Google Ads Credits for Event Planners

Are Event Planners Eligible for the $340 Million in Google Ads Credits?

Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, announced a massive $340 million in Google Ads credits that will be available to all SMBs until the end of 2020. If you’re an event planner or any other event professional, here’s how to make sure you get the most out of this opportunity.

Search for Coronavirus Google Ads Credits

Are Event Planners Eligible for the Google Ad Credits?

Yes. But also, no. If you’ve been an active Google Ads advertiser this year, then you don’t need to do anything. The credits will appear in your account, likely with a notification. 

However, if you are not currently a Google Ads advertiser, then I’m sorry to say you’re out of luck. Now, the optimist in me says that this may change. In the past, Google’s offered generous amounts of credit to non-profits with very few strings attached. I suspect that depending on how things go, Google might very well open up a program like this to new advertisers.

So, I’d recommend keeping an eye on things, and the best way to do so is to open a Google Ads account, even if you’re not ready to advertise yet.

According to Pauline Jakober, writing in Business2Community, the advertiser must be active since January 1st, 2020. She worries that advertisers who paused their campaigns as soon as the shutdowns began might not be eligible. Unfortunately, Google has been opaque about this, and we’ll all have to wait and see.

How many Google Ads credits will event planners receive?

According to Search Engine Journal, it’s not clear how many credits you might get, but my guess is that Google will be focusing on two factors. First, they’ll likely consider your past ad spend. If your budget was a few hundred dollars a month, you’re unlikely to get a multiple of that.

If I were to speculate, however, then I’d say that they’ll use the credits to woo businesses back into advertising. Google has lost untold amounts of money as the economy ground to a halt, and advertisers paused their campaigns. I’m assuming that the numbers will be fluid and focused on restarting ad campaigns.

So perhaps paused accounts will be eligible after all.

Google Ads Tips for Event Planners

So, if you are eligible and are an advertiser, I figured I’d take the opportunity to mention some tips that will help increase your results from these ad credits. And your Google Ads campaigns in general. 

Location matters

This is probably the most common screw-up that I see. In fact, if you read my article on Google Search results, you’ll see a few examples, like an Arkansas event showing up in a search for event planners in Chicago.

Make sure that your ads are showing up only for those searching in or about your specific location. You can use a radius or target towns and counties by name. Regardless of which option you choose, as long as you’ve double-checked that it’s correct, you’ll be alright. 

Use negative keywords

In a perfect world, you’d check your search queries, and the clicks on them, every week. But if you do this every month, that’s good enough. When you look at your results, you’ll see queries that you showed up for, and even paid for, that wasn’t relevant at all. 

Add those to the negative keyword list. That way, you’ll save your Google Ads credits, and your hard-earned ad spend for the genuinely relevant searches. 

Write multiple ads

When you’re not a Google Ads certified expert, writing ads is a chore. Thing is, you still need to do it. Google actually rewards ad accounts with multiple ads per ad group in a few different ways.

When you try variations, you allow Google’s amazing system to test which ad is more effective. Then Google wins because your ad performs well, earning them money. And you win for the exact same reason.

Use keywords in your ad copy

It’s pretty basic advice, but many event planners don’t do this in their ads. If you’re advertising on the search, “Chicago event planner,” then that ought to be the first line of the ad copy. 

There’s a temptation to be fancy, but I’d recommend being practical instead. The closer your ad copy is to the actual search, the higher your chances of ranking higher, and getting the clicks.

Google Ads for Event Planners is worth it, but only with effort

I love Google Ads, and I spent a few years obsessing over it. So if you’re an event planner and aย ThymeBase event planning softwareย customer and want some Google Ads advice, reach out to me, and let’s talk. I’m happy to help where I can.

The thing is, Google Ads can offer a return on investment, and you can leverage the Google Ads credits into real, live, paying clients. Still, it takes time and effort to get it right. 

If you do commit to Google Ads, spend an hour a week improving your account, at least for the first few weeks. It’ll pay off!