On October 4, AdWords made some big changes. While it still multiplies your daily budget by 30.4 to get the amount you are willing to spend in a month, the amount it can spend in a day has doubled. This means that if you earmark 10 dollars a day, Google can spend up to 20 dollars and account for the increase by decreasing the amount spent at a later date. This doesn’t sound good and may not be, for reasons will get to in a bit, yet it’s not time to panic. If for some reason Google spend more than your expected monthly budget, you will not be charged for those overages, but there is a catch to this as well.
Of course, Google thinks its changes will work out well for everyone. In the past, Google could spend 20 percent more than daily budget during busy times. Therefore, overspending hasn’t changed, it’s just the amount that has. As far as Google is concerned, doubling your ad budget will get your brand in front of more eyeballs and make it more money. You may not necessarily agree with how Google is spending your money because doubling down at the beginning of the month will severely decrease the remaining budget at the end. Google thinks this will incentivize you to spend more money on AdWords towards the end of the month.
Now for the catch, campaigns that last less than a calendar month will not be eligible for the overspending credits. This means that your 3-day campaign budgeted at 300 dollars could end up costing 600 dollars and you’ll be on the hook for the additional cost. Also, if you make any changes to a month-long campaign while its running, such as the campaign end date, time zone, or ad delivery mode, you too will be charged full price for AdWords overdelivery.
Only time will tell how this will work out for advertisers because right now it feels like Google has its hands in your wallet.
