Trail Marker
Google Ad Grant management
Put your Google Ad Grant to work on the research you publish.
Trail Marker manages the account for you. New publications become ads within an hour of publication, related research travels together in topic campaigns, and more than 30 scheduled checks continuously review your account performance. Your team keeps publishing, and emails us when priorities change.
For communications teams with an existing Google Ad Grant campaign who want their research promoted without becoming Google Ads specialists.
Start with a 30-minute setup call.
Trusted by editorial teams at
You have the Google Ad Grant, but you still have to manage it.
Writing ads is only part of the job. You also have to work out why campaigns aren’t spending, which searches bring readers, and whether the account meets Google’s rules.
The grant offers up to $120,000 a year, but it’s awarded to you as a daily allowance of $329 in ads. If you don’t spend that daily allotment, it doesn’t roll over. It’s just gone. Getting the most out of your Ad Grant means winning search placement every day.
At an average $2 to $6 per click, using the full grant translates to about 1,700 to 5,000 clicks per month. Actual spend and traffic depend on search demand and account performance.
We manage the account. You set the priorities.
We combine automation, editorial rules, and frontier AI models with hands-on account management. Our team of human ad managers reviews your account’s overall performance.
When you want to emphasize a report or topic, email us. We’ll rebalance budgets around your priorities and the searches people are actually making.
“The Buckeye Institute needed to promote our big home-distilling case, so I emailed Tallest Tree, who quickly built new campaigns around our objectives. When the U.S. Supreme Court then took up this case, those ads were running across the country the very same day.”
Lisa A. Gates, Vice President of Communications, The Buckeye Institute
Publications get new ads fast
We draft ads from eligible articles and reports, checking the copy against your research and editorial rules.
In a recent audit of client analytics data, we found that about 85% of overall traffic to web pages happens in the first 7 days after publication. That’s why we target new ad creation within an hour of publication. Quick turnaround matters when content shelf life is limited. When content remains in high demand in search, ads will continue to serve for weeks or months.
Advertise your research by topic
Field Guide, our content analytics and entity SEO product, identifies the topics in your writing and groups related articles into campaigns. New publications can join those campaigns as you publish, so you can promote a body of research without planning each ad yourself.
This unlocks Google’s Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) and Performance Max (PMax) campaigns, so more readers can find your research across eligible Google ad placements.
Continuous review for your account
Scheduled checks look for weak performance, policy issues, and moved or missing pages. We improve copy and targeting, update supported destinations, and pause persistent poor performers. Your team can leave routine account upkeep to us.
Over 30 processes review your account hourly, daily, or weekly to maintain click-through rates, improve use of your available grant, and drive down per-click costs.
Adjust bids and budgets around your goals
When the grant is underused, we investigate what’s limiting delivery. As results accumulate, we test bidding and budget changes to improve grant use and cost per click.
We optimize toward your chosen goals, whether readership, engagement, research downloads, subscriptions, or donations, using the corresponding conversion tracking.
“Tallest Tree runs our Google Ad Grant so we don’t have to. They turn our new research into ads, build campaigns around the topics we care about, and we now use over 90% of our Ad Grant.”
Brandon L. Wright, Editorial Director, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
“When Google suspended our Ad Grant, Tallest Tree helped get it reinstated and fixed what Google’s compliance review flagged. They now check the account every day for policy problems.”
Dara Simons, Director of Communications, Nevada Policy
“Our Ad Grant sat almost unused. Tallest Tree found what was holding it back, and by February we were spending the full grant.”
Patrick M. Brenner, President and CEO, Southwest Public Policy Institute
Try Ad Grant management free for 30 days
“Tallest Tree kept our Google Ad Grant fully spent for twelve straight months.”
Mike Alissi, Publisher, Reason Magazine
Most of the accounts we manage spend nearly their full grant. Try it with yours, free for 30 days.
We create ads, manage campaigns, monitor policy issues, and give you dashboard access. See how your account performs with continuous review and a team managing it on your behalf.
Ongoing management is $10,000 per year or $3,500 per quarter. The management fee is separate from your Google Ad Grant.
Start with a 30-minute setup call. We’ll review your existing account and arrange your trial.
What the first 30 days look like
- A 30-minute call. We look at the account and your recent publications together.
- You grant account access. We connect your publishing feed.
- New ads start running as Google approves them.
- You get dashboard access and a short note on what we changed and why.
Questions
Do we need to log in and manage anything?
No. Routine management is part of the service. The dashboard gives you visibility and editorial control when you want it, and you can email us to change priorities.
Do new articles automatically get ads?
Eligible new work feeds ad creation. Checks against your content and editorial rules, account rules, and Google’s review determine what runs.
What will our ads look like?
Most are search ads: a headline, your web address, and a short description, sometimes with links to related research underneath. Topic campaigns can also show your research as image ads on other sites and in Google Discover. Google decides which formats appear.
Will we spend the full grant every month?
Full use is the objective. Available search demand, what you publish, account eligibility, and Google’s delivery all affect what can be spent. We don’t promise a number.
Do we need Field Guide for this?
Topic campaigns are built on Field Guide’s topic data, so without Field Guide the Dynamic Search Ads and Performance Max campaigns are unavailable. Ad creation, continuous review, and bid management run on any eligible account. Field Guide is the new name for TopicalBoost.
What about Google’s rules for political content?
Our checks cover Google’s advertising and Ad Grant requirements, including political and election-related restrictions. Google makes the final policy decisions, and no manager can promise an account will never be reviewed.
Need help claiming your grant?
We can also help your nonprofit set up its Google for Nonprofits account and claim its Google Ad Grant.
“Tallest Tree set up our Google for Nonprofits account, applied for our Ad Grant, and sorted out access with Google. Since then, our ads have brought thousands of readers to our coverage.”
Bill Roggio, Editor, FDD’s Long War Journal