The old AdWords billing preferences either gave you too much control (and responsibility) or not enough.
The latest version of AdWords Billing comes with new names and more flexibility.
- Postpay is now called “automatic payments”.
- Prepay is now called “manual payments”.
- Bank transfer is now called “funds transfer”.
- Direct Debit is now called “bank account”.
In addition, the Billing tab is no longer a drop-down menu and the items in the navigation bar on the left-hand side are new.
New Main Navigation Bar (minus drop down).
New Side Navigation In Billing Section.
Let’s take a look at the two Payment options now available to upgraded accounts:
AdWords Automatic Payments
The automatic payments option replaces postpay and provides more flexibility and functionality. Postpay was a pain to explain to anyone. Google essentially charged new advertisers, who selected this option, in increasing increments until it reached a threshold of around $1,000.Then it would attempt to charge you as close to the end of the month as possible or when you racked up $1,000 worth of charges, whichever came first.
With a large enough daily budget, Google would charge you multiple times in a week. For small budgets, not knowing precisely when your funds might be deducted from your credit card or payment option was a great inconvenience.
Automatic payments comes with some new features. Some of which are borrowed from the old prepaid method.
1. Make A Payment.
Use this feature to control when you make a payment and how much for. Pay your balance or prepay some future ad activity. You have to keep your account ahead though. If you don’t use this feature, Google will revert to charging you once a threshold has been reached. The good news is, unlike prepay, if you forget to make a payment, your account won’t stop working.
2. Multiple Forms Of Payment.
Store all your preferred options in your account. Use any of them to make a payment or select any of them as your primary or backup form of automatic payment.
3. Billing Address Vs. Business Address.
You know have the option to record both your billing address and your business address. Your business address will appear on the historical invoices you generate from your account, while your billing addresses are those associated with each form of payment and are used to validate your payment information.
AdWords Manual Payments.
The manual payments option is the new prepay. You can make payments right from your billing summary page. There are only two additions here:
1. Multiple Payment Options.
Like automatic payments, you can store multiple forms of payment in your account and choose which to use for each payment. You can also remove all your payment options, and as long as the account has funds, your ads will continue to run. So, if you’re in the middle of switching payment methods or changing bank accounts, you don’t have to worry about keep the old one active.
2. Different Billing Address To Your Business Address.
Again like automatic payments, your business address will appear on the historical invoices you generate from your account, while your billing address can be associated with each form of payment and used as validation for those forms of payment.
Switching Between The Two.
The biggest and most advantageous change for my mind, is the ability to switch between the two payment options at any time. Before it was possible to switch one way, but not the other. If you absolutely needed to make the change in the past, it required a new account, and a loss of all that fantastic historical data. Not any more!