Google Ads: $340 Million Free Credits Supporting Small Businesses During COVID-19

Katelyn Cleary - March 30, 2020July 25, 2022

Small businesses are crucial to the global economy while they are especially being affected by the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis. To help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) stay connected with their customers during the pandemic, Google has set aside $340 million in ad credits for all SMBs with active accounts over the past year. During this challenging season of financial instability, the world’s largest tech company is leveraging its global resource to provide small businesses with tangible support.

Apart from the $340 million ad credits, Google is also providing a $200 million investment fund that will support global non-government organisations and financial institutions to continue to provide SMEs with access to capital.

Digital8 COVID-19 Support Pack: Keep Your Business Afloat Using Digital Channels

Am I eligible for the ad credits?

The ad credits policy will support existing customers. It will be available to small and medium businesses, who advertise directly with Google Ads or through partners, around the world with active accounts since the beginning of 2019. There has long been starter credits as an incentive for Google Ads new advertisers.

How to claim your Google Ad credits?

If you are eligible, Google will inform you through a credit notification within your Google Ads accounts in the coming months. If your Google Ads account is managed by Digital8, your account manager will let you know immediately after you receive the credit.

Once you receive the Google Ad Credits, you can use it at any point until the end of 2020 across Google Ads platforms. The amount each business will receive remains unknown.

Neto & Digital8 Partner to Support Australian Businesses During COVID-19

Katelyn Cleary - March 24, 2020August 30, 2022

The outbreak of COVID-19 poses a huge threat to all Australian businesses. In response to this unprecedented situation, Digital8 in partnership with Neto, are offering support to Australian businesses by offering rapid, cost-efficient eCommerce and digital transformation packages. The goal of this project is to help as many Australian businesses as possible continue to operate in spite of the pandemic, and to trade with the least interruption possible during the period of social isolation and shutdowns.

One of the biggest challenges that Australians face as a result of enforced social distancing and quarantining will be how to protect our job providers, small, medium businesses and particularly retail stores from the seemingly inevitable economic slowdown. Businesses transforming to digital delivery models will be the first and most effective way to accomplish this. — Joe McCord, Digital8 General Manager

3 million small and medium businesses are the mainstay of Australia’s economy (Frydenberg 2020). In order to service as many businesses in need as possible, Digital8 have appointed a dedicated team of Brisbane-based developers, designers, and marketers to deliver cost-efficient eCommerce solutions to help businesses minimise the extent of damage the virus outbreak brings.

Partnering with Neto gives the Digital8 eCommerce team the confidence to deliver best practice eCommerce solutions with results in mind. Neto is Australia’s #1 all-in-one eCommerce platform and the only Australian CMS that takes care of businesses’ online selling experience each step of the way. Neto have generously offered their support and premium themes at no cost.

While consumer behaviour change has been drastic, there are strong indications that digital businesses remain relatively unimpacted. Some retailers are reporting increases to sales with Amazon themselves seeking to rapidly employ over 100,000 new staff to cope with the increased demand (Sterling 2020). The opportunity to leverage digital channels to market your business will also be improved by the increased usage of online social platforms and people being forced to stay at home. This project is expected to broaden market opportunities for many businesses and to put forward digitisation as the key to solving some of Australia’s most urgent economic challenges. This effort would be magnified by government support to small businesses to cover setup costs, with funds available quickly and we call on local, state and federal government to provide funding to businesses that need to digitally transform to protect their continuity and the livelihoods of their employees.

Click here to learn more about this partnership and brief your project to the team.

References

Frydenberg, J. (2020). Supporting Australian workers and business. https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/josh-frydenberg-2018/media-releases/supporting-australian-workers-and-business.

Sterling, G. (2020). Amazon could win big in the post-coronavirus retail economy. https://marketingland.com/amazon-could-win-big-in-the-post-coronavirus-retail-economy-277897.

eCommerce Could Be Critical During COVID-19

Katelyn Cleary - March 17, 2020October 28, 2020

eCommerce Will Keep Australia Running

In the past few weeks we have heard an increasing number of stories circulating of restaurants and retailers talking about drops in revenue due to perceived impact of COVID-19. The fear within the business community is that if our government implements an enforced lockdown like the one we’ve seen in Italy, and recently San Francisco, thousands of small proprietors who don’t have the cash reserves to withstand it will be forced to retrench staff, or close up operations altogether. It may be heading that way even without enforced lockdown, as many businesses including ours are already suggesting staff work from home, which keeps them out of business districts where they might ordinary buy lunch and other items during breaks.

During Quarantine, People Will Shop Online Even More!

Australian shopping has seen a rise in online sales year on year for quite some time however the percentage of Australian retail businesses, particularly small businesses, that continue to trade without online stores is high. It’s clear that Australians have taken a shine to buying online, but most of our small business sector is playing catch up while juggernauts such as Woolworths, Coles, Asos and obviously Amazon and eBay continue to reap the benefit.

It’s these enormous businesses that are the most well equipped to withstand, or perhaps even benefit from, the isolation of the public. It stands to reason that when forced to remain at home people are going to spend greater time online and on social media, and as such are going to be more capable of being engaged by advertising. Savvy businesses are already pouring additional budget into online advertising as a result, particularly those that can transact online.

But where does that leave small businesses? According to a study done by YouGov Galaxy on behalf of GoDaddy last year 59% of Australian small businesses don’t even have a website, much less an eCommerce website. Given that approximately 5 million people are employed by Australian small businesses, we’re looking at a very large percentage of the Australian workforce employed by businesses that will be crippled if they are unable to trade due to there being no way to access their bricks and mortar stores. So what can we do about it?

How Hard Is Setting Up An eCommerce Store?

Mobilising for eCommerce can be tricky if you want it to be. Integrating with inventory management software, accounting packages and retail point of sale can be really challenging, however it doesn’t need to be this way, especially for small businesses. Our eCommerce software partners Neto for instance, provide us with high quality, fully enabled eCommerce website themes and all that’s really required is company branding and pointing a website domain at them for them. Neto take care of payment gateways and integrate with all the mainstream delivery suppliers, and Neto are a Brisbane local success story! Beyond that it’s as simple as uploading some items. Usually when businesses come to us for eCommerce jobs they want custom designs but it’s more of a nice to have. If you want to get up and running fast it’s totally within the realms of possibility to get one of these sites up within hours and with a little bit of training (or not if you’re the least bit tech savvy) you can be spamming your local community Facebook pages with links to your shop within 24 hours. Get in touch with us if you’re interested in a low cost online store or eCommerce solution. We’re offering basic online shops from as low as $1000 with no deposit required on 12 month payment plans just to help mobilise Australian small businesses to help with this crisis.

How Can We Help?

During this crisis it’s been apparent to me that Australians want to do their bit to help out in the crisis and the government have already chipped in a stimulus package to ensure that individuals in need have a little bit extra to do just that. But if people are stuck in their houses that $750 a head that’s being provided to stimulate the economy is going to do nothing but stimulate Woolies, Amazon and their ilk. Spare a thought for your local retailers and make sure that you make as much of your online purchase as possible with eCommerce retailers local to you. Encourage your local retailers to set up online shops and sound out the ones that already have them and buy some of their products.

Wouldn’t it be nice if our government got behind this idea? Perhaps a fund for small businesses to utilise to mobilise eCommerce solutions followed by a Black Friday like sales day where people are encouraged to shop online but locally? Think that idea has merit? Share this post with your network and help spread the word!