From time to time, Google might tweak your Google Ads balance. This is called an adjustment. Most of the time, adjustments come in the form of credits. Credits reduce your account balance, while debits increase your account balance.
You can find any adjustments applied to your account by clicking the Billing icon on the left-side navigation menu, then selecting Summary. Click on the appropriate month to view the billing activity. Here are the kinds of credit adjustments you're most likely to find:
- Courtesy: You'll notice this when a promotional code or courtesy credit is applied to your account. This credit is good for future advertising only and can't be refunded to you.
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Invalid activity (or Invalid clicks): This one's for invalid clicks and impressions (those generated by robots, automated clicking tools, and other deceptive software). Google prohibits this kind of bad behavior, so you don't have to pay for these invalid clicks and impressions.
We provide the details of service associated with the invalid traffic for which a credit is being issued. These details include the original invoice number, original month of service, PO number, account budget name, and campaign name associated with the invalid traffic. You can find this information on the Summary, Billing Activity or Transactions page of your Google Ads account, as well as your month-end invoice.
Note: The PO number and the invoice number associated with the invalid activity might have changed if there was a rebill. In such cases, the PO number and invoice number provided are those from before the rebill. - Overdelivery: Sometimes Google shows your ad too much. As a result, your account accrues more costs than your average daily budget allows. If this happens, your account will receive a credit to cover the excess costs.
- Overrun: You'll notice this if your advertising costs exceed your prepaid balance. Google will credit back the excess amount so that you don't end up paying for this activity. This only appears for accounts using manual payments.
- Excess credits stored for future use: In instances where you receive more credits than what you spent in a particular month, you may notice a negative balance in your account. That negative balance is referred to as “excess credits”. In countries where Google can't generate negative invoices (For example, Turkey, China, or Taiwan) to comply with local regulatory requirements, Google will move these excess credits from showing on your invoice as a negative balance and keep them in storage for future consumption. In the period where this happens, you'll get a zero-balance invoice and the excess credits that were stored will automatically be used when you incur ad spending in any future month.
- Excess credits applied from previous months: If in any previous months there are excess credits available and you happen to have ad spending in the current month, Google will apply the stored excess credits to your ad spend up to the limit of the credit balance. This line is showing you how much excess credits were applied to your ad spend in a particular month. In the event of account termination, this reflects the excess credits that can be refunded to you.
- Remaining amount available for future use: Once the excess credits are applied to your ad spend but there are still some credits left, this line will tell you how much you have left for ad spend in any future month. This is a post-tax available credit amount. For example, if the amount shown is $110 USD and the tax rate is 10% in your country, you have $100 USD available for ad spending.
Next step
- Refer to how to get an invoice.