With many small and medium businesses (SMBs) across the world being affected by the impact of Covid-19, Google has announced a whopping £275+ million in Google Ad credits to be available worldwide. Could this be what your small business needs to help ride the wave? We want to help you understand if you can take advantage of this offer.
Google has recently committed nearly £650 million to support health organisations, governments, SMBs, and health workers during this global pandemic. This support will hopefully address some of the challenges that the virus is having on communities worldwide. Here is a quick breakdown of where the money is going:
- £200+ million in ad grants to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and government agencies to share information to stop the spread.
- £16+ million for ad grants to be used for announcements on relief funds by
- Community financial institutions and non-profit organisation (NGOs).
- A £160+ million investment fund. This will support NGOs, and financial institutions provide SMBs with access capital
- A £16+ million pool in Google Cloud credits for academic institutions and researchers to help as they identify new ways to fight Covid-19.
- Financial support to help increase the productions of the protective equipment and medical devices used while treating patients with Covid-19.
- £275+ million in Google Ad credits to be made available for free to SMBs worldwide.
The Google Ad credits is one of their largest commitments, and something that can directly affect you as a small or medium business. With SMBs representing a huge amount of businesses and employment worldwide, Google wants to support the ‘backbone of our communities’ by helping to reduce the cost while they face the challenges caused by the virus.
So how will you know if your business will receive some of these credits?
Well it’s easy, you just need to fulfil their criteria:
- Are you a small or medium business?
- Have you been actively advertising, directly with Google or through their partners, since January 2019?
- Have you been complying with all of the Google Ads T&C’s
That’s it. If you meet Google’s criteria, you will be hearing from them in the coming months with a message directly into your Google Ad Account.
So, if you’ve received the credits, how do you use them?
Well, due to no one knowing how long the Covid-19 impact will last Google are setting these new credits to expire on the 31st December 2020. This means you have the rest of the year to use them across the Google Ads platform, including Search, Display, and YouTube as well as all campaign types.
However, make sure you use all your credits before they expire at the end of the year as after this any unused credits will be removed from your account.
These specialised credits are a brand new offering that Google as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic. They are currently in the process building them into the system as quickly as they can, so you probably won’t hear anything from them just yet.
To keep up to date with Google’s Covid-19 updates visit them here
