Over the last few weeks (months? Who is keeping track?!) it has been awesome to see the response to the Covid-19 crisis from businesses of all sizes. Here in Yorkshire the response from local businesses has been truly incredible with people finding new ways to trade and support the community at the same time.
Alongside all these local efforts, some of the big tech firms have introduced initiatives to help businesses take there offering online and find new ways to navigate these challenging times.
In this blog we are rounding up some of the initiatives that might benefit your business.
Google Ads
Love it or loathe it, there is no arguing with the success of the Google Ads model. For many smaller businesses, with a relatively small ad spend you can reach customers through Google that otherwise might have overlooked your website and never engaged with your services. Over the past few months we have seen the average ad spend drop (great news if you are bidding on competitive keywords) and now Google has announced it will be gifting ad credits to any accounts that have used the platform in 10 of the last 12 months. Ad credits will automatically be applied, and if you fit this description, you should expect to see a credit in your account some time around the end of May. Google haven’t given guidance on how much to expect yet, but has allocated over $340 million in ad credits specifically aimed at small and medium-sized businesses. They also have a separate fund for non-profits and charitable organisations.
Facebook
Facebook is another tech giant looking to make a difference to small businesses during the crisis pledging $100 million to a grant program to help 30,000 small businesses in 30 countries including the UK ad Ireland. You can sign up to receive alerts on this funding and also access more resources to help you connect with your audience on Facebook and Instagram. Alongside this, Facebook have also committed more resources to their fact checking team to stop disinformation and ‘fake news’ being shared. I think we can all agree that these uncertain times feel scary enough without unverified and over exaggerated news being shared and making it feel even worse!
These are just a couple of examples of how technology companies are showing support to business, like yours, that have helped build their success.