Your Ad Grants campaign says Eligible and has no impressions

Step 1: Read what Eligible actually promises

Read the Status column as permission to enter the auction, then work down the seven checks below.

Google defines a campaign status of Eligible as meaning your campaign is active and can show ads. That is permission to enter the auction, not a record of impressions. The Google Ad Grants FAQ adds that grant ads run on Google Search, can appear independently or below paid ads, and sit in a separate auction after paid ads.

Seven checks follow: your account status, the keyword status column, the daily budget, the conversion signal behind Smart Bidding, the network settings, match-type coverage, and one deliberately broad test campaign. By the last one you'll know whether a setting in your own account explains the zeros or whether the case belongs with Google support.

Step 2: Confirm the account itself is not paused

Check your account's own status line and clear any outstanding advertiser verification before its deadline.

Google says a paused account can't run any ads, whatever the campaign row underneath says. Accounts may be paused when required advertiser verification isn't completed within the deadline.

1. Account status Read the status shown for your account, not the one on the campaign row.
2. Advertiser verification Look for an outstanding verification request and clear it before its deadline passes.

Step 3: Check the keyword status column, not just the campaign status

Open your keywords table and read the Status column for every keyword in the silent campaign.

Your campaign can read Eligible while the keywords under it do nothing. Google defines Low search volume as a keyword status for terms with very little to no search history, and says those keywords stay inactive until search traffic increases.

1. Open the keywords table Move to keyword level in the campaign showing zeros and read the Status column.
2. Find the inactive terms A keyword marked Low search volume enters no auction on your behalf while that status holds.
3. Plan to look again Google checks the status regularly against worldwide searches over the past 12 months, so a term can become active later without you editing it.

Left wrong most often. Campaign status and keyword status are two different columns. Read both before you change a setting.

Step 4: Read the daily budget as a ceiling, not a forecast

Read the daily budget as a ceiling and check the five things Google says spend depends on.

Google for Nonprofits describes the $329 USD daily budget equivalent as a limit on what your account may spend. An unspent budget is not by itself evidence of a fault.

1. Read the number as a limit The daily equivalent caps what your account can spend, not what it will spend.
2. Check what spend depends on Google names bids, keyword competitiveness, ad quality, targeting and search volume. Open each one in your account rather than guessing.

Step 5: Give Smart Bidding something it can bid toward

Confirm a conversion action is recording, count last month's conversions, and read your bid strategy.

Google for Nonprofits says Smart Bidding relies heavily on accurate conversion tracking. It won't spend if it doesn't see opportunities for conversions at your desired cost. Google's checklist for that case: keyword volume, a bid strategy that may be too restrictive (such as a very low Target CPA), ad quality, geographic targeting, and working conversion tracking.

1. Open the conversion action Confirm a conversion action exists in your account and is recording. Google's Ad Grants Policy Compliance Guide says accounts created since January 2018 and advertisers using Smart Bidding must implement accurate conversion tracking.
2. Count last month's conversions Count what your account reported last month. The same guide defines accurate conversion tracking as at least 1 conversion per month and, where your conversion rate is high, as meaningful performance rather than nearly every click becoming a conversion.
3. Read the bid strategy Check which strategy your campaign runs on. Google for Nonprofits says that in Ad Grants, Maximize conversions, Target CPA or Target ROAS lets the system bid over the program-level $2.00 USD max bid if your account's performance merits it.

Step 6: Check which networks the campaign is allowed to serve on

Open your campaign's network settings and confirm which inventory the campaign is allowed to serve on.

Your network settings decide where the campaign may appear at all. Ad Grants Search campaigns are eligible only for eligible Search inventory.

1. Open the campaign settings Find the Networks block in the campaign showing zeros and read which boxes are selected.
2. Match it to the guidance Clear Search partners and the Display Network, as the Ad Grants setup guide instructs for Search campaigns.
3. Treat Performance Max separately Google says Performance Max campaigns through Google Ad Grants may not be eligible to serve on all inventory. Judge a quiet Performance Max campaign against that limit rather than against a Search campaign's.

Step 7: Widen the match types before concluding anything

Compare your match types against what the Product Expert in that thread recommended: mainly broad and exact.

Bidding and budget can both be right while your campaign is short of coverage. In a Google for Nonprofits Community thread from August 2026 about a Search campaign eligible with zero impressions for two weeks, the Product Expert confirmed the Maximize Conversions bidding and budget were correct, then pointed at the keywords.

1. Match types Check whether your keywords are mainly broad and exact match, which is what that answer recommended.
2. Final URL expansion Check whether Final URL expansion is on in your campaign. The same answer recommended considering it.
3. AI Max Consider switching AI Max on, the third recommendation in that thread.

One expert reading one account in a public thread is not a published Google rule. Treat all three as leads and check them against your own keyword table.

Step 8: Run one deliberately broad test campaign, then decide

Run one deliberately broad test campaign for a few days, then read the outcome the way that thread's expert did.

In a separate Google for Nonprofits Community thread from March 2026, about campaigns eligible with zero impressions for two weeks, an expert used a deliberately broad test campaign to separate an account problem from a targeting problem.

1. Still nothing after a few days If your broad test gets no impressions after a few days, the expert put the cause with an account limitation requiring support. Open a case with Google instead of changing another setting.
2. Impressions or clicks If your test gets impressions or clicks, the expert read the cause as the original campaign's targeting, which sends you back to the coverage station.

Next month, check two columns again. Read your keyword status column, because Google rechecks Low search volume regularly against worldwide searches over the past 12 months. Then count your conversions against the compliance guide's floor of at least 1 conversion per month, which applies to accounts created since January 2018 and to advertisers using Smart Bidding.

Where the check ends

Eligible says your campaign is active and can show ads, and nothing more. Every other answer sits on a screen in your own account: the account status, the keyword status column, the budget ceiling, the conversion signal Smart Bidding bids toward, and the inventory your campaign may serve on. One case belongs with Google support: a deliberately broad test campaign that still returns nothing after a few days.

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