Google just updated their policy regarding Google AdWords Ad Grants for Nonprofits. It’s a significant change that ultimately will increase the quality of impressions and clicks (overall relevancy in their SERPs). If you manage Ad Grant accounts like I do, this update is important to pay attention to.
Bid Above $2.00
In short, you can now bid above the maximum Cost-Per-Click (CPC) of $2.00. In order to do so, you need to enable “Maximize Conversions” bidding strategy which means you need to make sure you setup conversion tracking — this is just a best practice anyway.
Better Performance Standards, an End to Broad Targeting
The other change to the policy is a big one for your strategy. The policy also states that for performance you must maintain an account Click Through Rate of at least 5%, which means going after those low quality, broad, keywords will likely drop your account into the danger zone.
These are good changes, mostly. It does reduce the ability to run branding campaigns using broad keywords, but it makes up for it with more relevance, and ultimately higher conversion. Like I tell so many clients, and now my high school students (more on that later): Google is in the business of relevancy!
Here’s the official message from Google:
Links from the email:
- Terms and Conditions
- Mission-based campaigns policy
- Website policy
- Account management policy
- program policies
- Maximize conversions
- in-product notifications
- upcoming webinars
- online community forums
- tailored help content
