In the Face of COVID-19, Google & Facebook Offer Support to their Advertisers

The coronavirus pandemic has upended business plans across the country. Faced with difficulty paying rent and making payroll, small business owners find themselves with a dilemma: Should they continue advertising? When you’re trying to keep the lights on, it can seem like an easy line item to cut from the budget, but you risk losing your hard-won place in the market.

Luckily, Facebook & Google are coming to the aid of their clients, with hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance for small businesses.

Facebook has pledged $100 million for its Small Business Grants Program. Small businesses who have a prior relationship with the social media giant can apply for ad credits, as well as cash grants to help with things like rent and payroll. Up to 30,000 small business in more than 30 countries are eligible to apply to the program. Requirements include having been in business for more than one year, employing between two and fifty people, and having experienced challenges due to COVID-19. Facebook has also created a Business Resource Hub to share other helpful information about coronavirus.

Google, meanwhile, is offering its advertising customers support in the form ad credits totaling $340 million. Small and medium businesses can use these ad credits to pay for advertising across its platforms, including search, display, and YouTube. The size of the credit will be based on prior account activity and may be used between the time of issue (likely in mid to late May) and the end of 2020. The program will cooperate with advertising partners, so small businesses who buy Google advertising through agencies like CoxNext can have the credits applied to their partner account. Like Facebook, Google has also set up a resource center to help businesses cope with the coronavirus pandemic.