How not to underspend your Google Grant account budget

Google Ad Grant Accounts Just Got Interesting: Why NZ Charities Should Care About Performance Max Campaigns

‍For years, the Google Ad Grant has been the marketing equivalent of a Christmas coupon from that one aunt in your family: generous in theory, disappointing in practice. Sure, Google is giving charities up to $10,000 USD a month in ad credit. But, you could only use it on search ads. And not just any search ads—your campaigns had to stick to keywords directly relevant to your organisation. What did this mean? If someone typed your charity’s name into Google, you might show up (even though you would’ve shown up anyway). For most Kiwi not-for-profits, the result was the same: hard to spend, harder to see real results, and easy to write off as a Google Ads benefit with a large glass ceiling.

The Plot Twist: Enter PMax

In the last six months, Google quietly flipped the script. Charities can now run Performance Max campaigns (PMax) inside their Grant accounts. And this is where things get fun. Instead of being trapped in search-only campaigns, you can now unleash a full “chase you round the internet” strategy. PMax spreads your ads across YouTube, Display, Gmail, Search—basically anywhere your potential supporters are scrolling, streaming, or procrastinating.

Why This Matters

Historically, most NZ charities we worked with could only manage to spend $1–2k of their monthly grant. Now, with PMax, they’re reaching $4–5k a month (or more) —and seeing far more impact.

Here’s one example:

A client we’ve supported saw a 250% increase in spend once we rolled out PMax.

That same shift led to a quadrupling of conversions (think: donations, sign-ups, volunteer applications). And remember—this is all free. Charities don’t pay a cent for the ads themselves. Google really is footing the bill.

The Catch (Because There’s Always One)

Most charities are understaffed, juggling a hundred priorities, and don’t have time to become Google Ads experts. As a result, many grant accounts simply lapse. The money just sits there, unspent. Free money. Left on the table.

What You Should Do

If you’re a charity in New Zealand with a Google Ad Grant account, now is the time to act. You don’t want to be the organisation still stuck in search-only campaigns while everyone else is running everywhere-you-look campaigns. 

At Aro Digital, we can:

• Manage your Ad Grant campaigns so you don’t have to.
• Run an education session so your team understands how to get the most from it.

Because not enough people are talking about this. And in the world of nonprofit marketing, that’s rare.