Can Google Ad Grants run Performance Max campaigns?
Yes. Google's Ad Grants setup guide now lets grant accounts choose Performance Max or Search when creating a campaign, and it says grant Performance Max campaigns appear only on Google Search.
That is narrower than paid Performance Max, which Google can also serve on YouTube, Display, Gmail and Discover. In a grant account you get Google's automation choosing queries and assembling ads from your assets, without the extra channels. Google recommends it when you have a specific conversion goal, like donations or volunteer signups, and the usual grant rules still apply: conversion-based bidding, a daily budget of $329 or less, and at least two sitelinks.
My view: add it after your Search campaigns are compliant and tracking is clean, not before. Performance Max decides what to match on, so it is only as good as the conversions you feed it. If your only conversion is a newsletter popup, it will find you plenty of newsletter signups. For the paid version and its trade-offs, see our Performance Max page.
Sources: Google Ad Grants setup guide: Create a campaign, Google Ads Help: About Performance Max campaigns
How do we apply for Google Ad Grants, and how long does approval take?
You apply in two stages: first get your organization verified in Google for Nonprofits, then activate Ad Grants as a separate product from inside that account.
Google's validation partner confirms your charitable status and that you work for the organization. Google's help center says most requests are reviewed in 2 to 14 working days, and the partner may ask for documents. Then you submit your website for Ad Grants review. Once approved, Google says to allow up to 3 business days for two invitation emails: one for the account and one for a payments profile that won't charge you.
The delay we see most is the website, not the paperwork. Google wants a domain you own, HTTPS on every page, a clear mission and no AdSense ads. Fix those before you apply. Also, an existing Google Ads account with payment details on it can't be converted into a grant account, so plan on a fresh one. Our website team can close site gaps quickly.
Sources: Five steps to get started with Google for Nonprofits, Access your Google Ad Grants account, Google Ad Grants website policy, Ad Grants myths debunked
Is there a bid limit or daily budget cap in Ad Grants?
Yes. Grant accounts are capped at $329 a day across all campaigns, and manual bids are limited to $2, but conversion-based Smart Bidding is allowed to bid above $2.
Google's reasoning is that the manual cap stops nonprofits from inflating auctions against each other. It is also why the program requires Maximize conversions, Maximize conversion value, Target CPA or Target ROAS on accounts created since April 2019. The daily cap is a ceiling, not a promise. Actual spend depends on search volume, ad quality and how many conversions your bid strategy thinks it can find.
What that means in practice: set a very low Target CPA and Smart Bidding will hold back, leaving the grant unspent. When an account is stuck well under the cap, we loosen or remove the target first, then add keyword themes. Raising campaign budgets above $329 adds nothing, since the cap applies to the whole account. Our Google Ads management uses the same diagnosis on paid accounts.
Sources: Google Ad Grants FAQ, Google Ad Grants: Understanding budgets and bidding, Google Ad Grants account management policy
Will our Ad Grants ads compete with our paid Google ads?
No. Google says grant ads only show in positions below paid ads, so your grant account and your paid account don't bid against each other.
That has a practical side effect. Because grant ads sit below paid ads, a paid ad from your own account can appear above your grant ad on the same search. On your own name, that is often money spent on a click the grant would have picked up. We check auction insights first. If a competitor or a third-party fundraising site is bidding on your name, paying for brand terms makes sense. If nobody is, we usually let the grant carry them.
One more caution: keep conversion actions identical across both accounts, so a donation is counted the same way everywhere and your board sees one number, not two that disagree. We set this up as part of paid search management when a nonprofit runs both.
Sources: Ad Grants myths debunked
Do we have to spend the full $10,000 every month?
No. Google's FAQ says there is no spend requirement, but unused budget doesn't roll over, so any month you leave money unspent is gone for good.
Low spend is not a compliance problem by itself. It is a missed-opportunity problem. A grant account spending a fraction of the budget is fine in Google's eyes, but it means people searching for your services, volunteer roles or cause are finding someone else.
Our rule: chase full use only on traffic that converts. Track spend alongside conversions every month. If spend climbs while donations, signups and volunteer forms stay flat, pull back to the themes that work and build new ones properly. An account that burns $10,000 on vague clicks looks impressive in a report and does nothing for the mission. It also tends to drift into the low-CTR, low-Quality-Score territory that gets accounts deactivated. Before expanding, make sure conversion tracking is recording real outcomes.
Sources: Google Ad Grants: Requirements and program FAQ
How do we make Smart Bidding work in a small Ad Grants account?
Give it a meaningful conversion that happens often enough to learn from, consolidate campaigns so the data pools together, and then leave it alone long enough to learn.
Google's Ad Grants FAQ says there is no minimum number of conversions required before you use Maximize conversions. That is true for eligibility, not for performance. In the accounts I audit, roughly 30 conversions a month per campaign is where Smart Bidding stops guessing. A grant account with ten thin campaigns and three donations a month is starving the model.
So we combine closely related campaigns, add a second real action like volunteer or information-request forms, and make sure each conversion fires once, on the confirmation page, not on page load. After a bid strategy change, we leave bids, budgets and targeting alone for about two weeks, because edits restart learning. Smarter bidding also doesn't replace negative keywords, so clean the search terms either way. Our bidding strategy page goes deeper.
Sources: Google Ad Grants FAQ
