Earlier this year, Google announced that it would be giving away $340 million in Google Ads credits, as part of a larger $800 million relief package, designed to defray the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses. Small and medium-sized businesses would be theoretically eligible and will have until the last day of 2020 to use these free credits before they are lost entirely.
The reason Google has decided on this course of action is to help small and medium-size businesses retain good contact with their customers during the challenging period of the coronavirus pandemic. By maintaining or increasing their Google Ads, these businesses should, therefore, be able to maintain the same solid relationship with customers they had before the pandemic.
Why Google is Offering these Free Credits
There’s no questioning the fact that many businesses have reduced their Google Ads budgets as one way to lower losses they’re experiencing during the pandemic. This being the case, Google has lost a significant amount of revenue from Ads, and they’ve been forced to encourage clients to maintain their level of advertising.
Some contractors have been obliged to completely eliminate their ad spend during the COVID-19 time frame, while others have decided that increasing their PPC advertising is the way to go. The cheaper costs of PPC advertising and the increased market share, make it more appealing than using Google Ads to get the message across. These have all been factors in motivating Google to provide free ad credits to customers, in an attempt to boost revenues and increase the level of advertising from small and medium-sized businesses.
Businesses That Qualify for Google Ads Free Credit
Google has issued guidelines about which types of businesses qualify for its free ad credits, and those which do qualify can receive a maximum credit of $1,000. Small businesses which advertised on Google Ads for 10 out of the 12 months in the calendar year 2019, as well as in January or February of the present year, are one group of SMB’s considered eligible for the free credits.
Another group that is eligible for the free credits includes SMB’s which advertised on Google Ads through a digital marketing firm or directly through Google itself. It will be necessary for eligibility that an SMB used Google Ads during the time frame specified, and also complied with all advertising policies set forth by Google.
One area which is open to interpretation is whether or not you have a small to medium-size business. For the purposes of Google Ads free credit, the corporation defines a small business as any kind of worldwide business which might have a few local stores, or it might have hundreds of locations, and possibly thousands of employees. This, of course, is rather nebulous itself, but in any case, no small business will have to wonder whether or not they are considered eligible, because the whole process will happen automatically for those which do qualify.
The manager of the Google Ads account will receive a formal notification email coming from Google and the COVID-19 ad credits will simply show up in your business account for Google Ads. That’s when you’ll know that you have qualified under Google’s criteria, and you’ll also know exactly what level of free credits you have been granted. In order to use these free credits, they can be applied to any kinds of search ads that are part of Google Ads, any displays or re-marketing ads, and any YouTube ads which your business might use. Most companies that have been considered eligible will receive their credits by July and must use them before December 31, 2020.
