Feathr's integration with the Google Ad Grant program allows you to connect your existing Google Ad Grant account to your Feathr account. Using this integration, you can create, manage, and edit Google Ad Grant campaigns in Feathr. You can also combine Google Ad Grant campaigns into Feathr Projects, Flights, and Reports, giving you a full view of all your marketing efforts in a single platform.
This article will demonstrate how to create and publish a Google Ad Grant Campaign in Feathr.
If this is your first time creating a Google Ad Grant Campaign, we suggest reading our best practices article prior to publishing a campaign.
Before Creating a Campaign
Before you can create a Google Ad Grant Campaign in Feathr, you must integrate your existing Google Ad Grant account with your Feathr account. Follow the instructions in this article to integrate your accounts.
Once your Google account is integrated with Feathr, you can launch a Google Ads Grant Campaign.
Step-by-Step Guide
Begin by navigating to a Project where you'd like your Google Ad Grant Campaign to reside. Click +Create at the top right of the window, and select Google Ad Campaign. This will open the Campaign Wizard, which guides you through each step of the campaign.
In step one, you are prompted for some basic information. The website field is your landing page URL. This is where people will land when they click your ads. Campaign name is for your internal records only. Business name (25-character limit) ensures your ads also appear in search results when someone Googles your business directly, even if the business name is not one of your targeted search terms.
Step two is where you choose the geographic targeting of your campaign. This will limit the display of your text ads to search results in the geographic areas you choose. That allows you to target your audience appropriately and ensure your ad budget goes farther.
You can choose a specific address, or a zip code, city, or region.
Step three is where you make selections and review Google Search keywords and ads.
The Keywords you select are important. These terms are going to relate your organization to words that potential audience members search on Google.
Start with mission-specific, high-intent phrases. Think about the specific language someone would type if they already knew they wanted what you offer, not broad topic words.
Avoid single, generic words. Broad, one-word keywords like "education" or "health" tend to attract low-intent traffic and can hurt your click-through rate.
Think in terms of what your organization actually offers. Group your keywords around your real programs, services, or calls to action, such as specific event names, program titles, service types, or donation actions, rather than generic terms related to your broader cause area.
You should select a keyword matching type that best suits your needs. Short definitions of each type are listed below.
Broad Match
No punctuation needed, just the keyword itself. This is the widest match type, showing your ad on searches Google considers related, even if they share no words with your keyword.
Phrase Match
Shows your ad on searches that include the meaning of your keyword, plus close variations like misspellings, plurals, and synonyms, as long as the words appear in your keyword's order without other words breaking them up.
Exact Match
The most restrictive of the three, showing your ad on searches with the same meaning as your keyword plus close variants. Despite the name, it's no longer limited to only the exact words typed.
See this chart for help:
Next is to include your Sitelinks. Sitelinks are additional clickable links that can appear underneath your main ad, each with its own short headline and its own destination URL. They give a person more than one place to click within the same ad, letting them jump directly to a related page without needing to navigate your main destination page first.
Then each ad group requires 3 Headlines and 2 Descriptions. Google will display your ads with these rotated headlines and descriptions automatically. You should mix up your wording for each ad group, creating variety and avoiding banner blindness when the same user qualifies to view your ads multiple times.
The Final URL is the actual destination page a person lands on when they click your ad's main headline. Every ad has one Final URL, and it should point to the specific page most relevant to that ad's keywords and messaging, such as a donation page, an event registration page, or a program details page.
Follow the on-screen prompt in step four to create a goal directly in your Google account. Google does not allow third party integrations to generate new goals, but once a goal is created in your Google account, it will be selectable and trackable in Feathr. Goals are essential for accurate conversion tracking. Google offers lots of information about goals in their own documentation.
In the fifth step you will select the run dates and budget for your campaign. First, select the amount of time you'd like to run your campaign (using the calendar tool). The Feathr Campaign Wizard will suggest a daily budget based on the calculated volume of your keyword themes and the length of your campaign. You may use the suggested budget or enter your own.
The final step, step six, summarizes the choices you've made as you've gone through the Wizard. Read over them carefully, and if you're ready, click Publish. You may also save the drafted campaign to return later.
Troubleshooting Google Ad Grant Campaign Issues
We have some tips here if you run into an issue or error when setting up your Google Ad Grant campaign! We would recommend checking the items below to make sure your campaign can be published properly.
Location Issue
Each location you select on the Location step of the campaign will need to be unique. Adding multiple locations that include the same zip code, city, state, or region will cause an error with the campaign. Please check that all locations are distinct to avoid any errors.
Why Google Ads actions fail or show missing data in Feathr
What's happening
Google limits how many requests Feathr can send to Google Ads each day. This limit is shared across all Feathr customers and is not tied to your individual account. On high-volume days, the limit can be reached overnight. When that occurs, Google Ads actions in Feathr pause until the daily reset.
When it resets
If google makes us aware of the next reset time, we will display that in the toast in the top right of the campaign. If there is not time shown, please check back later. Actions attempted prior to this time will fail, so please wait until after the reset to try again.
What you might see
- Publishing a new Google campaign fails, and the campaign returns to draft. Re-publish after the reset.
- Edits, re-publishes, or pauses to a live campaign appear saved in Feathr, but reach Google on the next sync after the reset. This can take a few hours.
- Campaign-building tools such as keyword ideas, keyword themes, location search, and goals may show an error.
- Connecting a Google Ads account may show a message asking you to verify your Google Ads Manager ID. If your ID is correct, this message is likely caused by the daily limit, so please try again after the reset.
- Reports and dashboards may be missing Google clicks, impressions, and spend, or show older numbers until the reset.
- Changes made directly in Google Ads may take longer to appear in Feathr.
Tips
- Publish and make changes to Google campaigns during the day (ET) when possible.
- For urgent changes like pausing a campaign, make the change directly in Google Ads.
- Nothing is lost. Your campaigns, drafts, and settings in Feathr stay intact.
What we're doing
Increasing our Google Ads API limit is on our long-term roadmap, which will reduce how often this limit is reached. We'll update this article as that work progresses.
Still having trouble? Contact our support team and we'll take a look.
If you have followed the above troubleshooting tips and still receive an error message or don't receive your integration email (after waiting 24 hours), please reach out to Feathr Support.
How to contact Feathr customer support