I was contacted by a client 9 months ago seeking help with Google Grants. Today, I’m pleased to say, the account has finally been activated and ads should be running. But it’s been a difficult journey to say the least.

The Google Grants program allows approved non-profits to advertise with Google AdWords for free for an indefinite period. Google provides $10,000/month of free advertising for those accepted into the program. The main requirement to keep the account active is someone must log in to the AdWords account at least once per month.

The Agony that was Google Grants

When I was first contacted by the client in December of 2010, he indicated that the non-profit he works with had been accepted into the program. In reality, the Google Grant had been applied for but had not been finalized. I’m not sure if the AdWords account had been set up by then or was set up shortly thereafter as I wasn’t involved with the original account.

At any rate, I agreed to help in whatever way I could.

In May, 2011, I received a copy of an email from the Google Grants program to the affect that the campaign was ready to go. All the client had to do was resume the campaign as it was currently paused.

False hope number 1.

Unfortunately, the previous provider the client used was not responding fast enough to the Google Grant program and wouldn’t respond to the client’s request for access to the account after the client couldn’t locate the password. A new password for the AdWords account had to be created.

Once I was able to log in, I could see that the existing account didn’t comply with Google’s requirements for Google Grants ad campaigns. I made what I felt were the necessary campaign changes, put all of the offending ad groups and ads on pause, and then reached out to the Google Grants review team for direction.

At that point, it looked like the only thing preventing the campaign from starting was the lack of billing information. But in all of the previous correspondence from Google it was made clear that billing information should NOT be provided. Once Google was satisfied the campaign met their requirements, the red billing warning would be removed from the account (we hoped).

Questions Go Unanswered

While I was waiting for a response from the Google Grants team, I discovered a link where the campaign needed to be submitted for final consideration. Because some of the information on the form about the non-profit organization wasn’t known to me, I had the client complete and submit the form in mid-June.

I found this requirement not from direct information provided by Google, but after perusing many entries within the Google Grants online forum. In that forum I discovered that many of the grant applicants who were posting had been facing the same frustrations as I.

Unfortunately, the only answers they got were from other forum members, not from Google. I later learned that some answers were accurate, some were just misinformation. What was most disturbing was the number of submissions on the same issues – the vast majority of which went unanswered.

Was anyone from Google even reading this stuff? I had to think, “Nope.”

Hurry Up and Wait

The response to the client’s form submission in mid-June from Google Grants was, in part:

Because of the high level of interest in our program, it may take up to three months before we notify you by email about the status of your account. In the meantime, we’re not able to respond to requests for information about the status of your account. Please do not resubmit your account during this time.

So, in effect, you’ll probably have to wait about 3 months for a response. In the meantime, we can’t give you any information on the status of your request.

Wow.

You’ve Been Approved – Or at Least, Someone Has

On June 26th, I received an email from the Google Grants team in response to my inquiry I mentioned earlier (sent on June 6th), which said in part:

Your client CID no is xxx-xxx-xxxx which is activated and I just made the campaigns live for you.

Wow, so now the organization could start running its ads, right, or is this just another load of…?

False hope number 2.

The Client ID number they sent didn’t look familiar. It certainly wasn’t the account I just worked on and not the one the client just submitted via the online form, so I went into AdWords’ My Client Center and added the ID to my managed accounts.

(For those who aren’t familiar with Google’s My Client Center, it’s an AdWords feature Google provides to those who manage other people’s AdWords accounts. It’s a nice feature too, because all of the managed accounts can be accessed with one AdWords login. I can add any client’s ID number, at which point AdWords secures the client’s permission that allows me to manage their account and add it gets added to My Client Center.)

I never received a response for this Client ID number (it never showed up in My Client Center), so I couldn’t access the approved campaign. My non-profit client never received notification that I wanted to manage the account.

So who the heck did the so-called “approved” Client ID belong to? That’s still a mystery.

You’re Rejected. Start Over.

On July 2, the client received a response from the Google Grants team to the campaign that he submitted (via the online form). That campaign was rejected. The reason they gave?

Your account is currently set or was previously set to include a Placement Targeted campaign on the Display Network. We cannot activate accounts that have applied these settings, so you’ll need to create an entirely new account and submit it again for review. In your new account, please do not target the Display Network, Google Search partners and do not add any placements (only add keywords).

At least they gave a reason, and a clear one at that. No mystery here.

The logical thing for Google would do would have been to require that the offending ad groups/ads be deleted from the account and then submitted for reconsideration. But what part of this story has been logical so far?

Instead, an entirely new AdWords account had to be created from scratch and we had to go through the campaign approval process starting from square one. This would make the 3rd account for the same non-profit: 1) the one that was approved (which we couldn’t access), 2) the one that was rejected, and now 3) the new account.

That didn’t seem very efficient to me.

So I created another new AdWords account and set up the campaign (again). Then it got even more frustrating.

Google Grants Becomes Part of Google for Non-Profits

Once the time came to submit the latest AdWords campaign for Google Grants’ approval, I used the old link I had to the submission form we used for the previously rejected account. This time I had all the info I needed from the nonprofit and thought I would take the task off the client’s shoulders and complete and submit the form myself.

By now, I’m thinking, everything is set up correctly. We should get quick approval.

