliance requirement for Grant accounts. You must use a conversion-based Smart Bidding strategy: Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value, Target CPA, or Target ROAS.
Maximize Conversions: A Smart Bidding strategy that automatically sets bids to get the most conversions possible within your budget. This is the most commonly recommended bid strategy for Grant accounts. It's the simplest to set up and works well once you have conversion tracking in place.
Maximize Conversion Value: Similar to Maximize Conversions, but optimizes for total conversion value rather than total conversion count. Use this if you've assigned different values to different conversions (e.g., $100 for a donation, $25 for a volunteer sign-up).
Target CPA (tCPA): A Smart Bidding strategy where you tell Google "I want to get conversions at approximately $X each." Google's algorithm then adjusts bids to achieve that target cost per acquisition on average. Useful for mature Grant accounts with 30+ conversions per month.
Target ROAS (tROAS): A Smart Bidding strategy where you tell Google "I want to get $X in conversion value for every $1 spent." Useful only if you're tracking conversion values (donation amounts). Requires significant historical data (50+ conversions/month recommended).
Manual CPC: A bid strategy where you set the maximum CPC for each keyword yourself. Manual CPC is no longer compliant for most Grant campaigns. Since April 2019, Grant accounts must use Smart Bidding on most campaigns.
Daily Budget / $329 Per Day: The maximum amount a single campaign can spend per day. In Grant accounts, the daily budget per campaign should be set to $329, which equals $10,000/month ($329 x 30.4 days). Set every campaign to $329/day and let Google's system allocate across campaigns at the account level.

Campaign and Ad Types

RSA (Responsive Search Ad): The standard ad format in Google Ads. You provide up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions, and Google's AI tests different combinations to find the highest-performing mix for each search query. Fill all 15 headline slots and all 4 description slots to give Google maximum flexibility.
PMax (Performance Max): An automated campaign type that runs across Google Search, Google Maps, and other Google properties. In Grant accounts, PMax is limited to Search and Maps placements. PMax became available for Grant accounts in January 2025. It's exempt from the 5% CTR requirement.
Smart Campaigns: A simplified, fully automated campaign type. You provide basic information (business, keyword themes, ad text) and Google handles everything else. Smart Campaigns are exempt from the 5% CTR requirement. Recommended only for organizations with zero capacity for PMax or standard Search campaigns.
Ad Group: A container within a campaign that holds a set of related keywords and the ads that should show for those keywords. Tight, themed ad groups are essential for Quality Score and ad relevance. Each ad group should contain 5-20 closely related keywords. Grant compliance requires at least 2 ad groups per campaign.
Sitelinks (Sitelink Assets): Additional links that appear below your main ad, pointing to specific pages on your website. "Donate," "Volunteer," "Programs," "Contact Us" are common sitelinks for nonprofits. Grant compliance requires at least 2 active sitelinks. You should have 8+ for best performance.
Ad Extensions / Ad Assets: Additional information that appears with your ad beyond the standard headlines and descriptions. This includes sitelinks, callout extensions, structured snippets, call extensions, and location extensions. Extensions improve CTR by making your ad larger and more informative.

Keyword Terms

Match Types (Broad, Phrase, Exact): Match types control how closely a person's search query must match your keyword for your ad to show. Broad match: your ad can show for related searches. Phrase match: your ad shows for searches that include the meaning of your keyword. Exact match: your ad shows only for searches with the same meaning. Google recommends broad match with negative keywords for Grant accounts.
Negative Keywords: Keywords you add to prevent your ad from showing for certain searches. Negative keywords are critical for CTR compliance and budget efficiency. Without them, broad match keywords trigger irrelevant searches that waste clicks and drag down CTR. Review your Search Terms report weekly and add negatives for irrelevant searches.
Single-Word Keywords: Keywords that consist of only one word, like "homeless" or "volunteer." Google prohibits single-word keywords in Grant accounts, with limited exceptions. Exceptions include your organization's brand name, recognized medical conditions, and a small list of pre-approved words. Violating this rule can trigger suspension.

