Legal & Policy

When Google keeps disapproving your ads: how a legal advocacy nonprofit reached 1,300+ donors anyway.

Goal: Increasing donations
Industry: Legal Nonprofit
Period: 01/01/2023 – 12/31/2023

Founded in 1973, this US-based organisation has spent over five decades fighting discrimination against people affected by addiction, HIV/AIDS, and criminal records. Their work spans legal advocacy, policy reform, and and public education, all aimed at dismantling the stigma and systemic barriers that hold people back.

When they came to us, their Google Ad Grant campaigns were barely running. Ads were being disapproved repeatedly because of the sensitive nature of their work and Google's strict content policies. Over twelve months, we navigated those restrictions, rebuilt their campaigns, and helped them reach more than 1,300 donors through search.

Grant Funding

$62,000

Activated in free Google Ad Grants

Website Clicks

11,700+

Visitors driven to the organisation's site

Donations

1,300+

Donations generated through Google Search

The Challenge

Every ad disapproved. The same people still searching.

The organisation's cause sits at the intersection of addiction, HIV/AIDS, and criminal justice: topics that trigger Google's automated content filters almost by default. Ads were being flagged and disapproved repeatedly, not because the work was inappropriate, but because the language required to describe it tripped policy rules designed for very different contexts. At the same time, Google's keyword research tools were returning limited results for their specialist topics, making it hard to build campaigns with enough reach to make the grant worthwhile. The result: a $10,000/month grant that was going largely unspent, while thousands of people searched for exactly the kind of help this organisation provides.

Reviewing ad copy line by line for compliance

The Approach

Rewriting the ads Google kept blocking, without losing the message.

We started with a thorough review of every disapproved ad, working out exactly which words and phrases were triggering policy violations and why. From there, we rewrote the ad copy line by line: keeping the organisation's voice and message intact, but using language that would pass Google's compliance checks. In parallel, we ran an extensive keyword research process, going broader than the obvious terms to find the full range of phrases people actually use when searching for legal support, employment rights, and anti-discrimination resources. The result was a much larger, more robust keyword set that expanded the campaign's reach significantly without compromising what the organisation was trying to say.

Team reviewing end-of-year campaign performance

The Results

1,300 people found the help they were looking for.

Over twelve months, the organisation activated $62,000 in free Google advertising, driving more than 11,700 visits to their website. Most significantly, those visits converted into over 1,300 donations: people who found the organisation through Google and chose to support their work. For a nonprofit tackling stigma around addiction, HIV/AIDS, and criminal records, that kind of reach matters enormously. Each of those visitors found content that might have changed how they think, who they hire, or how they seek help. The campaigns finished the year fully compliant, with an ad copy framework and keyword strategy built to keep performing.

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