On Friday, Google announced it will pledge $340 million to support small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with Google Ads credits. This represents just a portion of an overall $800+ million plus effort to support SMBs, health organizations and governments, healthcare workers, academia, and other organizations worldwide during this difficult time.
Google is committed to helping SMBs weather this difficult time. Providing support in the form of Google Ads credits allows many businesses to continue advertising even as they may be seeing a need to cut back on expenses.
Continuing with a digital advertising program helps businesses to ensure their funnel of potential sales does not dry up during this difficult time, thereby putting them in a positive position for the future. Ongoing advertising also helps to ensure there is little to no “ramp up” period on the other side of this crisis.
Google will be communicating with advertisers who have had active accounts over the past year via their Google Ads account. Credit notifications will appear there and can be used throughout 2020 on any Google advertising platform.
More information on the ad credits for SMBs can be found here.
Google’s full commitment is made up of the following additional components:
- Support for Health-Related Organizations. Google will support a wide variety of healthcare organizations including the WHO, NGS, community financial institutions, and government agencies through $270 million in ad grants.
- Providing Access to Capital. An additional $200 million investment is being made to fund NGOs and other financial institutions that will provide support for small businesses around the world by providing access to capital.
- Support for Academia and Research. A $20 million pool has been set aside to provide Google Cloud credits for researches and academic institutions pursuing potential therapies, vaccines, and other research related to COVID-19.
Funding for PPEs and Medical Devices. Google will be offering “financial support and expertise to help increase the production capacity for personal protective equipment (PPE) and life saving medical devices.”
