A few months ago we ended our ads on AdWords. I didn’t delete the account in case we ever wanted to start it up again and to access the historical data.
A week and a half later, after some “Click Quality” adjustments, we had a negative balance (credit). Nevertheless, Google hit our credit card for $1800. Not sure why. A couple months later, after even more Click Quality adjustments, our negative balance is up to over $3K. I emailed AdWords support to ask if they could refund some or all of that to the credit card.
Their answer: no, we can’t refund money unless you close the account. And I don’t want to do that as I will lose access to 9 years’ worth of historical data.
So Google gets to hold on to that money, interest free. And if I die or quit and nobody remembers to someday close the account, my client is out over $3K. I bet Google makes money this way – when account owners forget about money. Some financial institutions make money the same way.
