At the end of March, as the COVID-19 pandemic started to have a significant impact on the global economy, Google announced a range of financial measures to support health organisations and businesses during this challenging time. One of these initiatives was to provide $340 million in ad credits for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This is a welcome move, although details remain patchy at the moment.
The ad credits that have been announced can be used by active advertisers towards future ad spend, until the end of 2020 and across all Google Ads platforms. The eligibility criteria is that the credits will apply to any SMEs worldwide who have active spend with a Google Ads account in ten out of twelve months of 2019, and in January and/or February of this year.
The ad credits are for future Google Ads spend, so they won’t be applied to billed / invoiced past or current Google Ads spend. These ad credits will be applicable across the Google Ads platform including Search, Display, and YouTube as well as all campaign types.
Each eligible customer will receive one ad credit. If an eligible customer advertises with multiple accounts, or multiple campaign types within an account, only one ad credit will be applied per customer.
Starting in late May, Google will begin rolling out the ad credit in phases. Over the following months, eligible customers will be notified and will see the ad credit applied in their Google Ads account. The ad credit amount will vary by customer based on past Google Ads spend, and the country and currency where the business and Google Ads account is set up.
This ad credit can be used throughout the year and must be used by 31st Dec 2020. After 31st Dec 2020, the ad credit expires and any unused portion will be removed from your Google Ads account.
This is, of course, positive news for advertisers although the scale of the credit is not known, and is likely to be linked to average spend over the recent period. Google obviously wants advertisers to maintain some activity during the current period, and to continue or increase advertising once the pandemic restrictions begin to lift. It’s a relatively small cost (or loss if income) for Google to carry, but is a good move that helps their PR and their customers.
We will see what happens over the next month or so with these credits, but if you need more information and the implications for your Ads campaigns, please contact us now.