Acts 29 is a global network of church planting churches bound together by Reformed theology, relational accountability, and a shared mission to plant gospel-centered churches worldwide. Every church in the network — from a newly planted congregation meeting in a school gym to an established sending church with decades of history — is working to reach people who have not yet found a church home.

Google Ad Grants is one of the most direct tools available to help Acts 29 churches show up when someone in their city is already searching for exactly what they offer.

What Google Ad Grants Is

Google Ad Grants provides eligible nonprofit organizations, including churches, with up to $10,000 per month in free Google search advertising. These ads appear at the top of Google search results when people search for relevant terms. There is no cost to the church. The credit is applied each month and does not carry over if unused.

For any Acts 29 church with 501(c)(3) status, the grant is almost always available. It is one of the few outreach tools that meets people at the precise moment of active searching rather than interrupting them with content they did not request.

Why the Grant Fits the Acts 29 Mission

Acts 29's driving commitment is to plant churches worldwide. That mission requires local churches to be discoverable by the people around them — people who are new to a city, exploring faith for the first time, or searching for a theologically serious church after years away.

The internet has become the first stop for that search. When someone moves to a new neighborhood or starts asking spiritual questions, they open Google. They type "church near me," "Reformed church in [city]," or "gospel-centered church [neighborhood]." If your church is not appearing in those results, another church is.

Google Ad Grants gives every Acts 29 church — regardless of how long it has existed or how large its budget is — the ability to appear in those searches every month.

Church Plants and the Grant

New church plants have the most ground to cover in local search visibility and the most to gain from the grant. An established church with ten years in a city has organic search history, Google Maps reviews, and directory listings working in its favor. A church plant in its first two years does not.

The Ad Grant levels that field. A well-managed Acts 29 plant can appear at the top of Google results for "church near me" in its zip code from the moment the grant goes live. That kind of visibility would otherwise take years to build through organic SEO or require significant paid advertising spend — neither of which is realistic for most church plants.

For a new congregation working to reach its first hundred regular attenders, the grant is one of the most cost-effective outreach investments available.

What Searches Acts 29 Churches Should Target

The grant performs best when ad campaigns are built around searches people are actually running. For Acts 29 churches, those searches fall into several categories.

Location-based church searches. These are the highest-intent searches available. "Church near me," "gospel-centered church in [city]," "church plant [neighborhood]," and "Reformed church [city]" come from people who are actively looking for a place to attend. These campaigns should run continuously.

Theological and identity-based searches. Acts 29 churches have a defined theological identity. Some searchers know what they are looking for and use language that reflects it: "Reformed church near me," "expository preaching church," "complementarian church [city]," "church that preaches the Bible." If those descriptions fit your church, those keywords are worth targeting.

Life-stage and ministry searches. "Young adults church [city]," "church with strong small groups," "church for young families near me," and "church with good kids ministry" reflect specific needs that people bring to their search. These often come from people who are new to an area or returning to church after time away.

Seasonal and event searches. Easter, Christmas Eve, and other significant moments on the church calendar generate concentrated search volume in short windows. Running targeted campaigns in the weeks before these services captures people who are open to attending but not yet connected anywhere.

Sending Churches and the Grant

For established Acts 29 churches that are sending out new plants or functioning as hubs within the network, the grant serves a different but equally important role. These churches typically run a wider range of ministries and community programs that generate their own searchable content.

Men's discipleship groups, women's Bible studies, marriage courses, community outreach programs, and recovery ministries all represent search opportunities that a sending church can capture. Running campaigns around these programs reaches people who might never find the church through traditional outreach and connects them to the community and ministry that fits their specific need.

What Your Church Website Needs

The grant drives traffic to your site. Your site is what converts that traffic into first-time visitors. For Acts 29 churches, a few pages carry the most weight.

A plan your visit or new here page. This is often the first page a visitor from an ad will look for. It should answer the basic questions quickly: where you meet, when services are, what to expect, and how children are accommodated.

A what we believe page. Acts 29 churches hold to a defined theological identity. A clear, accessible statement of your doctrinal commitments helps the right people self-select and builds trust before they ever visit in person. This is especially important for churches targeting confessional search terms.

A sermons or teaching page. Many people exploring a new church will listen to a sermon before visiting. If your church publishes audio or video, linking to it from your ad campaigns gives visitors a low-commitment way to experience the preaching before they show up on a Sunday.

If any of these pages are missing or thin on content, building them before launching campaigns will meaningfully improve your results.

Compliance and Ongoing Management

The Ad Grant is performance-based. Accounts must maintain a minimum five percent click-through rate, include active conversion tracking, and meet Google's keyword quality standards. Accounts that go unmanaged fall out of compliance and are often suspended — and a suspended account means the grant is unavailable until it is reinstated.

This is where most churches lose the grant. The credit itself is free, but running the account well requires consistent attention. Keyword research, ad copy updates, compliance monitoring, and performance optimization are ongoing tasks, not one-time setup work.

Greeter manages Google Ad Grants accounts for churches, including Acts 29 church plants and sending churches. The goal is that your church uses the full $10,000 every month, stays compliant with Google's requirements, and consistently reaches people who are actively searching for a church like yours in your city.

The grant compounds over time. The longer an account runs with good management, the more optimization data it builds, and the more consistently it performs. Starting early and managing it well is what separates churches that get significant value from the program from those that let the credit go unused.

If your Acts 29 church is ready to get started, Greeter can help with the application and ongoing management.