Malta marketing grants come in two very different shapes, and confusing them wastes real money. Micro Invest gives you a tax credit against capital costs like a new website. The TradeMalta Digital Marketing programme gives you cash back on advertising, but only when you are selling to markets abroad. The Growth Bully, a Malta performance marketing agency, watches businesses miss one or both of these every year because the online guides blur them into a single vague promise of free marketing money.
There is no scheme that simply pays for your everyday Facebook and Google ads to Maltese customers. Once you understand what each route is designed to fund, you can plan spending that legitimately draws down both.
What marketing grants can a Malta business actually get in 2026?
Two schemes do the heavy lifting. Micro Invest, run by Malta Enterprise, returns a share of qualifying capital and wage costs as a tax credit. The TradeMalta Digital Marketing programme co-funds advertising aimed at international markets. Both sit under the same de minimis state aid ceiling, so they share one overall limit.
A handful of one-off calls open and close under Business Enhance and digitalisation funds, but those two schemes are the dependable, year-after-year options for a marketing budget.
Is a marketing grant cash or a tax credit?
It depends on the scheme, and the difference matters for cash flow. Micro Invest is a tax credit: it reduces the tax you owe in future years rather than paying money into your account, and unused credit carries forward. TradeMalta co-funding is closer to a cash rebate, reimbursing part of eligible spend after you have paid and reported it.
So a profitable company that pays tax gets full value from a Micro Invest credit. A company reinvesting everything and paying little tax will feel a TradeMalta rebate sooner, because it arrives as money rather than a credit waiting to be used.
What does Micro Invest cover, and what does it not?
Micro Invest rewards investment in the business, not ongoing running costs. For 2026 the aid rate rose to 65 percent of eligible costs, or 85 percent for undertakings based in Gozo, family businesses and female-owned businesses. The maximum is 65,000 EUR over a rolling three-year period, rising to 85,000 EUR for those same categories.
What it will support:
- Digital assets. From 2026 the eligible list explicitly includes software, websites and SaaS platforms, so a new high-converting website or booking system qualifies.
- Wage increases. Growth in your wage bill as you hire counts toward the credit.
- Premises and equipment. Refurbishment and tangible investment in the business.
What it will not support is the part most owners hope for: your monthly ad spend. Paying to run Meta or Google campaigns is a running cost, not a capital investment, so it falls outside Micro Invest. The scheme can fund the website and systems your ads point to, not the ads themselves.
What is the TradeMalta Digital Marketing co-funding?
This is the scheme that actually touches advertising. TradeMalta co-funds up to 50 percent of approved digital marketing spend, capped at 10,000 EUR, and that amount counts toward an overall 30,000 EUR of TradeMalta assistance to a single company in one calendar year. The eligible activities are specific.
- Direct advertising on major search engines such as Google Ads.
- Direct advertising on major social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
- Search engine optimisation work to raise visibility in a target market.
The condition that catches people out: the spend has to target markets abroad. TradeMalta exists to help Maltese companies export, so advertising to customers in Malta does not qualify. If you sell to buyers in other countries, this scheme can halve the cost of reaching them through paid social and search.
Can a grant pay for agency or freelancer fees?
Usually not directly. Micro Invest funds capital investment and wage growth, so an external retainer sits outside it. TradeMalta co-funds named activities, principally search and social advertising and search engine optimisation aimed at markets abroad, and professional fees only where the current call lists them. Read the live call guidelines before assuming.
The practical consequence is that grants shape what you build, not who builds it. A scheme will co-fund the media budget behind an international campaign while leaving strategy, creative and account management outside its scope. Treat any co-funding you win as a discount on reach, never a discount on the work, and keep your budget allocation honest: a grant that lands late should never be the reason a campaign was viable.
Do you apply before you spend or after?
The two schemes sit at opposite ends of the timeline, and getting it wrong forfeits the money. Micro Invest is claimed against costs your business has already incurred, so the paperwork follows the spend. TradeMalta co-funding is approved first and reimbursed later, so committing budget before approval puts it outside the scheme.
Build that asymmetry into your planning calendar. Capital projects can proceed on their own merits and be claimed afterwards, so a conversion-focused website never waits on an approval letter. International advertising is the opposite: the application has to clear before the first euro reaches the platform. Calls, rates and eligible activity lists are revised periodically, so verify the current guidelines with Malta Enterprise or TradeMalta before you commit.
What is the de minimis ceiling and why does it matter?
Both schemes are de minimis state aid. That means every euro you receive from them, and from most other Maltese grants, counts toward a single ceiling of 300,000 EUR over any rolling three-year period per company. Most small businesses are nowhere near it, but there is a real trap.
If you control more than one company, the authorities can treat them as a single undertaking and add their aid together against that one ceiling. Before a large application, it is worth mapping every grant your connected companies have already drawn, so an approval does not get clawed back later.
Which scheme fits which kind of marketing spend?
Match the scheme to the type of spend rather than to the calendar. Capital and systems work, a website or a booking platform, belongs to Micro Invest as a tax credit. Advertising aimed at buyers abroad belongs to TradeMalta as a cash rebate. Advertising to the local market belongs to neither.
- Building a new website or funnel? That is a Micro Invest tax credit, not an advertising grant.
- Advertising to customers abroad? TradeMalta co-funding can cover half of it.
- Advertising to the local Malta market? No grant covers it, so the return has to come from the campaign itself, which is where a performance-led digital marketing approach earns its keep.
- Chasing more enquiries rather than more spend? Nothing is claimable, but the cheapest gain is usually in follow-up speed and qualification, which is what our LeadLock system fixes on the leads you already pay for.
The third row is the uncomfortable one: for most Maltese businesses it is the biggest line. Local lead generation is unsubsidised, so the only thing standing between the budget and a loss is whether each enquiry is worth more than it costs to buy. Working out what a lead is actually worth decides whether a grant would have mattered at all.
Before you commit budget, it is worth knowing what results that budget should produce. Our Malta ads benchmark report shows what advertising actually costs and returns across local accounts, and the Pipeline Scorecard shows where your current funnel is leaking before you spend a cent more.
Grants reward businesses that plan spending deliberately. If you want help structuring a marketing budget that draws down every credit you are entitled to and performs on the spend that no grant will touch, book a strategy call and we will map it with you.