We are facing tough times globally with the recent outbreak of Coronavirus. Pretty much every single industry not only in America but in the world is being affected in different ways but most importantly sales and acquisition of new clients. Digital marketing and PPC are not the exceptions, we have noticed a significant reduction of investment in google Ads and we are almost going back to old days when referrals and word of mouth were the most used sales methods to stay in the business.
Last Friday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that his company is donating more than 800 million dollars in cash and advertising to help small businesses survive the current crisis and stay in business during the current sanitary situation.
Why is this important? Well, this is the first time that a giant tech decides to donate such a large amount of money to help mitigate the negative impact in the business world and support small businesses while this world crisis lasts.
In addition to these commitments, Google also increased the gift match Google offers every employee annually to $10,000 from $7,500. That means its employees can now donate $20,000 to organizations in their communities, in addition to the $50 million that the Google Organization has already donated. Also, this tech giant has provided $20 million in ad grants to community financial institutions and NGOs specifically to run public service announcements on relief funds and other resources.
On top of that, a pool of $20 million in Google Cloud credits for academic institutions and researchers to leverage our computing capabilities and infrastructure as they study potential therapies and vaccines, track critical data, and identify new ways to combat COVID-19. Google has destined Direct financial support and expertise to help increase the production capacity for personal protective equipment (PPE) and lifesaving medical devices.
Some specific details of this donation are:
- A $200 million investment fund that will help non-profits and financial institutions provide small businesses with access to capital. That’s in addition to $15 million in cash grants already being provided by Google.org. the company’s philanthropic arm.
- $340 million in Google Ads credits are available to all small and midsize businesses with active Google accounts over the past year. The credits can be used at any time this year.
- $20 million in Google Cloud credits for academic institutions and researchers to use Google’s computing resources on COVID-19 related projects.
- Financial support and know-how to help ramp up the production of personal protective equipment and lifesaving medical devices. Google said it is working with longtime supplier and partner Magid Glove & Safety to produce 2-3 million face masks in the coming weeks that will be donated to the CDC Foundation.
The situation turns odd for Apple as the community was expecting something similar from them to help small businesses to keep operating and do not be forced to closed operations but the announcement coming from Steve’s Jobs company was that they have enabled an app to explained the symptoms of COVID 19, in case someone feels the need of testing.
Google brought relief to all of those start-up and middle-size businesses who were running out of ideas of how to survive this hard times without using digital advertising, no doubt this has given a refresh in the corporate image of the biggest technology company in the world and the news has been well received by some many individuals and marketing agencies around the globe.
If you are one of those businesses granted with this benefit, Take it as an opportunity to remain present in the market during these hard times. Here at The Expresso Company, we’d be more than happy to give you a free evaluation of all your digital marketing effort no string attached. We have a solid team of social media specialists, Google AdWords Managers and SEO Engineers more than ready to manage your campaigns and generate the traffic and new sales opportunities that you need.
