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Objective: Learn how you are billed for advertising costs, and about different payment options that are available.
With cost-per-click (CPC) advertising, you accrue advertising costs only when users click on your ad; you are charged for each click based on the CPC bid that you assign to each ad group or keyword. With cost-per-impression (CPM) advertising, you are charged for each time your ad is displayed, based on the CPM bid you set for each ad group, keyword or placement.
At the end of your billing period, you will be charged for all costs accrued during that cycle. The AdWords billing period is defined by Google and is not the billing period of your credit card.
Available payment options depend on your billing address and chosen currency. In this topic, we will cover postpay payment by credit card, which is the most widely available method of payment.
Google currently accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB, and debit cards with a MasterCard or Visa logo. Please refer to the Payments Outside of the US lesson to learn about direct debit, bank transfer, and Switch/Solo payment methods available in countries where credit cards are not widely used.
Depending on the payment methods offered in your location, you may also have the option to pay for your advertising prior to receiving clicks (prepay) or after receiving clicks (postpay).
With our prepay option, we will deduct charges from your pre-paid balance each time a Google user clicks on your ads. Your ads run almost immediately after payment is received.
Our postpay option allows you to pay after users click on your ads and you accrue charges. Your ads run almost immediately after submitting your credit card and billing information.
Determine the payment options available for your billing address and currency.
In addition to these payment options, a select group of advertisers also has the option to receive invoices once a month. You can learn more details about invoicing by reviewing the Invoicing lesson.
Your credit card is charged based on your AdWords billing cycle. When you create and activate your account with a credit card, debit card, or direct debit, Google starts running your ads almost immediately. We then charge you every 30 days unless your advertising costs reach a certain threshold within your 30-day billing cycle.
We won't charge you before 30 days unless you earn US$50 worth of clicks or impressions, depending on whether you're running a CPC or CPM campaign. The first time your account reaches US$50 within 30 days, we'll charge you. Then, we'll let you accrue US$200 worth of clicks before charging you within the subsequent 30 days.
If you reach your US$200 limit within 30 days, Google will bill you and raise your billing threshold to US$350. Once you reach the US$350 threshold, you'll be billed again, and your threshold will be raised to US$500, the maximum allowed. Remember that the amount billed may be in excess of the threshold since ads will continue to run and generate charges between the time the billing cycle is triggered and the time the charge is completed.
The activation fee, along with any other advertising costs accrued, is charged to your credit card at the end of your first billing period.
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Learn about the billing summary and payment details for an account, including the application of overdelivery credits, how to resolve declined credit card charges, and how to calculate pending charges. Also, become familiar with Google's credit card security practices.
On the Billing Summary page you'll see your billing history and invoices for your account. You can access more detailed information about each invoice by clicking the invoice number link.
Your Billing Summary page will appear differently if you're billed on a postpay or prepay basis.
If you are billed on a prepay basis, your page will display the following information.
Figure: AdWords Billing Summary page for prepay advertisers.
1. Date: The date of payment and invoice activity for your account.
2. Activity: Account adjustments, charges, or declined payments that occurred for the reported month, and unique invoices for each payment toward your account.
3. Charge: Your total advertising costs accrued for any month. This column will also include adjustments and credits made, including promotional credits, credits for invalid charges toward your account, and courtesy credits applied by AdWords client services specialists.
4. Payment: Individual payment amounts for the current month. For each payment, you can click the related invoice link to view details about the payment method and amount.
5. Balance Remaining: Balance remaining in your account. As you make payments and accrue costs, your Balance Remaining column will display the amount of prepaid funds left in your account.
6. Funds Remaining: Current balance remaining in your account. Though similar to the Balance Remaining, this amount is based on slightly more updated usage statistics than the Balance Remaining and reflects your most up-to-date costs accrued, at any time.
If you're billed on a postpay basis, your Billing Summary page will show the following information:
Figure: AdWords Billing Summary page for postpay advertisers.
1. Date: The date of payment and invoice activity for your account.
2. Activity: Account adjustments, charges, or declined payments that occurred for the reported month, and unique invoices for each payment toward your account.
3. Invoiced Amount: Costs per campaign are itemized by the date billed and relevant invoice number. Adjustments will be included within the invoiced amount, and may reflect promotional credits, credits for invalid charges toward your account, and courtesy credits applied by AdWords client services specialists.
4. Payment: Individual payment amounts for the current month.
5. Balance Due: Invoiced balance. For postpay accounts, where payments are made promptly following each invoice, the balance column will typically be zero. This is because the Balance Due column does not reflect recent clicks or impressions for which you have not yet been invoiced.
6. Outstanding Balance: Overall balance. This amount reflects your most up-to-date costs accrued, including clicks or impressions for which you have not yet been invoiced as well as any outstanding billed balance.
If you would like more details regarding a specific payment, click the invoice number that you wish to review. This will take you to the Invoice Details page.
Click Printable invoice to print an invoice for your records.
Figure: AdWords Invoice Details page.
1.Invoice Details: Invoice/payment date and time, applicable taxes, and your invoice number. You can also print your invoice, which will include your payment terms (immediate charge or credit line), and all line items associated with your payment.
2.Account Adjustments and Fees: Applicable fees (account activation or re-activation) and billing adjustments that may reflect promotional credits, credits for invalid charges toward your account, and courtesy credits applied by AdWords client services specialists.
3.Advertising Charges by Campaign:
- Campaign: Relevant campaign for which activity was recorded.
