A Google AdWords Help thread has a sad story from a new Google advertiser who seemed to have accidently run up a bill from Google that got out of control. On day one, the advertiser set up his/her campaign and came back the next day to check in. What did this advertiser find? A cost of almost $30,000 accured on the campaign over the past 24 hours.
As you can see from this person's post, the person is 100% a newbie when it comes to AdWords/AdSense. Here is the post:
I am very new to this google adsense and posting ads. Last night I wanted to do a “TEST RUN ONLY” for Google to monitor before I could run any ad for my blogger.com. This morning 04/27/2009 I see a cost bill of almost $30,000.00? Oh my GOD, how could this happen? PLEASE HELP! This is a mistake! Please fix this problem and remove this cost of almost $30,000.00 from my account. I don’t have that kind of money. I’m a single mom and I’m not even working. Please help. I look forward to your response to my request.
I wonder how Google will handle this. It seems like this was the mistake of the advertiser and Google technically is not to blame here. But will Google show mercy?
You just have to assume this new advertiser did not set up a budget. How sad.
Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.