Do you have a'dormant' adwords account?

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underthecovers

Joined: Nov 13, 2002

# Posts: 209

Posted: 03/08/2007 02:48 am

To my shock I opened my credit card statement today to find the charge from Google for adwords

This was a shock because I had not advertised with google in over 12 months, probably more like 18 months. I paused my account, because I felt I was the victim of fraud.

Well, today, I was charged for advertising. Advertising which I never authorised. Somehow my account had been reactivated, and clicks had started to accrue. I am not talking a million dollars but not a few cents either. to a sole proprietor a few hundred dollars makes a difference.

I got a very swift response from Google when I complained, but the response was laughable. They said, you only cancelled the account today, what are you complaining about.

Of course I cancelled the account today, did they think I was going to leave it running?

It did not occur to them to look at the last 18 months and just see how many charges they had sent me, which was Nil.

So if you have a Google account that you have placed on hold, make sure that they haven't reactivated it.

If this is some sort of programming error from supposedly the kings of programming. Then what else can you trust them with. I read a report, where Google claims they only had a 0.02% fraud rate. Can you believe that!

After today, I cannot believe anything Google says!

Even if I was so stupid as to leave the account active and ads running then how can they explain not sending me a single bill in the last 18 months.

And I know I'm not that stupid.

If you know anybody that has a Google account. That may be deactivated and therefore they are not expecting bills. Tell them to check that account, because they might be surprised to find it's been reactivated.

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underthecovers

Joined: Nov 13, 2002

# Posts: 209

Posted: 03/09/2007 05:08 pm

here are some facts straight from googles own statistics

it clearly show something happened in january
They claimed I re-enabled the account in august (I was interstate attending to my dying mother around that time)

So what happened in january?
and I found out they owed me money, now they claim I owe them?
http://www.managedlinks.com/google/google-chart-IMPRESSIONS-annotated.png

I originally stopped the account because I went from a 40% return on investment to nil. I was convinced and still am that I was the subject of either click fraud or deliberate click manipulation by competitors.

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flyingrose

Moderator

Joined: Oct 30, 2003

# Posts: 3361

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Posted: 03/09/2007 05:34 pm

I would recommend that you go into the account history for your account and save and/or print whatever changes appear there. You should be able to pull any activity over the past three months. Be sure you save that activity.

Be sure to document everything you can think of especially which ad groups or campaigns suddenly accrued clicks and impressions.

What explanation does Google have for an account being active since August but having no clicks or charges until January? Is whatever you're advertising seasonal?

Is it possible bids could have been high enough from August to December to get no impressions and then suddenly get impressions in January? (I'm only asking trying to bring up anything they may give as a reason.)

Dormant accounts should not accrue charges. Computer programs do glitch. Whenever someone wants to leave an account dormant I pause every campaign and reduce the budgets to $1.00 or less per campaign just in case.

I've got more really old accounts I plan to check so if I see any of that I'll post in this thread. When Google admits there is a system problem they will refund the money to your account but I know one advertiser who is trying to get them to refund their credit card - so far unsuccessfully.

Prior to about November 2006 it was fairly simple for me to target spending and obtain consistent results for advertisers offering very diverse products and services. Starting just before the usual holiday shopping season that changed.

Spending in accounts that were very stable and had not been changed became unpredictable. Where it used to be fairly simple to lower spending, what would usually work no longer worked.

Read the other threads in this forum for details on the various reasons behing that instability and strategies for managing the changes.

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underthecovers

Joined: Nov 13, 2002

# Posts: 209

Posted: 03/09/2007 08:37 pm

Thanks for you reply, unfortunately activity logs go back 3 months only and they are empty, if I had enabled the account I would have watched it to see the performance. so there should be a lot of activity.

I deliberately refuse to advertise on googles affiliate sites. The chance of fraud is far too high. but I see the account in question has "search partners" enabled now its been so long that I have honestly cannot remember whether that was an option or not 18 months ago if it was I probably would have refused it for exactly the same reasons.

If google has added that in the last copuple of months then perhaps it explains the sudden and sharp rise in click activity from zero to thousands.

If they have, they have done it without my permission

I am waiting on them to explain why clicks suddenly rose in January when they claim I reactivated the account in August.

Also to provide proof I accessed the account and activated it in August.

Ultimately if they can't prove it was me or do not reverse the charges and refund my fees I will request the bank processes a chargeback.

Your idea of setting spend to a very low value is a good one.

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flyingrose

Moderator

Joined: Oct 30, 2003

# Posts: 3361

Website

Posted: 03/10/2007 03:35 pm

Unless your bids were set really low on only competitive keywords it is highly unlikely that an account activated in August would have zero activity until January.

If spending were any amount above zero your credit card should have been charged each month. This is the first answer I would request of Google.

If you would like an opinion on the likelihood of your keywords acting in the manner they are claiming (nothing from August until December and then suddenly active) I would be happy to look at it for you.

I have access to so many Google accounts that I could look at your historical clicks and could most likely tell if the above scenario were likely, remotely possible, or highly unlikely.

I will send you a PM with my contact information in case you would like to discuss this situation by phone or direct e-mail.

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