Signing up to AdWords - do I get charged anything? Will they run the ad immediately?

13 replies
I am really worried about signing up to Adwords now... it is not clear at all whether they are just going to run the ad immediately or not.

Could someone tell me if I can just sign up to adwords and leave it dormant for a while? Unfortunately they are not making it the slightest way clear as to what will happen once I click that sign up button. All I want is the account at the moment. I cannot afford to do anything yet. Will this be ok?
#adwords #charged #signing
  • Profile picture of the author ron200
    I signed up a long time ago and leave it dormant from time to time and go back and run an ad whenever I want. You just have to have money in your account to run an ad and sometimes it takes a day or 2 for your money to get cleared with them, the way I remember it.

    It costs nothing to join tho.
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    • Profile picture of the author Nate Cat
      Originally Posted by ron200 View Post

      I signed up a long time ago and leave it dormant from time to time and go back and run an ad whenever I want. You just have to have money in your account to run an ad and sometimes it takes a day or 2 for your money to get cleared with them, the way I remember it.

      It costs nothing to join tho.
      So would you just suggest that: as soon as I sign up just make sure the ad is not running and then leave it till I am ready?

      I apologise if I seem paranoid but I just cannot run anything yet. They just do not make it very clear during the sign up. I have stopped in the middle to write this thread. The site is not really ready anyway.
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  • I believe the ad will go through a short(few minutes) approval process and then start to run but you can also pause it at anytime you wish. So no worries.
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    • Profile picture of the author Nate Cat
      Originally Posted by aspiringaffiliate View Post

      I believe the ad will go through a short(few minutes) approval process and then start to run but you can also pause it at anytime you wish. So no worries.
      You are not wrong there. If I had not have checked afterwards as soon as I had started it then it would have been running. For them to think that I would simply run it right after signing up - it is ludicrous. I am positive they do it to catch people out and get free money.

      By the looks of it - it will be a while before I start up a campaign. There is a lot to learn on there.
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  • Profile picture of the author JC Web
    I don't think it's ludicrous to think that when you create an ad that you want that ad to run. You can also pause an ad at any time, including right after you create it. You also don't have to create an ad at all after signing up. There is no reason to say that Google is trying to trick new advertisers and steal their money. They are not in control of your actions.
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    • Profile picture of the author Nate Cat
      Originally Posted by JC Web View Post

      I don't think it's ludicrous to think that when you create an ad that you want that ad to run. You can also pause an ad at any time, including right after you create it. You also don't have to create an ad at all after signing up. There is no reason to say that Google is trying to trick new advertisers and steal their money. They are not in control of your actions.
      They have an influence over the actions of newcomers. It is a paid service so they should not start it by default. This is especially true if they immediately take you to a tutorial which distracts you from the fact that they started the campaign without your consent. Incidentally I am not a newcomer - I have used them before several years ago. I remember I fell foul of this (hence the reason why I was very cautious this time). That time I had a coupon so I did not lose out on too much.

      It is easy to say that people are stupid for not doing something that they should have done but it is not always easy to understand a new interface. I build easy to use interfaces so I know what it means to make things easy to use. This kind of stuff is part of university degrees.

      Anyway, I am talking here from the perspective of a customer as opposed to the person who wants to line his pockets by doing something that takes advantage of newcomers.
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  • Profile picture of the author JC Web
    You claim that you are not new to this yet it is clear that you have never used any paid advertising before or you would know that this is the default for all major platforms and most minor ones as well.

    I have personally instructed at least several hundred people about signing up to adwords and not one has ever accidentally run an ad or felt tricked into running an ad. This is simply not a problem.

    Paid advertising is not something to rush into without knowing what you are doing. You shouldn't have been creating an ad if you were terrified it was going to run and you knew that you didn't know how the platform worked. You were acting like there was a gun to your head forcing you to create an ad.

    Millions of people have created Adwords accounts and had those accounts for years without ever creating a single ad. You are not forced to create an ad ever.

