Conned By Google Adwords - Misleading Offer

fallen121

I accept that I was conned because I didn't read an email carefully enough. But I want to warn others so that if they receive similar offers that they think twice before signing up. I also wanted to ask whether anybody thought that I might have a case against Google for misleading advertising or whether I am on a hiding to nothing.

First of all some background. I run a part time hobby website selling specialist books. No names, as advertising or promotion isn't allowed or the aim of this thread. When I first started I took out a Google Adwords account to get me noticed, but as word spread and I began to get customers, my rankings on Google improved and analysis revealed that most of the customers I was getting were coming from a link on my publisher's site, not through Adwords, so I let the account balance run down and stopped the adverts.

On 24th February I received an email from Google. The title read

Get new tips and £150* when you come back to AdWords (Ends March 5th)


First of all, this is what the original email offer stated:

We're inviting you to try AdWords again—with £150* to reactivate your campaign and some tips to get you going. All you have to do is spend £65 with us before March 5th 2012.

Then if you read the T&Cs in detail it said:

To qualify for £150 in ad credit:

1. Restart an existing ad campaign by following the steps above or create a new one
2. Spend £65 in your account before March 5th
3. You will then receive an email by March 12th featuring a unique voucher code and details on how to redeem your £150 AdWords credit
Please note this AdWords credit is only valid for your AdWords account 477xxxxxxx

Now, I read this email, logged in and re-started my existing campaign, and loaded the account with £66 from my credit card. Now, remember, this is money that will all be spent on advertising wih Google, it isn't money which I can or will ever get back.

When March 12th came and went and I didn't get an email with the £150 unique voucher code, so I contacted Google to ask why and they said I didn't qualify.

It seems I didn't read the T&Cs carefully enough. Apparently you not only have to load your account with at least £65, you actually have to have physically exhaust that money and have actually spent it and had it deducted from your balance by March 5th in order to qualify.

Several things bother me about this. First of all, if loading my account with £65 isn't actually "spending" it then they should have said so. It wasn't like I could load the money up and withdraw it. Google had the benefit of that money. The email SHOULD have been more explicit.

Secondly, I could have set a daily limit sufficient to have exhausted it before March 5th (although I had about 10 days, so that's a pretty hefty spend for a hobby site where I normally don't spend more than £2 per day) but because the only thing I can directly control is the daily limit, I still could have spent less than £65 by the due date, because what I am charged is dependent on things I cannot control, such as how often the customer enters a relevant keyword on Google, how often the advert displays, how often a customer clicks thru to my site etc. It would be very, very easy on these terms for Google to rig it so that no-one ever qualified.

I think on the whole that the email and the T&Cs were vague, misleading and open to interpretation, and that I was probably not the only person taken in by this. I feel Google obtained money by deception. If I could find a way to report Google to Trading Standards for misleading advertising I would do it.

Overall, I feel betrayed by Google. I feel I was deceived. My opinion of them has been poisoned by this. Big companies need to learn that once you lose a customer's trust, it is very VERY hard to win it back. No prizes for guessing that I will NOT be using Adwords again in the near fture.

If anyone else receives an email from Google promising free advertising on Adwords, please think very VERY carefully about accepting, because chances are you will never qualify however hard you try.

johnnyboyrebel

Was that the exact email you received offering the £150 as it doesn't state that you have to exhaust £65 entirely before being eligible. If this is the case then I would hassle them and hassle them as you are correct, it is misleading. Illegal no but it is the kind of thing that if you hassle them enough they will cave in.

I'm more surprised at £65 lasting a while as adwords tend to eat money especially with all the click throughs that don't get a sale. I thin some people have their click button on repeat to just !!!! some companies off!

fudgeukraine

It does say that you have to spend it before the 5th March, so it's pretty explicit I'm afraid - spend generally does mean spend it on advertising.

(could have been clever and just bid on 'online casino' for 10m - I've seen CPCs of about £35 for those sometimes, bid on that, get 2 clicks and you'd still be £95 up)

As a note, no chance that Google's doing this by deception. I run adwords for clients for a job, and my clients alone (1 person in a 50+ strong agency team) spend £250,000 a month on adwords, so don't think Google's too fussed about £65, especially when you've still actually got the £65 to spend on your account

londonTiger

Google is too smart to "con" people with these cheap offers. Their business is built on their brand and reputation so they're not going to do a bait and switch thing like that.

Generally, any/all vouchers/promotional codes come with expiry, including most gift vouchers that you pay real cash for.

It's an accounting issue, these vouchers are recorded as debt in their books, if they run for a lifetime, the liability would just accumulate forever.

Plus the expiry gives you a call to action, they want you to use their services ASAP, therefore they need to give you a time limit so that you actually do what they intend you to do.

fallen121

Google have now come clean and admitted that the T&Cs were vague, misleading and open to interpretation and credited my account with £150.

Result! :j

Justicia

Excellent result!! :beer: