Google Ad Grant FAQ
How Churches Can Utilize Google's $10,000/month Ad Grant
Do you have questions about how your church can use the Google Ad Grant to GROW and reach more people? Check out these Frequently Asked Questions.
Is My Church Eligible?
Google offers the Google Ad Grant to qualifying non-profits, including churches, which gives you access to $10,000 in Google advertising money every month! Here are answers to frequently asked questions about the Google Ad Grant.
What is the Google Ad Grant?
Google offers qualifying non-profit organizations, including churches, $10,000/month to spend on search ads. Search ads allow organizations to rank first in search results, offering relevant, keyword-targeted text ads in response to the questions people are already asking. Learn more about the Google Ad Grant here.
How can churches utilize the Google Ad Grant?
- Reach local community members with information about weekend services
- Advertise outreach events to connect with more people
- Reach people across the country with online ministry opportunities
When a church (or other organization) is approved for the Google Ad Grant, Google creates a Google Ads account with a pre-loaded $10,000/month budget. That budget renews every month, as long as the account meets Google’s requirements. (One of the major benefits the CMU team managing your account is we will make sure you meet Google’s requirements so your church will be sure not to lose your grant.) You can use that Ad money to run Google search ads – allowing your information to show up at the top of relevant search results!
What are the Application Requirements?
In order to qualify for the Google Ad Grant, a church must be verified as a non-profit organization through Techsoup. Verification requirements vary by country.
In America, you are required to either be a 501c3 organization, or be affiliated with a denomination or other organization that covers you under their 501c3 status. Your church must also have a high-quality, secure website (that includes information about your non-profit status, doesn’t have broken links, and loads quickly). If your website doesn’t meet Google’s requirements, the CMU team will help you fix it.
For churches based in America, you can use the CMU Eligibility Checker here: Google Ad Grant Eligibility Checker – Church Marketing University
For churches based in other countries, Google’s requirements can be found here: Eligibility guidelines – Google for Nonprofits Help
What Countries is This Available in?
The CMU Team will manage the grant for churches in the following countries:
- United States
- Canada
- Australia
Churches in these countries can also qualify for the grant, even though we do not offer CMU management for churches in these countries:
Eligible Countries
Churches in these countries can also qualify for the grant, even though we do not offer CMU management for churches in these countries:
- Argentina
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bosnia + Herzegovina
- Botswana
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Chile
- Colombia
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Ecuador
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Ghana
- Greece
- Hong Kong
- Hungary
- Iceland
- India
- Indonesia
- Ireland
- Italy
- Israel
- Japan
- Kenya
- Korea
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macau
- Malaysia
- Malta
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Nigeria
- Norway
- Pakistan
- Peru
- Philippines
- Poland
- Portugal
- Puerto Rico
- Romaina
- Russia
- Serbia
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Taiwan
- Tanzania
- Thailand
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom (including England + Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland)
- Vietnam
For churches based in America, you can use the CMU Eligibility Checker here: Google Ad Grant Eligibility Checker – Church Marketing University
For churches based in other countries, Google’s requirements can be found here: Eligibility guidelines – Google for Nonprofits Help
How Long Does it Take to Apply and Secure the Google Ad Grant?
In order to activate the Google Ad Grant, you must first have a Google For Nonprofits (GFN) account. The first step is to applying for this account through an organization called Techsoup, and they can take up to two weeks to verify your organization as a nonprofit. Once you have a Google For Nonprofits account, you can log in to that account and apply for the Grant. Google generally gets back to churches in less than a week!
How Long Does a Church Have Access to the Google Ad Grant?
In order to activate the Google Ad Grant, you must first have a Google For Nonprofits (GFN) account. The first step is to applying for this account through an organization called Techsoup, and they can take up to There’s no time limit to the Google Ad Grant! The $10,000/month budget renews every month, indefinitely! However, your church will lose access to the free advertising money if you don’t follow Google’s account maintenance requirements. (CMU Grant Management will make sure you don’t lose your church’s grant.)
How Long Does it Take the CMU Team to Set up my Ads?
The CMU team can generally build out local ads for all of your church’s website landing pages within two weeks of gaining access to your Google Grant account. When you have new events for us to advertise, we create those within 3 business days of receiving a link to the information on your website!
How Long Until I See Visitors at my Church?