    You are the only person I've ever heard of that was in a frantic rush to create an ad that they didn't want to run. Do yourself a favor and stop rushing into things you don't understand. You are going to lose a lot of money if this is your approach and mindset with paid advertising.
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    • Profile picture of the author Nate Cat
      Originally Posted by JC Web View Post

      You claim that you are not new to this yet it is clear that you have never used any paid advertising before or you would know that this is the default for all major platforms and most minor ones as well.

      I have personally instructed at least several hundred people about signing up to adwords and not one has ever accidentally run an ad or felt tricked into running an ad. This is simply not a problem.

      Paid advertising is not something to rush into without knowing what you are doing. You shouldn't have been creating an ad if you were terrified it was going to run and you knew that you didn't know how the platform worked. You were acting like there was a gun to your head forcing you to create an ad.

      Millions of people have created Adwords accounts and had those accounts for years without ever creating a single ad. You are not forced to create an ad ever.

      You are the only person I've ever heard of that was in a frantic rush to create an ad that they didn't want to run. Do yourself a favor and stop rushing into things you don't understand. You are going to lose a lot of money if this is your approach and mindset with paid advertising.
      That is a hell of a lot of assumptions there. I appreciate that you do not wish for your chosen method of advertising to be slandered but you really are wasting your time writing all this. I am not sure if there was even one accurate statement in your entire post.

      Somebody has found the process unsatisfactory and a problem - that person is me. Deal with it.

      If you wish to help people then try listening as opposed to telling people what they should or should not find unsatisfactory. I have said what I wished to say so you may as well drop it! Your service is not required.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kay King
        Really bad attitude to take when someone disagrees with you...especially with someone who KNOWS details of the answer he's providing.

        Over a million adwords advertisers don't have a problem. However, if you think google will cheat you with charges - don't sign up for an adwords account until you are ready to place an ad. Anticipated problem solved.

        you really are wasting your time writing all this
        yup - I'm sure you're right.
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        • Profile picture of the author Nate Cat
          Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

          Really bad attitude to take when someone disagrees with you...especially with someone who KNOWS details of the answer he's providing.

          Over a million adwords advertisers don't have a problem. However, if you think google will cheat you with charges - don't sign up for an adwords account until you are ready to place an ad. Anticipated problem solved.
          Welcome to the conversation.

          It was not simply a disagreement. It was someone being intentionally patronising for whatever reason they felt a reason to be patronising for.

          Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

          yup - I'm sure you're right.
          I was not completely right. He is wasting my time as well as his.
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnnyFanta
    I did the adwords certification and I would highly recommend anyone about to embark on an advertising campaign to do so.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Seems a bit on the silly side of things to believe Google built a multi-billion dollar ad platform by tricking small-timers into spending a few dollars on ads when they sign up. Yes, they want you to run ads. But they want you to run them for a long time, and tricking you into spending a few bucks (or even a few thousand, should you be so neglectful) isn't the way to build long-term advertisers.

      It's been over a decade since I opened my account, but as I recall, I had to put up a whopping $5 and conserved that by simply skipping the "create an ad" step until I was ready.

      Granted that you would have to be a four-star fool to follow their bidding recommendations blindly. But that would apply to any business where the guy selling the tickets is the one giving the advice.
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    • Profile picture of the author Nate Cat
      Originally Posted by JohnnyFanta View Post

      I did the adwords certification and I would highly recommend anyone about to embark on an advertising campaign to do so.
      I've got plenty of reading material for it. I would imagine the certification is for people who want to teach it to others. I had a book a few years back but it would be pretty much out of date by now.

      Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

      Seems a bit on the silly side of things to believe Google built a multi-billion dollar ad platform by tricking small-timers into spending a few dollars on ads when they sign up.
      Many small timers never even get off the starting blocks. I would take a guess that the majority who use it lose money as opposed to making any. A few problems with Google Adwords is not going to deter people from using it regardless of whether they lose a few bucks unsuspectingly. I just about broke even the last time I used it but I was only really messing with it. That was almost a decade ago.
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