GA4 Metrics

Sessions: A period of user activity on your website. A session starts when someone arrives on your site and ends after 30 minutes of inactivity or at midnight. One person can generate multiple sessions.
Engaged Sessions: Sessions where the user stayed for more than 10 seconds, triggered a conversion event, or viewed 2+ pages. This filters out bounces and bot traffic. Engaged sessions is a more meaningful metric than total sessions.
Engagement Rate: The percentage of sessions that were engaged sessions. Calculated as: Engaged sessions divided by Total sessions multiplied by 100. This replaced Bounce Rate as GA4's primary engagement metric. A healthy range is 50-70%. Below 40% indicates a problem.
Users / Active Users: The number of distinct people who visited your website. GA4 tries to count unique individuals, even if they visit from multiple devices.
New Users: Visitors who have never been to your website before (based on browser cookies). Your Grant should be consistently driving new users to your website.
Pageviews / Views: The total number of pages viewed. One person viewing 5 pages in one session = 5 pageviews.
Average Engagement Time: The average amount of time users actively engaged with your website. GA4 measures this more accurately than the old Universal Analytics "time on site" metric. For Resource Centre articles, 2-4 minutes is healthy.
Key Events (formerly Conversions in GA4): Specific user actions you've defined as valuable and marked as "key events" in GA4. These are the GA4 equivalent of conversions. Key events in GA4 can be imported into Google Ads as conversion actions, which is how Smart Bidding knows what to optimize for.
Source / Medium: Where your traffic came from. Source is the specific origin (google, facebook, newsletter). Medium is the category of traffic (cpc = paid/Grant clicks, organic = unpaid search results, referral = links from other websites, email = email campaigns). To see your Grant-driven traffic in GA4, filter by Source = "google" and Medium = "cpc."
UTM Parameters: Tags you add to URLs to track where traffic comes from. Google Ads automatically adds tracking parameters (gclid) to your Grant links, so you don't need UTMs for Grant traffic. But you should use UTMs for other marketing channels (email, social media, partner links) so you can compare Grant performance against other channels in GA4.
Bounce Rate: In GA4, bounce rate is the inverse of engagement rate: the percentage of sessions that were NOT engaged (lasted less than 10 seconds, had no conversion events, and viewed only one page). A high bounce rate on a specific landing page means visitors are leaving immediately.

Grant-Specific Terms

Google Ad Grants: A program by Google that gives eligible nonprofits up to $10,000 USD per month in free Google Search advertising. Part of the broader Google for Nonprofits suite.
The 5% CTR Requirement: Grant accounts must maintain an account-level CTR of 5% or above per Google's official policy. The 5% threshold remains in the program guidelines, though enforcement has been inconsistent in recent years.
Account Deactivation / Suspension: When Google disables your Grant account for compliance violations. Your ads stop running immediately. You must fix all issues and submit a reactivation request to get reinstated.
Goodstack Verification: The third-party verification process nonprofits must complete to access Google for Nonprofits (and the Ad Grant). Goodstack (formerly Percent, formerly TechSoup) verifies your organization's charitable status.
Google Ads Customer ID (CID): Your unique Google Ads account number, formatted as XXX-XXX-XXXX. This is not the same as your Google account email. You need your CID when contacting Google support, completing the annual survey, or connecting tools like GrantMax.
The Annual Survey: A yearly survey Google sends to all Grant recipients. Completing it is mandatory. Missing it can result in account suspension.
Compliance Score: An overall rating of how well your account meets Google's Grant compliance requirements. GrantMax calculates this based on 30+ individual checks including CTR, Quality Score distribution, keyword policies, sitelinks, geo-targeting, conversion tracking, bid strategy, and website requirements.
$329/Day Budget: The recommended per-campaign daily budget that equals the full $10,000/month Grant ($10,000 divided by 30.4 days = $329).

Audience and Targeting

Geo-Targeting (Location Targeting): Settings that control where your ads can appear geographically. You can target by country, state/region, city, or radius around an address. Targeting "All countries" is a compliance violation. Every campaign must target specific locations.
"People In" vs "People Interested In": A location targeting setting that determines whether you reach people physically in your targeted area ("Presence") or also people who've shown interest in that area but are located elsewhere ("Presence or interest"). For service-delivery nonprofits, use "Presence" (People in) to avoid wasting budget on people who can't use your services.
Audience Segments: Groups of users defined by their interests, behaviors, or demographics. In Grant Search campaigns, audiences can be added in "observation" mode (see performance data by audience, apply bid adjustments) but not "targeting" mode. In PMax, audiences serve as signals that guide Google's AI.
Customer Match: A feature that lets you upload email lists from your CRM (past donors, volunteers, subscribers) to Google Ads, where Google matches those emails to Google accounts to create an audience. Customer Match audiences can be used as PMax audience signals. Match rates are typically 30-60%.
Remarketing / Retargeting: Showing ads to people who have previously visited your website. Remarketing is NOT available through the Grant. It requires a paid Google Ads account.

