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In August 2019, Google released the Ad Grants Account Review Dashboard. An upgrade from the previously employed compliance report, the Dashboard pulls data from an Ad Grant account (or from all the Ad Grant accounts connected, if you have a Manager account) and compiles your account’s policy compliance status into a Data Studio report. It also contains links to useful resources like demo videos and other informative content to better understand the policies and best practices.
The Google Ad Grants Account Review Dashboard has been deprecated
The Dashboard is divided into three sections. The first gives you a look at your overall account summary and answers the following questions:
Is your Ad Grant Account compliant with the policies?
Do you adopt the best practices?
Is your account quality above average?
What are the domains approved for your account?
Is your website secure?
The second part provides you with the compliance report. Since there are a number of policies that you need to adhere to so as to avoid account deactivation, using the dashboard is an efficient way to get a concise view of your account’s compliance status. The process is simple: review all the sections with a red cross mark (❌), apply the recommended changes, and check back after 48 hours. If you’ve correctly actioned the flagged sections, you can expect to see a green tick mark (✅) in lieu of the cross.
The first two sections are important to avoid account disruption. The third one, on the other hand, lists all the recommended key metrics to help you get more out of your Ad Grant account. Getting a couple of X marks here won’t result in an account suspension.
One of the key features that makes the Account Review Dashboard an upgrade from its predecessors is its capability to refresh data every 48 hours, allowing you to see changes after implementing fixes. With all of these key features, the Dashboard had all the makings of a successful tool for managing Google Ad Grants accounts.
So what happened to the Google Ad Grants Account Review Dashboard? Why did Google end support for this tool?
After using the tool for more than a year, several issues arose. The main problem we encountered had something to do with the accuracy of data presented, e.g., flagged keywords that have been removed or paused months prior still showed up under noncompliant keywords, and inconsistent criteria for getting ✅ on Best Practices like “Tracking different values” and “Extended attribution window”. In addition to latency issues, there was also a case of Data Connector issues back in June 2020 which rendered the Dashboard unusable for months.
Despite several bug fixes by Google, these glitches and interruptions kept recurring, until the Google Ad Grants team officially announced in July 2021 that they will be deprecating the Account Review Dashboard due to “resource constraints and an ever changing data infrastructure.”
And so we’re back to square one. In spite of the tool’s issues and limitations, it offered necessary insights to help make the most out of your Google Ad Grants. While we’re all still waiting for Google’s next step, should you need support in getting the kind of evaluation the Account Review Dashboard used to offer, you can opt for our compliance report—free of charge—which covers the following:
Overall Ad Grant account health check
Compliance policy checks
Single, generic, and low quality keywords: Are you using keywords that are too broad or irrelevant to your nonprofit’s mission and programme?
Account structure: Do you have at least 2 active ad groups per campaign and at least 2 unique text ads in each ad group?
CTR: Are you maintaining at least 5% CTR monthly?
Sitelink ad extensions: Are you employing at least 2 different sitelinks?
Geo-targeting: Are you targetting relevant geographic areas?
Conversion tracking: Ad Grants accounts need to acquire at least 1 conversion each month to stay compliant.
Bid strategy: Are you using conversion-based Smart bidding for all of your active campaigns?
Website policies
Is your charity website secured with HTTPS?
Additional account observations and recommendations
Do you have enough search keywords and negative keywords in account?
Are you tracking dynamic values on your conversion actions?
Are you employing the appropriate attribution model and utilising the 90-day extended attribution window?
NOTE: You can request to add an additional website domain to your Ad Grants account by filling out this form. And don’t forget to respond to the annual programme survey!
Would you like me to do the above-mentioned checks for you and send you a free account audit with performance tips?