Most contractors who start Google Ads for the first time pay full price for every click from day one. They do not have to. Google funds a promotional credit for new advertisers, and since its Partners program changed the way the offers work, the credit is assigned by the agency that manages the account rather than applied automatically. If your agency is not a Partner, or does not mention it, the credit simply never gets claimed.
Everything below comes from Google's own help pages, read on 5 October 2026: About Google Partners promotional offers, About Google Ads promotional offers and Different types of Google Ads promotional offers. Where we quote, we quote. Where Google is vague, we say so.
The seven credit tiers
Google lists the available offers for the United States as follows. The 60 days run from when the offer is redeemed on the account, not from when the account was opened.
| You spend in the first 60 days | Google adds in ad credit | Credit as a share of spend | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500 | $500 | 100% | A one-truck company testing one campaign |
| $680 | $630 | 93% | A small account at the lowest useful daily budget |
| $1,400 | $980 | 70% | Most single-location home service accounts in their first two months |
| $3,200 | $1,600 | 50% | A two to three truck company running two or three campaigns |
| $4,500 | $2,250 | 50% | A company replacing a lead seller at the same monthly cost |
| $10,000 | $5,000 | 50% | A multi-truck or multi-location account |
| $12,000 | $6,000 | 50% | The largest tier Google offers |
The spend and credit figures are Google's, from its Partners promotional offers page. The percentage column is our arithmetic. The last column is our judgement about which kind of account typically lands in each range, not a Google rule, and the right tier for you is whichever one your real first-60-day budget reaches without stretching.
Notice the shape. The first tier matches you dollar for dollar. From $3,200 upward the credit is half of spend. The offer is designed to get a new advertiser past the first two months, which is exactly the period most contractors quit in. Our page on whether Google Ads works for contractors covers why that period is where accounts are won or lost.
What Google says you need to qualify
Google's Partners page gives three client conditions, quoted here in full:
The account has no other promotions applied. The account is billed to a country where Google Partners promotional offers are offered. The advertiser is new to Google Ads (20 days from their account creation).
And on what counts as new, from its page on promotion types:
You're considered a new advertiser if you're creating an account for a business that has never advertised with Google Ads or if you're expanding an existing business to a different country (with a new billing address).
So the rule is about the business, not the login. A plumbing company that ran ads three years ago under an old account and stopped is not a new advertiser. A company that has never run Google Ads is, even if the owner personally has an account for something else. Google gives the example of an entrepreneur whose restaurant already advertises opening a new account for a consulting firm, and says both businesses qualify.
1The account must be young
A Partner can only assign the offer within 20 days of the account being created. Google's own page for advertisers claiming an offer directly says the account must be less than 14 days old. Either way, this is not something to come back for later. If the account is opened and the offer is not applied in the first three weeks, it is gone.
2You spend first, Google verifies, then the credit lands
Google states: "For all clients, new customer verification will shift from before the offer is applied to after the client reaches the required spend value. It will take up to 35 days from when the customer meets the spend requirement for their ad credit to be applied to their account." So the sequence is: redeem, spend the tier amount within 60 days, wait up to 35 days while Google checks you really are new, then the credit appears. If the check finds a previous account for the same business, Google says plainly that the credit will not be applied.
3The credit pays for future ads only
From Google's promotional offers page: "Promotional credits cannot be used to pay for costs accrued before the credit was applied, and they also cannot cover the 'spend requirement' itself." The $500 you spend to earn the $500 is real money, billed by Google to your card. The credit then covers the next $500 of clicks.
4The credit expires
Google's promotional terms say the credit expires 60 days after it is applied to the account. Its page on promotion types says advertisers "typically have 60 days to spend their earned credit." An account that pauses the day the credit arrives, which is a common instinct, throws it away. The credit is worth having only if the account keeps running.
Why it has to come through a Google Partner
Google is explicit that these offers are not available to every agency: "Promotional offers are still exclusive to Partners and Premier Partners." They are assigned from the Partners Program tab of the agency's manager account, one eligible client at a time, by choosing the tier and confirming the terms.
There is a limit on how much a Partner can give out. Google calculates a monthly cap "as 15% of your rolling 90-day spend, and is reset on the first day of each month." If a Partner has used its cap, Google says "all promotional options for eligible accounts will be unavailable" until the next month. In plain terms: an agency can only assign so many credits a month, and the number depends on how much its clients spend. That is why we say first come, first served below, and mean it.
What the credit does not do
We would rather you knew these before the first call than after.
- It does not make a bad account good. $500 of credit spent on broad match keywords with no negatives and no call tracking is $500 of wasted credit. The credit extends the runway. It does not change the direction. Our list of contractor Google Ads mistakes is the usual direction.
