Last month, Google announced it would be rolling out $340 million in Google Ad credits as a part of an $800 million initiative to support companies during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This week, the search engine giants provided updates on the timing and eligibility for the Ad credits, as no specifics were offered in their original announcement.

In terms of eligibility, Google initially stated that small- and medium-sized businesses would qualify for the ad credit if they’ve been actively advertising on Google platforms directly, or through a certified partner, since the beginning of 2019. These businesses also had to adhere to Google Ads policies.

Google has now detailed that advertisers will need to have spent with a Google Ads account directly or through a certified partner in at least 10 of the 12 months in 2019, and in either January or February of 2020.

In other words, Google is providing businesses that have consistently used their paid platforms over the past year and change some financial reprieve, in order to maintain communications with local communities as marketing dollars become harder to come by in these difficult times.

The credits will roll out in phases, starting in late May. Note that eligible advertisers will receive one ad credit allocation.

These free credits can be redeemed throughout the course of this year on any Google Ads channel, including Search, Display, and YouTube, and any campaign type.

Google will simply notify advertisers when they receive their ad credits, and they’ll appear in qualified accounts automatically – advertisers don’t have to apply or take any action to be considered for eligibility or to receive the free credits.

Advertisers should know that they’ll only receive one ad credit; so even if advertisers are running ads on multiple accounts, or running a variety of campaign types, they won’t be eligible for multiple ad credits.

Google has yet to reveal the value of ad credits per account, though we do know the size of the free credits will depend on past spend, and where the account is set up. Since this is a worldwide initiative, allocated credits will commensurate with the currency of the Google Ads account.

We’ll keep you up to date on everything related to COVID-19 and business advertising on our blog. For more details on the Google Ad credit rollout, you can read the full FAQs here.