Technical and Tracking

GA4 (Google Analytics 4): The current version of Google Analytics, Google's free website analytics platform. GA4 tracks user behavior on your website (visits, page views, events, conversions) and provides reports on traffic, engagement, and conversions.
GTM (Google Tag Manager): A free tool that lets you add and manage tracking codes (called "tags") on your website without editing the website's code directly. Instead of asking your developer to add tracking code every time you want to track something new, you add it through GTM's web interface.
Conversion Tracking: The system that records when someone completes a valuable action (conversion) after clicking your ad. Conversion tracking is a compliance requirement. Without it, Smart Bidding can't optimize, and you have no way to measure whether your Grant is generating value.
GCLID (Google Click Identifier): A unique tracking parameter that Google automatically appends to your ad URLs when someone clicks. The GCLID connects the ad click to subsequent actions on your website, enabling conversion attribution. Auto-tagging (which generates GCLIDs) must be enabled for conversion tracking to work between Google Ads and GA4.
Enhanced Conversions: A feature that supplements your conversion tracking by securely sending hashed first-party data (email address, name, phone number) from your website to Google when a conversion happens. This improves conversion measurement accuracy, especially as cookie-based tracking becomes less reliable.
Consent Mode v2: A framework for adjusting Google tag behavior based on user consent choices (accept/reject cookies). Required for serving ads to users in the European Economic Area (EEA) and UK.
Data Stream: In GA4, a data stream is the connection between your website (or app) and your GA4 property. Your website data stream contains your Measurement ID (the G-XXXXXXXXXX code that goes on your website).
Measurement ID: Your unique GA4 identifier, formatted as G-XXXXXXXXXX. This is the code you install on your website (via GTM or directly) to send data to your GA4 property. Not the same as your Google Ads Customer ID or your GTM container ID.

Reporting and Analysis

Attribution: The process of determining which marketing touchpoints (ad clicks, organic visits, email opens) get credit for a conversion. GA4 uses data-driven attribution by default, which distributes credit across multiple touchpoints. Google Ads uses last-click attribution from Google Ads clicks. Small discrepancies (5-15%) between GA4 and Google Ads reports are normal.
Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio): Google's free dashboard and reporting tool. Connect your Google Ads and GA4 data to build custom visual reports that auto-update.
Segments: In GA4, a way to filter your data to look at a specific subset of users or sessions. Example: "Users who came from Google Ads" or "Sessions on mobile devices" or "Users who donated."
A/B Testing (Ad Experiments): Running two variations of something simultaneously to see which performs better. In Google Ads, RSAs do this automatically by testing different headline and description combinations. You can also run campaign-level experiments.
Search Term Report: A Google Ads report showing the actual queries people typed into Google that triggered your ads. Different from your keyword list (which is what you told Google to target). Essential for finding negative keyword opportunities and new keyword ideas.

General Digital Marketing Acronyms

SEO (Search Engine Optimization): The practice of improving your website to rank higher in organic (unpaid) search results. SEO and your Grant work together: Grant data reveals what people search for, and SEO content gives you more landing pages for Grant keywords.
PPC (Pay Per Click): A digital advertising model where you pay each time someone clicks your ad. Google Ads is the largest PPC platform. Your Grant is technically PPC advertising, but Google pays instead of you.
SEM (Search Engine Marketing): The broader category that includes both PPC (paid search) and SEO (organic search). Your Grant falls under SEM.
CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization): The practice of improving your website to convert more visitors into donors, volunteers, or supporters. This includes landing page optimization, form design, CTA placement, and user experience improvements.
KPI (Key Performance Indicator): The metrics that matter most for measuring success. For a Grant account, typical KPIs are: monthly spend, CTR, conversions by type, and compliance score.
ROI (Return on Investment): The value generated relative to the cost invested. For your Grant, this includes the advertising value utilized, plus the value of conversions (donations, volunteer hours, email subscribers) divided by the cost of managing the Grant.
CMS (Content Management System): The platform your website is built on. WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Drupal, and Webflow are common CMS platforms for nonprofits. Your CMS affects how you install tracking codes, create landing pages, and manage content.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management): Software for managing relationships with donors, volunteers, and supporters. Salesforce, HubSpot, Bloomerang, DonorPerfect, and Little Green Light are common nonprofit CRMs. Connecting your CRM to Google Ads enables closed-loop reporting and Customer Match audiences.
API (Application Programming Interface): A way for different software systems to communicate with each other. GrantMax uses the Google Ads API to read your account data and generate audit reports. When you connect your Google Ads account to GrantMax, you're granting read-only API access.