Google Ads has been offering new and existing customers credits to encourage them to spend on the advertising platform. But sometimes, Google Ads will revoke a credit, a credit that was already spent within the Google Ads platform, leaving the client spending more than they budgeted for.
David Melamed, a PPC consultant, had this issue come up, not just once, but now twice, over a short period of time. What happened? "They push a really "generous" credit to get advertisers to spend money... only to invalidate it after they spent thousands of dollars and waited more than a month," David explained on LinkedIn.
Here is a screenshot of the "Invalidated" Google Ads credit from his account:
David went on to explain that this is "pure theft," explaining that the advertiser expected that $3,200 credit to be free advertising and for it not to be clawed back after the $3,200 was spent.
Plus, there is no way I know of to appeal an invalidated Google Ads credit. Plus, you "obviously can't crawl back your spend once it's gone," he said. "This is the second advertiser account which had the credit invalidated over a month later - who likely would not have spend the first $3200 if not for the credit," he added.
Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, replied to the post saying, "Thank you for bringing this to our attention, David. I've passed this along to the team."
Supposedly, this isn't super rare, and it happens often enough. David gets a bit more animated on his post...
Here is his full post:
Google's Latest SCAM!They push a really "generous" credit to get advertisers to spend money... only to invalidate it after they spent thousands of dollars and waited more than a month.
There is no way I know of to appeal this and you obviously can't crawl back your spend once its gone. This is the second advertiser account which had the credit invalidated over a month later - who likely would not have spend the first $3200 if not for the credit.
Ginny Marvin The way this credit is marketed and setup is PURE THEFT from advertisers. I had a brand new advertiser client get it invalidated because my billing profile from my mcc setup the account for them initially. Another that I'm not sure why... but Asking advertisers to spend $3200 and than not giving them the credit - is ROBBING THE ENTIRE ECOSYSTEM BLIND.
Every advertiser in those auctions are being bid up and charged because others are competing for the impressions and often overpaying because they view it like half off spending for the first $6400.
THIS IS WRONG! PLEASE STOP THESE EVIL PRACTICES or GIVE ADVERTISERS A WAY TO APPEAL THESE INVALIDATED CREDIT SCAMS!!!
Forum discussion at LinkedIn.
