During this pandemic, businesses have had to really assess their priorities, and customer and client retention has become more important than ever. Consumers are stuck at home on lockdown, but that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped purchasing. Online purchasing has continued albeit at a slower pace. If you supply products, materials, and or services to other businesses, you will want them to think of you when they reopen. So continued marketing is of the utmost importance.
THE GOOGLE ADS RELIEF FUND
Should you change your marketing strategy due to COVID-19? Well, it doesn’t seem like you need to. Google is going to pump a staggering $340 million into Google Ads credits for small and medium-sized businesses. This comes as a welcome relief for SMB owners who were resigned to the thought that they would need to drastically cut funding to their marketing campaigns. Google is set to donate credits into business accounts that have been using its advertising platform for 12 months, i.e. at least ten out of the 12 months in 2019 and, in either or both January and February of this year.
HOW MUCH AND WHEN?
Google will only be giving one credit per customer. If you have multiple campaigns and or multiple accounts, don’t think you’ll get one credit for each. How much the credit will be worth, will be decided on your location, the currency being used, and Google Ad plan. However, if you want to find out how much you can claim you should contact a marketing specialist in-the-know. Evan Lamont CEO of TLG Marketing is having virtual appointments with B2B brands seeking to continue their marketing campaigns and retain or expand their client list. Google will roll out these credits for the rest of 2020, but it’s best to act as if it’s first-come-first-serve, to not be stuck at the end of the line.
DO YOU QUALIFY?
The general consensus in the world of business is, if you have between 10-50 employees, you’re a small business. If you have between 50 and 250 employees, you’re a medium-sized business. Google works with local stores that may barely have 10 and other companies that have hundreds. It’s therefore vital that you don’t rest on your hands and contact a marketing specialist to acquire the information you need and get the most out of Google’s $340 million relief fund.
FOCUS ON STRATEGY
The credit you receive will effectively expire on December 31, 2020, so use it as soon as you can but don’t lose sight of your strategy. Google Ads credits for SMBs can be used for your classic PPC and keyword strategies. However, you can also use video ads, which are probably more effective since everyone is at home and browsing YouTube. You must continue to bid for keywords and keyphrases and in fact, you have a wider selection since consumers are making more searches than they would during normal working days.
We don’t know how long the lockdown will last. SMB owners should be contacting marketing companies to see how much they can claim from Google’s credit relief fund, and what strategies will be most effective in the current situation.