Some of the titanic PPC advertising platforms are undergoing monumental change as the world continues to respond to the global pandemic, which now looks likely to dominate headlines through 2020 and beyond. Google’s COVID-19 Ad credits are one type of response to the changing times.

We’ve seen how this is affecting Facebook, which having established itself as the world’s leading forum for social debate, is being buffeted by the social (as oppose to medical) viral response.

When we turn to look at Google, there’s an interesting symmetry at work. While Facebook is being rocked by the actions of single advertising decisions made by a small number of huge brands, Google is looking the other way and  making life easier for the millions of Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs – or SMEs as we tend to call them over here) who advertise through their flagship Search platform.

Google has begun rolling out its awaited system of COVID-19 Ad credits – $340,000,000 in free funding to qualifying businesses to spend on Ads. Find out how it works here. 

It’s smart from a business point of view. A network of many small consistent revenue streams has more natural in-built resilience than one that can have its share price dictated by a small number of exogenous actors. Small is beautiful – and it works. 

The Ad credit system also mounts an ethical challenge to the digital advertising industries. Unscrupulous agencies  (yes I’m afraid they do exist) have a question to answer. It would be easy to use a dash of dark arts accountancy magic to absorb Google’s discount into agency coffers.

If you are an SMB and your Google Ads account is looked after by a third party supplier, you need to ask your agency one or two simple questions, and keep a close eye on how they respond. 

Simply put:

• Will they be passing on Google’s COVID-19 Ad credits to their clients

• How much of it?

• How will they show their working out?


Anything is Possible’s commitment to transparency in our client partnerships is pretty much the only non-negotiable we have.

We use blockchain tech to make the complexities of today’s digital ad campaigns visible to all stakeholders, so you can see where every penny of your ad spend goes, right down to the individual impression. 

But administering the Google COVID-19 Ad credits won’t be that complicated. We simply pass on 100% of Google’s COVID-19 credits to all clients who receive them. After all it’s their money, their adverts and their accounts which we are managing.

And we’re going to make it really simple. We’re adding an extra line to our invoices and pricing reports so you can tell at a glance how Google’s constructive gesture will affect your bottom line.

If you want any more detail on how we’re going to manage this and what it means for you, just get in touch.  And stand by for my next blog coming later this week, where we’ll look at the way these Google’s Ads account-changes shift the emphasis for effective agency management.