Google, Tik Tok, Facebook, and Instagram have begun dispersing COVID-19 Ads credits to eligible advertisers.
Qualifying businesses who have received a credit to date will be notified via an automatic email from Facebook and Google, sent to the administrator(s). Our team received a few notifications, like the samples below:
About Facebook Ad Credits
An ad credit is a form of payment for your ads on Facebook and/or Instagram.
You can receive a Facebook ad credit in 2 ways:
-
Through periodic in-product promotions or through facebookmail.com.
-
Through partnerships Facebook has with other sites or companies.
Currently, you can’t purchase or request ad credits directly from Facebook.
How ad credits work
When you redeem an ad credit, it’ll pay for all advertising costs you accrue on your account. This includes every ad running on your ad account, in addition to the one you created to redeem your ad credit. As long as you’re running an ad, your ad credit will be charged daily until it runs out or expires.
An ad credit can’t pay for any advertising costs you accrued before it was added to your account. Those costs, as well as costs you accrue after your ad credit is gone, will be charged to the primary payment method on your ad account.
Remember that your total daily ad spend will never exceed your daily budget. If you don’t want to spend more than your ad credit is worth, set up a campaign spending limit or an account spending limit.
Do ad credits expire?
You can create an ad to redeem your ad credit within 30 days of receiving it. You will then have 30 days after redeeming your ad credit before the value expires. Go to your Payment Settings to see how much is left on your ad credit, and when it expires.
COVID-19: Ad credits for Google Ads Small and Medium-sized Businesses
According to Google, the search engine giant is giving away $340 million because, “[they] want to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) stay in touch with their customers during this challenging time.”
While COVID-19 has resulted in a surge of pay per click marketing (PPC) spend and engagement in the telehealth industry, home improvement and other essential businesses have seen mixed results. While some contractors have decided to eliminate ad spend in response to COVID-19, other contractors have doubled down on PPC advertising to capitalize on cheaper costs and increased market share.
Regardless of Google’s true intent, businesses have cut back their Google Ads budgets to protect their companies. As a result, Google has lost a share of its revenue and is encouraging customers to keep advertising online, as seen with their COVID-19 Google Ads credit announcement.
How Do I Claim a Credit on Google Ads?
As a business owner, you don’t have to “claim” your COVID-19 Google Ads credit. Instead, eligible businesses will be automatically notified of their credits in their Google Ads account.
We recommend monitoring your Google Ads notifications closely over the next few months to be notified of when your ad credit is dispersed.
Tik Tok announces their SME scheme
Relative newcomers TikTok are also getting in on the act with their own program for SMEs. They intend to provide $100 million in ad credits to help smaller companies hit the ground running once normal business activity resumes. The program will be rolled out market-by-market in the upcoming months, with the timing dependent on the decisions of individual governments as to when normal economic activity restarts in each country. Tik Tok Back to Business Program
