Google potentially slashing its marketing budgets by as much as half for H2 shows that big tech, though in some ways better insulated from the pandemic, is still feeling intense financial pressures at the moment. The news also signals that the economic effects of the coronavirus on advertising could endure through 2020, even as shelter-in-place orders in some states are loosened or lifted.
Google originally planned to increase its marketing spending this year, per CNBC. However, the coronavirus has led to a hard pullback in ad spending from categories like travel and retail, which help support Google’s core search platform and other properties.
