No New Grantspro Applications

As of the end of last week, it appears that Google are currently not accepting new Grantspro applications. It’s very frustrating that Google do not engage charities in any communication about forthcoming developments so we have no clear message from them at this time. However, they have made similar suspensions in the past and here at upriseUP we suspect this will be another temporary measure. Our theory is that they might be making amends to the algorithm (possible making tweaks post migrating ads from the right hand side which seems to have had the side-effect of bolstering grant ad position until now).

What is a Grantspro account? Grantspro accounts have an increased level of AdWords spend; $40,000 per month compared to $10,000 per month for a standard Grant Account. There are eligibility criteria to meet including, but not limited to, tracking conversions and hitting budget. Incidentally, to date upriseUP have maximised on traffic for all of our account and all UK accounts are now achieving the increased grant – apart from the last one that we tried to put through this morning! So this is not only achievable but should actually be an aim for all recipients of the Google Grant.

Currently there is a holding message stating ‘The Ads Grants team is no longer accepting Grantspro applications’. Having secured the increased grant for the majority of our clients and looking to apply on the behalf of others this is obviously far from ideal.

We have seen fears that the Grantspro programme is ‘winding down’. The following Google statement “The Ad Grants team is no longer accepting applications for the Grantspro program as part of new efforts to streamline the program. This update aside, the program will continue to remain open and free to all eligible non-profits” is not entirely clear. We are hopeful though that applications will open again in the next few weeks.

We’ll be scrutinising results and any Google announcements and will keep clients and subscribers to our news email informed.