Understanding costs and payments

Google Ads Smart campaigns | How and when am I billed?

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  • With Smart campaigns, you pay only for the actual clicks and calls that your ad receives.
  • Your costs may vary from day to day, but you won't be charged more than your maximum monthly budget.
  • Your payment settings show when you pay, and payment methods show what you pay with.

How much Smart campaigns cost

You'll pay only for clicks or calls from your Smart campaigns. The total amount that you spend in a month won't exceed your maximum monthly budget. Learn more about how budgets work in Smart campaign

Prices are dynamic, which means they'll change from instance to instance. The cost of each click depends on many factors, including:

  • How much competing advertisers in your area are spending
  • How relevant your ad is to a person's Google search
  • How likely a person's search will result in a sale

No activation fee

Smart campaigns have no activation fee. There may be a minimum transaction amount when you make a manual payment.

Payment settings and payment methods

  • How you pay: With Smart campaigns, you can make payments before your ads show (manual payments) or automatically make payments after your ads show (automatic payments). These are known as payment settings. Learn more about your billing options
  • What you pay with: This is what you use to pay your costs, such as a credit card, and is known as a payment method. Some payment methods are available only in certain countries, so you might see different options depending on where your business is located.

Billing summary

To check your billing summary, follow these steps:

  1. In your Google Ads account, click on Billing.
  2. Click on Summary to view your billing details.

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