With all the alarming headlines and the market condition worsening with every passing day, it is easy to miss or overlook some of the potential good news that might help you and your business during these times.

But don’t worry, we are here to help. We compiled a list of 5 of the best good news for small companies like yours.

We hope it helps!

1 Google is offering $340 million in ad credits to SMBs all around the world

You may qualify if you have an active ad account.

Google is giving away the $340 million in ad credits to all of their SMB customers, which can be used towards future ad spend, until the end of 2020 across all Google Ads platforms.

This action is part of a larger commitment made by Google towards helping health organizations and governments, and health workers that fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Google motivated the program by saying that “Small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of our communities. They represent about 90 percent of all businesses and more than half of employment worldwide, according to the World Bank.
COVID-19 has posed a particular challenge to these businesses, who may be facing closures and declining revenue even as they find ways to support and protect their employees. The ad credit is our gesture to show support and solidarity with these businesses as they continue to engage with their customers.”

If you have spent with a Google Ads account in ten out of twelve months of 2019, and in January and/or February of this year, you are eligible to receive the grant. You won’t have to apply for it, if Google finds you eligible for the program, you will see the ad credit applied automatically in you Google Ads account, starting in late May.

You can learn more about this Google program here.

2 Facebook now offers cash and ad grats to 30.000 small businesses in 30 countries

Facebook is also launching its own initiative in supporting small businesses, including service companies like yours, to get through these hard times.

“We know that your business may be experiencing disruptions resulting from the global outbreak of COVID-19. We’ve heard that a little financial support can go a long way, so we are offering USD 100M in cash grants and ad credits to help during this challenging time.” you can read on the dedicated web page of the program.

The program is designed to help you:

• Keep your workforce operational
• With your renting cost
• Connect with more customers (with the help of Facebook Ads)
• Cover operational costs

If you have between 2 and 5 employees, have been in business for more than a year, have experienced challenges from COVID-19, and located near or in an area where Facebook operates, you are eligible for the programme.

You can learn more and apply for Facebook’s Small Business Grants programme here.

3. Cost of ads appears to be lower by approximately 30%, on average

This is true for both Facebook and Google ads platforms.

We observed this in our ad accounts, but also checked in the industry and it seems that the exact information is confirmed over and over again by marketers all around the world.

Some even saw a 45% decrease in CPA (cost per acquisition).

4. People spend more time on the Internet and social media.

Due to movement and work restrictions, people spend more and more time on social media platforms and on the Internet in general.

According to Statista, users from the US spent 21% more time on social media in April 2020.

It seems like this is the best time to run ad campaigns on Facebook. Your message will get to more people, at a lower cost.

5. The average number of posts published by brands on social media fell from 4 to 3 a week.

Why is this good news? Because it’s your opportunity to fill in the available space!

According to RivalIQ, brands are making  25% fewer posts on social media channels like Facebook, for example. But engagement seems to be higher, so what’s the catch?

3 months ago, for example, the social media channels were overwhelmed with tons of new content every second. The algorithms had to choose which post gets to be seen by whom and given the competition (increasing number of posts for the same audience), your posts on your Facebook Page, for example, were distributed to fewer people.

But in the last 2 months, the situation changed. 25% of the content used to be published just 3 months ago is not published anymore. This means lower competition for your content and thus translates into more people seeing your posts organically.

Conclusions

Over $440 million in cash and ad credits and lower competition and ad cost for your marketing campaigns! It seems that there are also a lot of opportunities in the midst of this crisis, right? Let’s choose to see the full half of the glass and adjust our strategies so that our companies not only survive these times but also come out stronger and better!