Google sets a structural minimum for Ad Grant accounts: at least two ad groups per campaign, at least two active ads in every ad group, and at least two sitelink extensions. Meeting it takes an afternoon. Meeting it is also nowhere near enough to make the account work, and confusing the two is why so many compliant accounts underperform.
The three minimums
| Requirement | Why Google asks for it |
|---|---|
| 2+ ad groups per campaign | Forces at least some thematic separation, so ads can be relevant to keywords |
| 2+ active ads per ad group | Gives Google something to rotate and optimise between |
| 2+ sitelink extensions | Makes the ad larger and gives searchers more than one destination |
All three exist for the same underlying reason. Google is not collecting structure for its own sake — each rule is a crude proxy for relevance, and relevance is what protects the quality of the search results page that grant ads occupy for free.
These are floors expressed as numbers because numbers are enforceable. Google cannot automatically check whether your ad groups are thematically coherent. It can check whether there are two of them. Hitting the number without the intent satisfies the audit and misses the point entirely.
How accounts comply and still fail
The pattern is consistent. Somebody reads the requirement, splits one ad group into two by moving half the keywords across, duplicates the ad with a word changed, and adds two sitelinks both pointing at the homepage. Every box is ticked. Nothing has improved.
The account still has ad groups holding unrelated keywords, so the ads still cannot match the query, so click-through rate still drifts toward the 5% floor that actually deactivates accounts. Structure compliance and CTR compliance are enforced separately, and passing the first does not protect you from the second.
What the structure should actually be
Work down from the mission rather than up from the rule.
- One campaign per major area of work. A homelessness charity might run Emergency Accommodation, Advocacy and Support Services, Volunteering, and Donations. Four campaigns, because those are four genuinely different things.
- One ad group per specific intent within it. Inside Volunteering: weekend volunteering, professional skills volunteering, corporate team days. Each is a different search and deserves a different ad.
- Five to twenty tightly related keywords per ad group. The test: could one headline honestly speak to every keyword in this group? If not, split it.
- Two to three genuinely different ads per group. Different angles, not different synonyms — one leading on the outcome, one on the ease of getting started, one on urgency.
- Sitelinks specific to the campaign, pointing at real pages a person in that intent would want next.
An account built this way passes the minimums as a side effect. You will never count ad groups again.
The ad-rotation trap
Two ads per ad group only helps if Google is allowed to learn which one wins. Check your campaign settings for ad rotation. "Optimise: prefer best performing ads" is what you want. Accounts set to "Do not optimise: rotate ads indefinitely" split traffic evenly forever and throw away the entire benefit of having two ads.
Also check that both ads are actually active. A paused second ad does not count toward the minimum, and paused ads accumulate quietly whenever somebody tidies up.
Responsive search ads and the counting question
A responsive search ad is one ad, however many headlines it contains. Fifteen headlines in a single RSA does not satisfy a two-ad minimum. You need two ad units in the ad group.
The practical arrangement in a grant account is two responsive search ads per ad group, each written around a different angle, with genuinely distinct headlines rather than the same phrases reshuffled. Give each RSA a full complement of headlines and descriptions — the asset-strength indicator is a reasonable guide, though it is advice rather than policy.
Auditing yours in ten minutes
- Campaigns view: any campaign with one ad group? Fix first.
- Ad groups view, add the "Ads" column: anything showing fewer than two active ads is a breach.
- Ads & extensions → Extensions: fewer than two sitelinks on any campaign is a breach. Details are in sitelink requirements.
- Settings → check ad rotation is set to optimise.
- Then the real question: open any ad group and read its keyword list. Could one headline serve all of them? That answer, not the counts, predicts whether the account performs.
The point
Google's structural minimums are a floor set low enough that any account can clear it. Clearing it means you will not be deactivated for structure. It says nothing about whether the grant will spend, convert, or survive the CTR rule — and those are decided by whether the structure reflects how people actually search, which no policy can mandate.
The rest of the requirements are collected in the Ad Grant policy checklist.