False hope number 3.

When I used the link for the submission form, I was taken to a different page. The old page no longer existed.

From this point forward, the Google Grants program would be part of Google’s Google for Non-Profits Program. In order to take part in Google Grants, the non-profit has to be accepted into Google for Non-Profits first.

Several locks of hair were pulled from my scalp and thrown on the floor to add to the pile of hair previously thrown there in the months prior.

There was conflicting information on whether the non-profit would have to apply all over again to Google Grants once accepted into Google for Non-Profits. I figured, the information I’d seen hadn’t been very reliable anyway, so assume the worst. Because I was thinking we’d have to apply all over again, and what I read suggested that the AdWords account shouldn’t be set up until we were approved for Non-Profits, I canceled the 3rd AdWords account I created. Safe bet, I thought.

(You can’t delete an AdWords account – you can only cancel it. Once you do, you’ll be given reminders to go back in and re-activate the account, and you’ll be told you can do that at any time. )

False hope number 4.

The Google for Non-Profits application was submitted on August 2. The auto responder promised a decision within 30 days.

In the meantime I re-read some of the program information. I started to get the impression that the last AdWords account I just canceled would have been okay. So I went back in and tried to re-activate it.

After 3 separate attempts to do that, receiving error messages to the effect the account couldn’t be reactivated, try again later, I set up a 4th AdWords account with yet a different email address and configured the campaign all over again.

Then I sat tight and hoped my hair would grow back in.

Welcome to Google for Non-Profits

On August 25th, the non-profit was accepted into the Google for Non-Profits program. The acceptance email included the following advice:

Now that your organization has been approved, you can now start enrolling in the products of your choice.

Please understand that there may be another waiting period while you wait for each product enrollment to be activated. You will be notified as each of your products is approved.

So I’m thinking, “Now we have to apply for Google Grants all over AGAIN and wait ANOTHER 3 months?” But before reaching for my scalp, I read on to what seemed even more interesting:

Additionally, if you are already a grantee of a product offering, please know that your enrollment is still active and you do not need to re-enroll for the product. You are still a confirmed registrant of the special product offering (emphasis added)even if it does not appear so on the enrollment page.

So maybe Google is finally admitting that the information it presents isn’t always accurate and can be confusing and a bit misleading. And it was, because at first glance it seemed like we would have to re-apply for Google Grants.

But at least they admitted it was misleading, and that certainly seemed like a step in the right direction! Maybe there’s hope after all!

Suddenly, It Gets Easier

After going to the Google for Non-Profits page, logging in and going to the Google Grants subsection, I saw that all I had to do was enter the client’s AdWords Client ID number (good luck with keeping track of the right one by now) and submit the AdWords campaign for approval. And so I submitted the 4th AdWords account campaign on August 31st.

The auto responder promised:

Our team will be reviewing your account shortly and will be in touch with next steps via email within 30 days.

Well that’s certainly an improvement over the “up to three months” promise from before.

Real hope number 1.

Within 72 hours, we received campaign approval from Google Grants. The red billing notice has been removed from the account. The campaigns have been enabled. After almost 9 months of aggravation (I don’t know how long the client’s previous provider spent on it), we’re finally on our way!

Yes, non-profits, there IS a Santa Claus!

Conclusion

I admit, I haven’t done much work for non-profits in the past. It’s certainly rewarding work when you do something good for a good cause. Not so much financially rewarding, but rewarding in an altruistic sense.

The fiasco I went through in getting Google Grants approval was one of the most frustrating experiences I’ve encountered in my business. But I’m probably one of the lucky ones as it improved while I was in the middle of it.

I wouldn’t have wanted to try this a few years ago.

I can see now, that it’s easy for service providers to brush off charities. After all, the Google Grants program provides $10,000 worth of free AdWords advertising per month indefinitely, so don’t kick a gift horse in the mouth, right?

The other part of that is the previous provider’s treatment of this charitable organization seemed deplorable to me, but I don’t know both sides of the story, so I’ll withhold judgment. Still, their refusal to cooperate (or even correspond with a password to the client’s own account) created additional aggravation.

I have no argument that Google Grants is a great program for many causes. I think it’s downright awesome. But the examples I’ve seen and what I’ve had to endure first hand shouldn’t have to be endured by anyone. I get this is for charity. I don’t get where worthwhile causes have a right to be ignored or that they should expect deplorable customer service and requests for help to go unanswered. And I still feel for all those working with charitable causes who are so confused by Google Grants they have no idea what to do next.

Certainly, the idea of a $10,000/month free Google AdWords account could be a game-changer for many worthy causes. But in the past, the devil has been in the details.

My hope is that putting the Google Grants program under the umbrella of Google for Non-Profits and paying some attention to it will result in faster response times and much better service. And a much better public opinion of Google. I can honestly say that’s the case in my eyes.

I’m very encouraged by the turnaround I witnessed first-hand with Google. If this is really the light at the end of the tunnel (that’s not a train coming), it would be:

Real hope number 2.

What have your experiences been with the Google Grants program? Have you seen improvements since it became part of Google for Non-Profits, or weren’t you even aware that had happened? Has the forum response improved? I’d love to hear from you. Please leave a comment.