How do I avoid unexpected charges in Google Ads?

To avoid unexpected charges in Google Ads, here are some steps you can take to better manage your campaigns and control costs:

1. Set a Daily Budget
Control Your Spend: Ensure you set a daily budget for each campaign. Google Ads will not exceed your daily budget, though it may spend up to 2x your daily budget on some days, but it will not exceed the total monthly budget.

How to Set It: In your Google Ads account, go to your campaign settings, and you'll see an option to set a daily budget.

2. Use Bid Adjustments and Smart Bidding
Bid Strategy: Start with manual CPC (Cost-per-Click) bidding or use smart bidding strategies like Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) or Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend). These strategies help you stay within your budget by automatically adjusting your bids.

Avoid Overspending: Regularly monitor your campaigns and adjust bidding strategies if necessary.

3. Monitor and Adjust Campaign Performance
Track Conversions: Set up conversion tracking to see how well your ads are performing and to avoid paying for clicks that don't lead to meaningful actions.

Pause Underperforming Ads: If certain ads or keywords are not converting well, pause them to avoid wasting money.

4. Use Negative Keywords
Prevent Irrelevant Traffic: Adding negative keywords helps prevent your ads from showing up for irrelevant searches. This saves money by only showing ads to users who are likely to convert.

5. Implement a Billing Threshold
Billing Threshold: Google Ads uses billing thresholds to determine when to charge you. Set up an appropriate threshold to make sure you aren't charged unexpectedly. When your spend hits the threshold, Google will charge your payment method.

6. Use Alerts and Notifications
Set Alerts: Enable email notifications and alerts in Google Ads to get informed when your budget is approaching the limit or if your campaign spends more than expected.

Example Alerts: Set alerts for cost or conversion thresholds to be notified of unusual spending.

7. Regularly Review Your Account
Audit Your Campaigns: Check your Google Ads account regularly to review performance, costs, and unexpected spikes in spend.

Identify Trends: Be aware of any sudden increases in cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-conversion, and investigate to identify the cause.

8. Choose the Right Payment Settings
Automatic vs. Manual Payments: Depending on your preference, you can either set up manual payments (which will charge you when you reach your billing threshold) or automatic payments (which charge you on a set schedule).

Know Your Payment Cycle: Make sure you understand your billing cycle and know when Google Ads will charge you.

9. Check Campaign Scheduling
Avoid Over-Exposing Ads: Set your ads to run only during the times you want them to. This avoids running ads when you're not prepared to manage them, which can result in unnecessary costs.

Dayparting: Use ad scheduling to limit when your ads are shown, avoiding times of day when conversions are low.

By following these tips, you can avoid unexpected charges and ensure that your campaigns are cost-effective and well-controlled.