- Date Range: Corresponding dates for activity accrued per campaign.
- Billable Activity: Explanation of charges (clicks, impressions, or overdelivery credit).
- Number of clicks or impressions: The number of clicks or impressions accrued.
- Daily Budget: The daily budget for the relevant campaign for the delivery period shown.
- Amount: Charges accrued during the delivery period shown. This amount may also include overdelivery adjustments.
- Total: Subtotals appear per campaign in the right-hand column; the final line represents total advertising charges for the invoice.
If you return to the Billing Summary page, you'll see that each invoice has a Payment received link. Click on this link to view the Payment Details page.
The Payment Details page lists the date and time a payment was received, the form of payment, and the amount credited.
You can print a receipt for your records from the Payment Details page by clicking the Printable receipt link.
As traffic is never constant from day to day, it is possible that your cost-per-click campaign may accrue charges above or below your set limit. To ensure that your CPC campaigns reach their potential, Google may allow up to 20% more clicks in one day than your daily budget specifies. However, we'll never charge you more than your daily budget multiplied by the number of days in that delivery period.
For example, if you budget US$10 per day in a 30-day month, you may receive more than US$10 in clicks on a given day, but the maximum you would pay is US$300 for that month. If Google overdelivers your ads resulting in more clicks than your budget allows, you will receive a credit to your account. Credits for clicks in excess of your daily budget are listed on your invoice as: 'Overdelivery credit.'
Example Scenario
Advertiser's Daily Budget = US10
Day 1 Spend: US$8
Day 2 Spend: US$10
Day 3 Spend: US$12
Day 4 Spend: US$14
In the above example, this advertiser received US$12 worth of clicks on Day 3. That's US$2, or 20%, more than the daily budget.
On Day 1, the advertiser only received $8 worth of clicks, so Google will apply the US$2 worth of overdelivery charges to Day 1. By applying these charges to Day 1, charges on Day 3 meet the advertiser's daily budget.
On Day 4, the advertiser receives US$14 in clicks. Since Google has allowed his campaign to accrue US$14 in clicks, or 40% above the daily budget, Google will return 20%, or US$2, as an overdelivery credit. In addition, the remaining 20%, or US$2, will also be applied as an overdelivery credit because the advertiser reached his daily budget each day.
If Google is unable to charge a credit card, advertising is suspended for that account. AdWords notifies the advertiser via email that his or her credit card has been declined.
You can view detailed information regarding any declined payments on the Payment Declined Details page. Here you'll see itemized payment declination details by invoice, including the date and amount of the attempted charge, and the reason our billing system was unable to process your payment.
There are several common reasons why credit cards are declined. If your payment is declined, consider the following:
- Have you entered the correct credit card number?
- Have you entered the correct expiration date? Has that date passed?
- Have you entered the correct billing address and phone number? If the address and phone number listed in your AdWords account do not match those associated with your credit card, we may be unable to process your charges.
- Have you exceeded your credit limit? Your credit card must have enough available credit to cover your monthly advertising budget. If your card does not have enough credit, you'll need to decrease your daily budget, or enter a new credit card with a higher credit limit. You may need to contact the issuing bank to determine the credit limits on your credit card.
If you still cannot successfully submit your credit card information after reviewing the information above, contact the card-issuing bank for details about why they have declined the particular transaction.
In order to process the declined charge and reactivate your account, you'll need to update your billing information. Please note that this is the only way to process a failed payment. If you plan to use the same credit card, you can simply click the 'Retry card' button to trigger us to try your card again. Once we process your payment successfully, your ads will begin running again.
If you're not already using a backup credit card, you may wish to enter one to help ensure continuous ad delivery in the future. When you provide a backup credit card, we'll try to charge it if your primary card is declined in the future. You can enter a backup credit card by visiting your Billing Preferences page and adding a card in the Backup Payment Details section.
Your pending charges are determined by the number of clicks your ads have received since the last time you were billed. (If you're running a CPM campaign, the charges are determined by the number of impressions you've received.) All pending charges can be viewed on the Billing Summary page in your account. The outstanding balance on this page reflects the cost of accrued charges since you were last billed.
Your outstanding balance provides an estimate for upcoming charges for your campaigns. Please note that this amount does not necessarily reflect a delinquent amount, or a final balance. The outstanding balance is updated throughout the day, and includes deductions for any overdelivery credits that may apply. However, this balance may still be more than what you are actually charged for that time period, as additional overdelivery credits may be applied prior to billing your account. All credits and past charges posted to your credit card are also available under the My Account tab.
If you pause or delete your campaigns, it is important to note that any pending charges will be charged to your credit card at the end of your billing period. Because your AdWords account runs on a 30-day billing cycle, you may be billed for your campaigns up to one month after pausing or deleting them.
For example, an advertiser is billed for his account on June 4, and then pauses his campaigns on June 18. He would then be billed on July 4 for any charges accrued between June 4 and June 18.
Our highest priority is to ensure the security and confidentiality of your personal information.
Google uses industry-standard SSL (secure socket layer) technology to protect every interaction you have with the AdWords system. This protects your credit card and other personal information. Once we receive your information, it is encrypted and stored behind a firewall.
When payment information is submitted online, Google works with third-parties to verify and process your information. Your personal information is encrypted and neither Google nor our payment partners share or sell your personal information. Your information will only be used for the purpose for which it was provided. For more details, please see our Privacy Policy.
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