Google Agrees To Pay $20 Million To Search Marketers Over AdWords “Daily Budget”

MediaPost reports that Google has settled on a class action lawsuit brought by search marketers for exceeding the daily budget within the AdWords system. The settlement means Google can pay up to $20 million, including over $5 million to the plaintiff’s lawyers. The suit was over how Google allegedly charged advertisers 120% of their maximum […]

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MediaPost reports that Google has settled on a class action lawsuit brought by search marketers for exceeding the daily budget within the AdWords system. The settlement means Google can pay up to $20 million, including over $5 million to the plaintiff’s lawyers.

The suit was over how Google allegedly charged advertisers 120% of their maximum daily budget. Two advertisers are receiving $20,000 worth of AdWords credits for this daily budget excess: Minnesota printing company CLRB Hanson Industries and New Jersey resident Howard Stern (not related to the radio show).

Google argued that the excess is often used in the following days. A Google spokesperson said:

Google believes the claims are without merit, but we are pleased to have the litigation behind us and to move forward with our business objectives.

I often see advertisers complain that Google exceeded their budgets. I have never seen Google credit advertisers for this.


About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.

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