When churches use CMU’s Ad Management strategy, they usually start seeing visitors at the end of the first 30 days (depending on how long it takes Google to test the ads and optimize them for your location). During Google’s testing phase, the CMU team will continue to monitor and adjust the ads to improve your reach. If you still aren’t seeing new visitors within 60 days, the CMU team will work with you to improve your website so that website traffic starts translating into visitors to your church!
What Does the Ongoing Google Ad Grant Management Look Like?
The CMU team will ensure that your ads meet Google’s requirements so that you don’t lose access to the Google Ad Grant. Our team will check in on your ads weekly to improve account performance. Any time you have a new event, ministry, or other website landing page to advertise, we’ll create new ads for you! Just shoot us a link to the information on the website (and we’ll check in with you regularly to see if you have anything new to advertise). The longer we work together the more momentum you will see with people visiting your church.
What if it Isn’t working? How do I get Ahold of Someone?
If the CMU team is managing your Google Ad Grant account and it isn’t helping your church see new visitors, you can reach out to the CMU team anytime. You’ll receive regular check-in emails from our team to see if you have new events to advertise, so just shoot our team an email back letting us know. We’ll help to identify the problem and create a plan to get your church a steady stream of new visitors.
What if I Have New Ideas for Campaigns we Want to Run?
Anytime you have new events, ministries, or other landing pages to advertise on Google, just send our team an email with a link to the information! We’ll also check in with you regularly to see if you have anything new to advertise.
How Much of the $10,000 a Month will we Spend?
Most churches spend between $1000-5000/month of the Grant in their local area. That varies based on your geographic location, how many people live within driving distance of your church, and how well your website is optimized for Search Engine Optimization (which we’ll help you with!). Don’t worry, we don’t want to waste any of Google’s free money. Once we’ve optimized your local ads, we’ll use the remaining money to reach people across the country with your sermons and resources – so you’re reaching the most people possible with the Gospel.
Why is the CMU Approach Unique Compared to Other Google Grant Management Companies?
First – most companies copy/paste ads between accounts. Our team doesn’t copy ads from other accounts, we build everything custom to your church, based on your website information.
Second – we prioritize local ads. Most companies target all of your campaigns to the entire country, with vague keywords. We only choose keywords that are relevant to your church, and we spend as much of your Grant money as possible in your local area.
And third – our team is accessible. If you have new events or ministries to advertise, or have questions about your account, you can always shoot our team an email or jump on an Open Office Hours call. Consider our team to be part of your Marketing team – we’re here to answer your questions, give you personal attention, and offer you the care your Google Ads account needs to maximize your impact.
Finally – we have broader solutions. The Google Grant is one piece of a church’s marketing system. We’ll show you exactly how to build out a complete system to maximize the amount of people your church is able to reach.
What do Other Companies Charge?
Programs like this range in price from $150/month to $1000+/month. Programs under $500/month usually only include 3 advertising campaigns – so you’re not maximizing your reach. Our team builds ads for every page on your website, we don’t set limits. To get the kind of custom account work the CMU team provides, most other agencies charge $700+/month.
Can I Just Run this Myself or Have a Volunteer Run it?
You can and we even have a course that can help your team learn to do this, but remember you’ll need to make sure that you understand Google’s ever-changing requirements. If you don’t meet Google’s requirements, you’ll lose your Ad Grant. Learning how to run Google ads is also a huge learning curve – it’s much more complicated than other ad platforms. We hire Google Certified professionals who have gone through months of training to run your Google Ads account.
Can I See Examples of Google Ad Grant Accounts?
Google Grant Pro Case Study – Ridgeline Community Church
https://vimeo.com/659120535
Google Grant Pro Case Study – Asbury Raleigh
https://vimeo.com/659120548
CMU Team
Church Marketing University has a team of Google Ads certified professionals who run Google Ad Grant accounts for churches. These team members maintain the accounts to meet Google’s account requirements and check in with churches to create ads for new ministries and events.
Why Hire CMU?
- Trained professionals manage the account so you have one less thing on your plate
- Grant Managers build all ads custom to your church, rather than copy-pasting ads from other accounts
- Grant Managers create ads that match your church’s website copy, branding, and advertise to your geographical location
- Work with a responsive, relational team that cares about your church ministry success
