Google announces $340 million in SMB ad credits

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Google is providing $340 million in advertising credits, among other initiatives that total over $800 million, to help businesses hurt from the coronavirus outbreak, the company announced March 27, 2020.

Google says it will start issuing automatic ad credits int advertising accounts held by small and medium sized businesses that were active over the past year.

“Advertisers receiving ad credits will be notified in the coming months. We are in the process of building these specialized credits into Google Ads accounts, therefore notifications will not show immediately. We appreciate your patience,” reads a help article about the program.

It’s not immediately clear how Google will determine the value of credit each account will receive.

Google says the credits much be used by the end of 2020.

In addition to the advertising credits, Google is also providing $250 in ad grants to the World Health Organization and more than 100 government agencies around the world to help them circulate accurate information about the pandemic.

Google had previously pledged $25 million in ad grants to these types of organizations.

Another $20 million in ad grants will go to community financial institutions and NGOs to run announcements about relief funds and other resources for businesses.

A separate $200 million investment fund will be created for these organizations to help them provide small businesses with access to capital.

Google is also donating $20 million in Google Cloud credits to academics and researchers who are performing COVID-19 related work.