Google Ad Grants Account Suspended? How to Find the Cause and Get Reinstated

The ads stopped. Traffic that was arriving every day is gone, and somewhere in an inbox there is a notification saying the account is no longer running. The instinct is to start changing things — pause keywords, rewrite ads, email Google. That usually makes reinstatement slower, because the fix has to match the reason, and the reason is already written down.

Google deactivates Ad Grants accounts for a short, specific list of reasons. Each one has its own fix, and each one is checked again when you ask for the account back. This guide covers how to find which reason applies, what to change, and how to submit the request so it is approved the first time.

Quick answer: A Google Ad Grants account is suspended or deactivated for one of a handful of named reasons: account structure, 5% CTR missed for two consecutive months, missing conversion tracking, non-compliant bidding, policy breaches such as single-word or overly generic keywords, or not responding to the programme survey. Find the reason in your Google Ads notifications, fix that specific issue, then submit the Ad Grants reactivation form. Guessing at fixes is what makes reinstatement take weeks.

Why was my Google Ad Grants account suspended?

Because one of Google's named programme requirements stopped being met — and the notification in your account says which one. Google states that any account found in violation of programme policies is subject to automatic suspension without notification, so the first task is reading what the account itself reports rather than assuming.

Check two places before changing anything:

1. In-product notifications in Google Ads — the bell icon and the notification panel. Google says it primarily uses in-product notifications to communicate non-compliance.
2. The email address on the Google Ads account, including whatever folder your filters have been sending Google's mail to for the last six months.

The reason you find there determines everything that follows.

What are the reasons an Ad Grants account gets deactivated?

Six, and they come from two separate rulebooks. The Account management policy covers structure, performance, tracking, bidding and programme engagement. The Ad Grants Policy Compliance Guide covers keyword quality. On top of both, Ad Grants accounts must also follow the standard Google Ads policies that apply to every advertiser.

Two details worth knowing, because they change what you need to fix. Keywords whose Quality Score shows as "—" are exempt and not monitored. And the 5% CTR requirement is measured at account level, not keyword by keyword — one weak keyword does not breach the policy, but enough of them drag the account under the line.

How do I fix a CTR deactivation specifically?

Pause the high-impression, low-CTR keywords until the filtered account total clears the threshold. Google's own CTR guidance is unusually concrete here, and it tells you exactly which number is examined at reactivation.

Sort your keywords by impressions for the last week the account was active, then begin pausing keywords at 4% CTR or below. The row to watch is "Total: filtered keywords" — Google states this is the metric reviewed when an account is deactivated for not meeting 5% CTR, and it must be at or above 5% for a reactivation request to be approved.

While you are in there, do the two things that stop the problem recurring: remove single-word and overly generic keywords, and add negative keywords from the search terms report. Google's own example is a pet shelter bidding on "dog" — a word that covers dog food, dog training, dog illnesses and dog bites, none of which are looking for an animal to adopt. "Dog adoption", "shelter dog" and "dog rescue" describe what the searcher wants.

The full checklist for getting an account back over 5% and keeping it there is in our guide to fixing a Google Ad Grants account stuck below 5% CTR.

How do I submit an Ad Grants reactivation request?

Fix the specific issue first, then submit Google's reactivation form — not before. Requests are checked against the policy that triggered the deactivation, so a request filed while the account still breaches that policy is a wasted round trip.

The order that works:

1. Confirm the reason from the in-product notification or email.
2. Make the matching change from the table above. Only that change is being assessed.
3. Verify it in the interface — the filtered keyword total is at or above 5%, the conversion is recording, every campaign shows a permitted bid strategy, the sitelinks are live.
4. Submit the form at Request to reactivate Ad Grants account.
5. Leave the account alone while it is reviewed, apart from monitoring. Large changes mid-review muddy what is being assessed.

If more than one policy is in breach — which is common, because a neglected account usually drifts on several at once — fix all of them before submitting. Reviewers look at the account as it stands, not at the reason originally given.

How long does Ad Grants reinstatement take?

Google does not publish a service level for this, so treat any specific number you read as an estimate rather than a commitment. What we can say is what makes it slower: submitting before the fix is verifiable in the interface, fixing one policy while another is still breached, and changing large parts of the account during the review.

Plan for the account being offline for at least a few days, and use that time to fix the underlying cause rather than only the symptom. An account that was deactivated for CTR once will be deactivated again in a few months if the keyword list stays the same.

What stops it happening again?

The policies that catch most organisations are the ones that need routine attention rather than a single fix:

• A monthly CTR check. Account-level CTR, with the keyword table sorted by impressions. Act when it is drifting toward 5%, not after two months below it.
• An automated rule for Quality Score. Google's compliance guide describes setting one up to pause keywords at Quality Score 1 or 2 automatically. That turns a policy risk into a background task.
• A conversion that actually fires. One meaningful conversion per month is the floor. Donations, ticket sales, volunteer sign-ups, enquiry forms and calls all qualify; time on site and homepage visits must be categorised as "Other" and excluded from the main Conversions column.
• Keyword hygiene. Single-word keywords and overly generic terms creep back in whenever someone adds keywords in a hurry.

What we can and cannot evidence

Being straight about this, because the Ad Grants space is full of unverifiable recovery claims.

What PPCPartner publishes: ten case studies from nine live Google Ads accounts — six Gulf, two Indian and one UK — with figures taken from account reporting rather than estimated.

What is excluded: none of them is an Ad Grants account. We have no published Ad Grants reinstatement count, no "accounts recovered" number, and we are not going to imply one by quoting a paid-account result next to the word "grant".

What transfers: the work that keeps a Grants account compliant is the same work that keeps a paid account efficient — search-term control, conversion tracking that records real actions, and keyword quality. The closest published analogue is a Kerala education institution that generated 3,590 enquiries in 90 days at a 16.35% conversion rate from ₹91.8K of spend (Jan–Mar 2026) — a paid, mission-driven enquiry campaign, not an Ad Grants account.

When this guide does not apply

• Your Google for Nonprofits account was rejected or revoked. That is an eligibility question, not an Ad Grants policy question, and it is handled through Google for Nonprofits rather than the reactivation form.
• The suspension cites a standard Google Ads policy such as misrepresentation or a destination requirement. Those follow the normal Google Ads appeal path, and the content or landing page is what needs to change.
• The account is a paid Google Ads account, not an Ad Grants account. None of the Grants-specific thresholds above apply.
• Repeated breaches. Google states it reserves the right to grant or deny participation at any time; an account that keeps breaching policy can be removed from the programme rather than simply deactivated.

What to do next

Open the account, read the notification, and write down the one policy it names. Fix that, verify it on screen, then file the reactivation form. Everything else can wait until the ads are running again.

If you would rather have someone read the account first, we offer a free Google Ads account check — we will tell you which policy is breached and what the fix is, whether or not you work with us afterwards. For the measurement side, conversion tracking is where most Grants accounts fail quietly.