There's a lot to know about running a Google Ad account well, whether via a Google Ads Grant or traditional Paid Ads account. Here are the questions we hear most.
If you have an ads retainer with us, we're already taking care of this for you. If you don’t currently and are interested in someone maintaining your account moving forward, let us know and we’re happy to talk more about how we can help.
- How is a Google Ads account organized?
- What are the different campaign types?
- What types of pages make good landing pages?
- It's been a couple of weeks, but my ads aren't performing. What's going on?
- Why don't we show up for a specific keyword we want to rank for?
- How do we know the ads are actually working?
- What happens if our account gets suspended?
- What does Cornershop actually do when we manage your account?
- Should we tell you whenever we publish a new page or blog post?
- What counts as a "conversion" for our account?
How is a Google Ads account organized?
Think of it like a pyramid:
Campaigns sit at the top. This is where budget and location settings live. You might run one campaign for general awareness and a separate one for a specific program or event.
Ad groups sit inside campaigns and organize ads around a shared theme. Every campaign needs at least two. One ad group might promote volunteering; another might promote a newsletter sign-up.
Ads and keywords live inside ad groups. Ads point to one landing page related to that group's topic, and show up based on the keywords you've chosen.
What are the different campaign types?
Grant accounts can use two:
Search campaigns show text-only ads on Google Search, built around specific keywords you choose. You get full visibility into which searches trigger your ads and tight control over targeting, though they take more active management to keep performing well.
Performance Max campaigns take a more automated approach. Instead of keywords, you provide search themes and audience signals, and Google's machine learning decides where and when to show your ads. For Grant accounts, Performance Max currently serves only on Search and Google Maps, and it's exempt from the 5% click-through rate requirement (though every other Grant policy still applies).
We typically recommend running both together rather than replacing one with the other. Performance Max can help recapture visibility that traditional search ads have lost as AI-powered search results reduce click-through rates industry-wide, but it still needs regular monitoring and negative keyword maintenance to keep it from targeting irrelevant searches.
What types of pages make good landing pages?
Any page that delivers exactly what the ad promised. If someone searches "volunteer opportunities" and clicks your ad, they should land on a volunteer page, not your homepage, even if your homepage mentions volunteering.
Good landing page types to build or use:
A donation page with specific content about how donations are used and the results they create.
A volunteer sign-up page with details about your programs, why they matter, and a simple way to get started.
A program or service page (for example, "Youth Mentorship Program" rather than a general "Our Programs" page).
An event registration page explaining what to expect, why the event exists, and who should attend.
A newsletter or email sign-up page that makes the value of subscribing clear.
A dedicated campaign or fundraiser page.
Each page should have a clear call to action and should load quickly, work well on mobile, and use a secure (HTTPS) connection. Site speed and security are part of your Quality Score, so a slow or broken page will hurt performance even if the content is great.
It's been a couple of weeks, but my ads aren't performing. What's going on?
Google Ads accounts, especially new Grant accounts, need a data collection period before performance stabilizes. Most agencies, including Cornershop, consider 60 to 90 days the minimum before drawing real conclusions. A few common early-stage reasons for a slow start:
Google's algorithm is still learning which keywords, ads, and audiences work best for your account.
There isn't much ad variation yet, since your keyword pool is naturally limited to your core mission and calls to action. We expand this over time as we build out ads around your blog and secondary pages.
Conversion tracking may not be fully seasoned yet if it was just set up.
Seasonality plays a role. Causes tied to disaster relief, holiday giving, or back-to-school naturally see spikes and lulls that have nothing to do with account quality.
Why don't we show up for a specific keyword we want to rank for?
Every search triggers an instant auction, and Google calculates an Ad Rank for every eligible advertiser. If a competitor's Ad Rank is higher at that moment, their ad shows and yours doesn't. That's the auction working as intended, not a glitch, and it can vary from search to search.
Ad Rank depends on your bid, your Quality Score, and the expected impact of your ad extensions. Quality Score itself is a 1–10 rating based on three things, each compared against other advertisers whose ads showed for that same search recently:
Expected click-through rate
Ad relevance
Landing page experience
How do we know the ads are actually working?
The clearest sign is conversions: meaningful actions like donations, volunteer sign-ups, or newsletter subscriptions. Clicks and impressions are useful, but they're surface level on their own. We look at three key numbers together with clicks and impressions to know how well the ads are working from start to finish:
Total conversions: how many meaningful actions happened
Conversion rate: conversions divided by clicks
Cost per conversion: how efficiently you're getting there
There's no universal "good" number for any of these. What matters is the trend over time within your own account. Before drawing conclusions, it's also worth confirming tracking is actually working: a conversion count of zero, or one that doesn't match your real donation or sign-up numbers, usually points to a tracking issue rather than a true performance problem.
What happens if our account gets suspended?
Google explains the reason in the suspension email, and the account is limited until the issue is resolved. If you are working with Cornershop to manage your account, we investigate the cause, fix it, and submit the appeal on your behalf. This process typically takes 4 to 14 business days, depending on Google's response time.
What does Cornershop actually do when we manage your account?
We keep a close eye on four things, consistently, not just when something breaks:
Keywords. We track which ones are driving results and adjust the ones that aren't.
Ad copy. We test and refine messaging so it resonates with the people who see it.
Conversion tracking. We confirm people are taking meaningful action on your site after clicking an ad, not just visiting and leaving.
Policy compliance. We watch the requirements that keep your Grant active, so nothing slips through unnoticed.
This helps us understand how the account is performing, whether things are on track or needs attention, and devise a plan to optimize it to get you the highest ROI possible.
Should we tell you whenever we publish a new page or blog post?
Yes! Keywords and ad copy need to line up with the content on the landing page itself, so a new page or post is a great opportunity to test new audiences and create new paths to engagement, like subscribing to your newsletter after reading a new post.
What counts as a "conversion" for our account?
Any significant action a visitor takes on your site after clicking your ad. High-value conversions are the ones that matter most to your mission: donations, volunteer sign-ups, newsletter subscriptions, or event registrations. We may also track lower-value actions, like outbound clicks or scroll depth, which help build a fuller picture of engagement even though they're not the main goal.