- It does not apply to Local Services Ads. These are Google Ads promotional offers. Local Services Ads is billed per lead through its own system, and our Local Services Ads cost guide covers that side. A company running both gets the credit on the Google Ads account only.
- It does not help a business that already advertised. Google's verification happens after you have spent the money. If the business ran ads before under another account, you will have spent the tier amount and received nothing. Tell your agency the truth about past accounts before the offer is redeemed.
- It is not a reason to choose a bigger tier. The credit at $12,000 is $6,000, which sounds large. It is also half of what you spent. Pick the tier your real budget reaches, and if you are not sure what that is, our guide to what Google Ads costs by trade will get you to a number.
- Google can change or withdraw it. The terms state that Google may modify or remove the promotion at any time. The tiers on this page were read on 5 October 2026 and will be checked when this page is next updated.
How to use the credit well
The offer rewards two months of real spend. The companies that get the most from it treat those two months as the test they were going to run anyway, and let the credit pay for the third.
- Open the account last, not first. Build the campaigns, the negatives, the landing pages and the call tracking before the account is created, so the 20-day window and the 60-day spend window start when you are ready to spend, not while you are still setting up.
- Pick the tier your budget already reaches. If you were going to spend $1,500 a month anyway, the $1,400 tier is free money. Stretching to $3,200 to get a bigger credit is spending $1,800 you did not plan to.
- Keep the account running when the credit lands. It arrives up to 35 days after you hit the spend and expires 60 days later. Month three and four are where it pays out, and they are also where most new accounts have found their footing.
- Watch the Promotions page. Google says the progress toward the spend requirement and the credit's expiry date are visible on the Promotions tab of the billing page. If the credit has not appeared 35 days after the spend was met, that is the place to look before anyone calls support.
If your business has never run Google Ads, we open the account, assign the promotional offer that fits your budget, and build the campaigns before the clock starts. Management from $695 a month, month to month, no setup fee.
Questions we get asked about the credit
How much Google Ads credit can a new account get?
Through the Google Partners promotional offers, seven tiers are available to eligible new advertisers in the United States: spend $500 in the first 60 days and get $500 in ad credit, spend $680 and get $630, spend $1,400 and get $980, spend $3,200 and get $1,600, spend $4,500 and get $2,250, spend $10,000 and get $5,000, or spend $12,000 and get $6,000. The 60 days run from when the offer is redeemed. Google lists these tiers on its About Google Partners promotional offers help page, read on 5 October 2026.
Who is eligible for the new advertiser credit?
Google's conditions for a Partner-assigned offer are that the account has no other promotion applied, is billed to a country where the offers are available, and the advertiser is new to Google Ads, with the offer applied within 20 days of the account's creation. Google also states that you are considered a new advertiser if you are creating an account for a business that has never advertised with Google Ads. An existing business that ran ads before under another account does not qualify.
When does the credit show up?
After the spend requirement is met. Google says new customer verification happens after the client reaches the required spend, and that it can take up to 35 days from that point for the credit to be applied. The credit then covers future advertising costs. It cannot pay for costs already accrued and it cannot cover the spend requirement itself.
Does the credit expire?
Yes. Google's promotional terms state that the credit expires 60 days after it is applied to the account, and its help page on promotion types says advertisers typically have 60 days to spend an earned credit. An account that stops advertising once the credit lands forfeits whatever it did not use.
Why does the agency have to be a Google Partner?
Google states that promotional offers are exclusive to Partners and Premier Partners, assigned from the Partners Program tab in the manager account. A Partner also has a monthly credit cap, calculated by Google as 15 percent of the Partner's rolling 90-day spend and reset on the first of each month, so the number of clients a Partner can assign offers to in any month is limited.
Does Blue Grid Media charge for the credit?
No. We assign the offer to eligible new client accounts at no charge, on top of the published management fee of $445 a month for Local Services Ads, from $695 for Google Ads and $995 for both. The ad spend that qualifies you for the credit is billed by Google to you, as always. We never take a percentage of it.
Where every figure on this page comes from
The seven tiers, the 20-day assignment window, the 15 percent monthly cap, the 35-day verification period and the Partner exclusivity are from Google's help page About Google Partners promotional offers. The definition of a new advertiser, the 14-day direct redemption window and the 60-day credit life are from About Google Ads promotional offers and Different types of Google Ads promotional offers. The statement that credit cannot cover past costs or the spend requirement is quoted from the first of those. All three were read on 5 October 2026. We publish no figure about how many clients have received a credit or how much, because we have not counted it.