$340M Google Ad Credit - Ensure YOU get YOURS!

Google has announced $340 million worldwide in ad credits for SMB customers but are YOU eligible and will YOU receive your credits?

I just received the information below from a Google Premier Partner that DOES transparent billing with their customers.

Transparent billing is defined by the business owner entering in their own credit card into the Ad account so all media charges are directly billed to the business, not to the agency or partner.

In this case, there is no action necessary by the business owner. If Google deems you are eligible, you will receive a credit that will be directly applied to your account and no action is needed.

If you do not have Transparent Billing with your partner, contact your agency or partner and ask them how they will know if they receive credit and how they will the credit be applied to their account. Also, ask to be moved over to direct billing on your credit card. See below for eligibility and credit amounts.

Transparent Billing also ensures businesses are getting their entire ad spend spent and not stolen from them. Yes, there are many digital media companies that will directly bill their customers for management fees + advertising spend on one invoice but never provide the actual bill from Google. This allows a digital marketing agency to short the ad spend and pocket more than their entitled to.

It's important that you receive a bill directly from Google, Facebook or any media platform for that matter, so you can see exactly what has been used for advertising. This also allows you to receive billing credits for common issues or in this case, to receive your share of Google's proposed $340M COVID-19 SMB grant.

The following was a Google Premier Partner email dated 4/29/2020.

You may be eligible for a Google Ads credit.

In response to COVID-19, Google has pledged $340 million in ad credits to SMB customers worldwide. These credits can be used towards future ad spend, and are valid across all Google Ads platforms until the end of 2020.

As a Google Premier Partner, we are in contact with our team at Google, and are awaiting further instruction from their finance department.

Many of our clients have questions about the ad credits; below are a few answers to common inquiries we have received over the past few weeks.

Who is eligible for the credit?

Small and medium-sized businesses, who have spent money in a Google Ads account for ten out of twelve months of 2019, and in January and/or February of this year, will be eligible for the credit. Eligible customers include those who advertised directly with Google, or through a premier partner.

Is spend under Google Local Services account considered eligible spend?

Yes.

How much are the ad credits?

The ad credit amount will vary by customer based on past Google Ads spend, and the country and currency where the business and Google Ads account is set up.

When and how will I get the credit?

Google will begin rolling out the ad credits in May 2020. All eligible customers will be notified when the credit is applied.

End email received

Next Steps

If you are a business owner paying for media/advertising:

1. Make sure your credit card is loaded into each ad platform.
2. Ask for a copy of the actual bill from the platform (you can audit this as well by asking for the last year of monthly invoices -- this will take 10 minutes for your account manager to pull these reports if you don't have access to the actual ad account).
3. Make sure your budget is getting spent fully on the platform and not shorted (aka stolen from you).

Please share this with other business owners and comment below if you found this helpful.

Stay safe.