Google Ad Grants for churches

The real story

$10,000 a month is a cap, not an allowance. You only spend it when someone searches for something relevant and clicks your ad. A church in a town of 5,000 people might realistically use a few hundred dollars of it a month, because there simply is not more local search volume than that.

That is still free advertising you are not currently getting. But if anyone tells you your church is about to receive $120,000 a year, they are selling you something. The honest framing is simpler: there is free advertising available, and you are leaving all of it on the table.

An obstacle most churches face

Under US law, churches are automatically tax exempt. You do not have to apply to the IRS to be treated as a 501(c)(3), and most small churches never have.

But automatic exemption is not the same as proof of exemption. Google verifies nonprofits through a third party, and that verification needs a formal IRS determination letter. So does TechSoup, whose policy explicitly excludes churches that are only automatically exempt or self declaring.

This is why a lot of churches start the application and quietly give up. They are eligible in principle and cannot prove it on paper.

The fix is IRS Form 1023-EZ, a short online application with a modest filing fee. If you are not sure whether your church already has a letter, the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search will tell you in about thirty seconds.

Can your church qualify?

Four questions, plus one or two more depending on your answers. Nothing is sent anywhere, and you do not need to give us an email address to see your answer.

What you are allowed to advertise

This surprises most churches. Google does not exclude faith based organisations, but it does restrict how religious content is advertised.

Ads built purely around worship services, or aimed at recruiting people to a faith, are frequently restricted. What Google wants to see is community facing work: the food pantry, the recovery group, the grief support, the youth programme, vacation Bible school, the community meal.

You can use faith based language. The requirement is that the page your ad points to describes a real service or programme, not a doctrinal statement.

There is also a rule worth knowing before you build anything: Google does not allow ads to point at personalised religious targeting. Your ads appear when someone searches for something relevant. They are never shown to people because Google thinks they are religious.

What your site needs

Google reviews the site before approving a grant. These are the requirements, taken from Google's published website policy rather than paraphrased from someone else's guide.

• 01
  You must own the domainGoogle defines this as having administrative control over the site's content, structure and technical settings. A site you cannot change does not qualify.
• 02
  The entire site must be served over httpsNot just the contact page. Every page.
• 03
  Your mission and activities must be clearly statedA visitor should be able to tell what your church does and who it serves.
• 04
  Financial information should be clearly presentedGoogle asks for a nonprofit registration number such as an EIN, or an annual report. Putting your EIN in the site footer is the simplest way to satisfy this.
• 05
  Commercial activity cannot be the focusSome is acceptable. A site that mainly sells things, or exists to push traffic elsewhere through affiliate links, is not.
• 06
  Pages need real content, not just embedsGoogle specifically restricts pages that are mostly links to other sites or embedded content such as video playlists without supporting text. A sermons page that is only a YouTube feed is a risk.

The rules that get grants suspended

These account management rules apply each month:

• 01
  5% click through rate, every monthMeasured across the account. Miss it for two months running and Google temporarily deactivates the grant.
• 02
  No single word keywordsYou cannot bid on "church" or "faith". Branded terms and recognised medical conditions are the exceptions.
• 03
  No overly generic keywordsAnything that does not indicate what the searcher actually wants has to be paused.
• 04
  Quality Score 1 and 2 keywords must be paused or removedQuality Score depends heavily on how relevant and useful your landing page is. This is where a thin website quietly costs you the grant.
• 05
  At least two ad groups per campaignEach with tightly related keywords pointing at a matching landing page.
• 06
  At least two sitelinksWhich means your site needs at least two distinct pages worth linking to.
• 07
  Conversion tracking, with at least one conversion a monthSomething measurable has to happen. A working contact form or a "plan your visit" form is the usual answer.

If your grant is already suspended

This is common, and it is usually recoverable. The three most common causes:

• Click through rate below 5% for two consecutive months. Nearly always caused by keywords that are too broad, or ads pointing at pages that do not match what was searched.
• Keywords sitting at Quality Score 1 or 2. Often a landing page problem rather than a keyword problem.
• No conversions recorded. Frequently because the site has no working form to convert on.

If your grant keeps lapsing and nobody can work out why, the landing pages are the first place to look.

How to apply, in order

1. Get your IRS determination letter if you do not have one. Form 1023-EZ. Nothing else can proceed until this exists.
2. Register with Google for Nonprofits. Your status is verified by Google's partner, usually within two to fourteen business days.
3. Get your website in order. Https across the site, a clear description of your mission, your EIN, a working contact form, and a separate page for each community programme.
4. Activate Ad Grants from inside your Google for Nonprofits account.
5. Build the campaigns. At least two ad groups, two sitelinks, real conversion tracking, and keywords specific enough to earn a 5% click through rate.
6. Check it monthly. This is not optional. It is the step that decides whether you still have a grant next year.

Where we fit

We build the website. Applying for the grant and keeping the ad account in good standing afterward are the church's responsibility.

A website can meet every requirement Google publishes and a grant can still be suspended for something happening inside the ad account. If your site is the thing standing between you and the grant, that part we can help with. Our pricing is on the home page.

Questions people actually ask